How to Turn NIL Deals Into Long-Term Wealth

I'm sorry, I might be upsetting someone, but an athlete, they know how to get up in the morning, eat healthy, work their butt off, and be the best at their skill set. And it takes self discipline to do that. Well, an entrepreneur, you just nailed 90% of what an entrepreneur has to deal with.

Athletes that are college athletes, it's a high number of those athletes that go on and become entrepreneurs that own their own business.

Nil athletes out there, you are not going to make money forever. This is a window. You want to go into this assuming that this is maybe the last check you get. Set it and forget it. 12% ROI. You will have two and a half million. Welcome everybody to the Main Street Business podcast. My name is Mark Kohler. I'm here with the illustrious Max Merritt, another attorney in our office. And we're talking about the nil income issue. There are so many athletes out there making money that they didn't expect and, and there are a lot of pitfalls. Today's episode of our podcast is going to help you and the parents with a lot of these issues. Max, what do you feel about this issue?

Yes. I'm meeting with clients every single day in my practice who are coming in who have tax burdens that they never expected. And we need to talk about this.

Okay, so let's jump into it. And I'm going to be interviewing Max, who really is dealing with this on a day to day basis, meeting with families in our law firm. And let's first talk about who the parents are relying on. And maybe it's not the right people to rely on. I know you've already got clients that have agents. Are agents really the ones equipped to deal with this? They're not bad. I'm not saying fire your agent if any of you out there are working with someone that's helping you or your family, but they could be have some self interest that we've got to talk about.

Right? Yeah. What I've learned is I've met with the student athletes, their parents, and even talked with other, talked with agents who are representing these athletes. Agents are admitting that they're kind of becoming glorified secretaries to help their athletes get into concerts, get into different sporting events. Right. But a lot of times these agents don't have the connections for issues like tax burdens that their, their athletes are receiving or creating an estate plan to protect their assets and pass them all these different issues that are coming along. Agents don't have the team to do this now. They've got the connections to get you into a Lakers.

Right.

Just sweet. But the tax burden that comes at the end of the year, they're deer in headlights in a lot of ways.

Yeah. And when you say scheduling, everybody, what we're really talking about too is the athlete is excited for this agent to get them a Gatorade commercial or get them at a ribbon cutting at a dealership and get them some extra nil income because it may come through the alumni association, but the agent's there to make your athlete money and get them some perks.

Right.

Which is cool.

Really cool. Right. And they get some really good perks. The problem is I have a couple of my friends that, that are professional athletes that they go and they do some of these ribbon cuttings and they don't just get a couple hundred dollar check, they're getting 25, 50, $100,000 checks to come do this. And now the tax burden, they have no idea. They're not thinking about it. They just got a big chunk of money. But at the end of the year, they're really upset in figuring out how they can change that.

So the first thing I want to emphasize here and thank you so much all of you that are listening. Some of you may be the athlete. Please pass this along to your parents. Some of you might be the parents, please have your athlete listen to this. When you're receiving nil income, which is name, image or likeness income, you're being paid because you've got a cool brand, your brand now as an athlete. That's why they're giving you money. You bring eyeballs to their product or service and they want to give you money to put your name in image or likeness in front of them. That's what this is about. It's a business transaction. Well, as an athlete, you are now a business. You are a business owner. We want to get you, and we're going to talk about some of these steps. A limited liability company or LLC to receive this income. We're probably going to make an S corporation election for that. There's some tax planning that needs to happen. This is not just wave a magic wand, form an LLC on LegalZoom and you're done freaking A. Please be careful with that, that concept. But I just want to say from the beginning, as a student athlete, you need to treat yourself as a business. And when you receive income, you're going to get a 1099. And this could be from an alumni association, a college. And these college ads, athletic directors, they're not talking about this because they don't want the liability either. Your thoughts?

Yeah. And I just recently met with the GM of a big university, and this is a new position inside of university athletics due to nil literally created. They're creating GMs who can come in and go, okay, our athletes are going to get screwed here. How do we help them? And so all of these student athletes are receiving. All of a sudden at the end of the year, they're getting whomped with a 1099 from either a collective, the university, and their tax burden is massive. And guys, we're not talking receiving 20 grand from a collective or university. We're talking. Some of these athletes are receiving a million dollars, 800 grand, $2 million a year from. From this. From this nil income that they're receiving. You've got to get ahead of it. You can't give us a call in December and expect us to wipe away the tax burden. As soon as you start getting in income coming in, you've got to get an entity created.

Yeah. And I want to step back here too. I am so grateful that you're here watching this. The tax advisor is very different than your financial advisor. We're tax lawyers, if you'll see in the description. I'm a partner here at KKOS Lawyers. Max is one of our phenoms. He's one of our up and coming tax lawyers. I love Max. He's been with us for years. I asked him to help us produce this podcast. And what's happening is the agent has an interest in being a part of this athlete's life as they go professionally, go into the professional arena. Maybe they're also the agents trying to get a cut of some of the ad revenue or advertising income or nil income they might get for that athlete. Then you have investment advisors. This is another player on your possible team. This, no pun intended. Okay, so this investment advisor wants to help invest the money you're receiving. We don't want you to go out and buy a new Range Rover or a new BMW. And hopefully these investment advisors are saying, let's put it in the bank. Let's go buy stock or investment accounts or annuities. And that's a whole other issue. We got to be careful with that. Where we're trying to come in is to be a tax advisor, a legal advisor with a fiduciary duty to do what's best for the athlete. We don't make a commission. We don't make money on the A percentage on the money invested. We're here to help give you some unadulterated third party independent advice. That's what lawyers do. They have a legal obligation to tell you what's best for you. The problem is agents don't want us at the table because we may tell you. Yeah, your agent's an idiot. The financial advisor doesn't want us at the table because we may go. No, buying life insurance isn't the best move and that undermines their ability to make money. So there's a lot of wolves in sheep's clothing. Did I say that? Wolves. Wolves I always get kind of controls. Whatever. Okay. There's a lot of wolves in cheap clothing out there and they're trying to prey on you. And we're. And don't use us. That's fine. I'm glad you're listening to this podcast. But you got to realize it's a jungle out there. I gotta shut up here, tell me your thoughts on all this.

No, I completely agree. And I think from the opposite perspective, these agents in some ways aren't meaning to do maybe not what's best for you, but they just don't have the team or ability behind them. They're doing what they're good at, which is getting you these deals. Right. Getting you in front of these people that are going to pay you for your name, image, likeness. And I like what you said, which is they're a business. You are a business. Your own personal brand is a business. And you see that with major professional athletes. Right? Like Michael Jordan, Tiger woods, all these big athletes have their own brand, but on a smaller scale, you still need to prepare to receive this income. And so you gotta have a good team around you. And the nice thing is we're great team players. I'm a great team player. I sat on a meeting with an agent, with their parents and their cpa, and we were good buddies, we made good team. But they don't have the legal expertise that we have. Right. But I don't have the ability to get them into a Lakers game. And so we make a good team, but you need all of us at that table.

Yeah. And we're going to come to some of these steps of what you do next. We're not trying to hide the ball here, but the step one or the first issue is understanding you've got to protect yourself, you, the athlete or the parents here. You've got to protect your athlete from people that may not have the best interest of you in mind or your athlete in mind. And so as tax lawyers, again, we're going to play a part in that Process. With that said, we won't beat it up. Be careful. Get a consult. You may pay 100, $500, $600, 200, whatever per hour for a tax lawyer to help give you some advice. Don't get hung up on what you pay per hour. Whether you hire us or not. You want a good tax advisor, you're going to pay for it. You're not going to get free advice. Free advice means they're going to make it up somewhere else that you may not even see coming. Be aware of that. And it's okay. Rich people pay for, for good tax lawyers. I have clients that are like, Mark, I just need an hour with you. I'll give you $1,000. Cause I know I'm going to make 10 if I get you for an hour. That's the concept you need to have. And you're not paying for my time. You're paying for my last thousand consults. See, because I've already met with a thousand clients. And what I bring to the table with you is the experience of those thousand consults. So when you're meeting with Max, who's met with hundreds of athletes and clients and accountants and other team members over his career, just as short, he looks a lot younger than me. So you have to know he hasn't done his 10,000 consults yet. I paid the dues. But anyway, as you meet with Max over that time that he's put in, you're getting the advice that he's learned from those experiences, so he's not learning on your dime. So that's point number one. Understand who your advisors are, what their interests may be. Build a team, be willing to pay for it. And before we go to what the athlete needs to do next, any other thoughts on that?

No, I think, I think everything that you've pointed out is advantageous for, for the athlete. The one thing I do want to point out is that team can include us, the cpa, the agent, but in, in a lot of ways with these nil students that are younger, we want your parents involved. Having parents involved because they have your best interest from an emotional standpoint. The consultations that I've had that I feel like have gone with these student athletes and I've had many, their parents are very involved in knowing this step by step. In fact, I've gotten parents as now clients, right, Because a lot of them are entrepreneurs and small business owners. And they're like, holy crap, Max, I didn't know I could do this. And so we want a good team and that include. That can include your family members and that can include paying them, creating a good tax strategy around that. So there's a big team that we can create here, which is important.

Gosh, and not to beat up. I want to make one more point on this. If someone on your team says get rid of them, whoever that player may be on your advisory team, take it under advisement. Don't just take what they say and take action on that. Try to think, why are they saying that? Should I get a second opinion on that? For example, Max has also clients that are professional players in different leagues. And he's seen the progression of the student athlete in college into the professional and now what they're dealing with at another level into. And so if someone says, oh, you don't want that accountant, you need this accountant. Okay, tell me why. And that's okay. Again, you want a good lawyer, a good accountant, a good financial advisor and a good agent. And they all need to be able to work together. If someone on that team says get rid of them or someone else say, why? Who's going to take their place? Oh, it's your brother in law or something, you know, like what's going on here? You know, so just ask questions. Because it's okay that they may make those recommendations. But you're the captain of the ship, you're the decision maker. Never feel like someone should make a decision for you. Don't get pushed around. And that can happen. There's a lot of emotion involved with dollars and cents.

Absolutely. And that's what again, another reason why parents have been a great asset to their athlete. Because student athletes focused on school, maybe dating, maybe whatever sport they're playing, taxes and setting up their structure. A lot of times not their, their biggest concern. But to their parents who have gone through taxes and had to write a check to the irs, recognize how important this is.

Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to just kind of throw out some basics here and then you kind of add to it here as we go along. The first thing is student athletes. You have to now file a 1040 tax return. Some of you may have never had to do this. I have four children myself. They're now all in their 20s. And when they start to realize they've got to file a tax return and pay taxes, they're like, what's going on? And so that's a new experience. And you know what, it's okay if it's scary or unfamiliar. Don't stress about it. Ask questions like, why am I paying taxes for this, how does a tax table work? What is my tax rate? Am I paying tax in the state I live in? Why and how much? Those are. Okay, questions. So it starts with knowing that you're going to file a tax return. Any thoughts?

There's no. I totally agree. I think I would just concur with it.

Yeah. Yeah. So kind of basic, but I want to throw that out. Number two, remember back to this point. You are a business and we want you to form an entity that's a company and use that company to collect and receive your income. This is what a dentist would do, a doctor would do, an engineer, a brand new graduate that's going to start a landscaping business or a restaurant. That's the same point. Don't think you're this special. You're not. You're just like an influencer or a lawyer or an accountant or a gosh, a realtor. It's the same concept. You're getting paid for your name, image and likeness to show up and cut a ribbon or be on a commercial.

Great.

Okay, cool. What entities should you form? Max, your thoughts?

Yeah, I love that you point that out that you're not special because I think sometimes people who have an agent or someone say, hey, you got to go set up C Corporation for this, you know, or just, we don't need an entity just yet. Let's wait.

Or you need this special advisor. That's $2,000 an hour. Because LA, you know, oh my gosh.

Yeah. They, they just don't have the knowledge of it. Well, the, the fact is we're going to set up an LLC that eventually we're going to tax as an S corp, just like we would if you were to go buy a window washing company. Right. The, the IRS doesn't care about your profession. They care about getting your taxes. Right. And so make sure that as we go down this road that you're, you're talking with someone that understands that, hey, your profession isn't really the big deal on the type of entity that I'm doing with the athlete world. Now, some profess want to have a conversation about. But as far as the nil side goes, we just need an entity in place so that we can make an s election on eventually.

Yeah. And we're going to tailor this to you. The conversation is going to be very specific to you. And by the way, I just want to. I didn't, I think, I thought I may have said this sooner, but I didn't. The total cost to work with our law firm to have a Consultation with a real lawyer and meet with Max might be around 1,200 bucks, maybe something like that. It does not have to be expensive. Anybody that's trying to get your student athlete to pay a retainer of $5,000 more, and we see that crap all the time. You've got the wrong people you're working with. I don't care if they're a big city firm and oh, we know what we're doing. Bull crap. We've been around for 25 years. Start googling our firm, Google my name, Marc J. Kohler. You're going to find out no one has more books, more podcasts, more blog articles or YouTube videos than me in this space. And I stand behind what I say. So you don't need to go pay big money to get good advice. With that said, setting up an LLC does not have to be expensive. It can be tailored to you. You're going to get an EIN electronic identification, open a bank account, and we're going to talk through this in our consultation. When you set up an entity with a lawyer, you should have about an hour or so to talk about questions you might have. That's what we're going to do. You're going to set up an LLC, receive that income that you might get from 20 different places, advertisers, colleges, collectives, whatever. And you're going to put that in a business bank account and you're going to learn and, oh my gosh, this is such a good thing. You're going to learn how to be a business owner. It's so fun, right? It really is.

Well, you get to, you get to now look at the world a little bit differently. That's probably my favorite part about a lot of these conversations is as I talk with them and their parents or their team. Hey, yeah, when you go, we're going to put board of advisors on this entity. We're going to put your siblings, maybe your girlfriend's parents. Right?

Boyfriend, too. These girls are getting, you know, geez, Right? I know. You're, like, kind of chauvinistic.

Yeah, that was meant to be.

All right, sorry, ladies, but we're going

to, we're going to put. We're going to put a different group of people that you may travel with. See, now we're going to start looking at the world a little bit differently, which is okay. If I go here, can I create a business write off, right? If I go here, can I write this off? And that's exciting. I think people enjoy being able to look at themselves as A business and be strategic about their taxes.

Yeah. Just for fun. You know what? Let's just have fun with it. Some of the examples might be, now that as an nil athlete, you are a business. You're going to be paid for your services, working for the university. That's really what's going on. So you buy a plane ticket to go to Miami to be at a conference where you're recognized as an athlete. You get to write off your airfare, you get to write off your hotel, your Uber, your valet, your dining. So you're a business owner. You're now going somewhere on business. That could even be an event where you're performing. One of our most valuable clients that's made a ton of money is in the fencing program at Yale. I mean, they get paid big money. Okay, that was a joke. All right. Fencing students don't get paid a lot. I think it's more basketball and football, maybe gymnastics.

Now I'm being selective.

I know, I know. What? Okay. The ping pong players at tcu, they're making big money.

Big money.

Yeah. All right, all right. We can tell you, we try to have fun here at our job, too, anyway. But that business income is going to go into your llc, limited liability company. And I just want to say you're going to form that LLC in the state where you live. Do not listen to anybody that's going to try to form this in Nevada or Wyoming or Delaware. Freaking A. If you live in Arizona, if you live in New Jersey, if you live in Alabama, we're going to set up an entity in the state. Arizona, New Jersey or Alabama, where you live.

Right. Which is critical. And the second point I really want to make, because I've had these conversations. It's really sad when you start that year and, you know, hey, throughout this year, I'm going to get paid nil money.

Oh.

Do not wait until November, December to set this LLC up. We want to get this LLC set up immediately, very, very quickly so that we have that entity to start running the 1099 income through. Because I happen to know that these nil inc. The money and contracts that are being signed, they're being signed now for next year.

Yeah.

And a lot of the ways they're getting around some of this nil stuff with some of the parameters that are coming down is they're prepaying these contracts. Right. So this money's coming in for 25, 26. Well, they need that entity set up now because the IRS doesn't care that you're prepaying that contract. The IRS cares. When did you get paid?

Yeah. On this note, see, these are little tax tips that you may not know. And I. This is going to freak out some of you when you sign that nil contract. I want it in the name of your llc, not the name of the athlete. Does that make sense? Because see, you are not the one doing business. Your LLC is doing business, which is going to be taxed as an S corp. And guess who the employee of that corporation is. You, the athlete. See, Michael Jordan does not sign a contract. Jordan Incorporated signs a contract. See what I'm saying? That you got to start thinking like this. You are a per. You are a business. You are an entity. So now some of you may be already like, oh, my gosh, I made such a big mistake. There may be options. I don't know. I don't know the date these things were signed. Have you received the money yet? Can we modify the contract? There's a lot of things to talk about. That's what your tax lawyer is there to do. We can help unravel some of the things or modify them so that you're protected when it comes to report to the IRS and to protect yourself if something happened to you. Say you get injured, you get injured in this process. Do you get the money or not? Who's in the name of the contract in. I mean, there's so many variables. And so that tax lawyer at the table is just as important as the agent at the table anyway. Gosh, timing. That's such a good point.

Yeah, the timing is huge. And that's where I've seen this past year where student athletes are really hurting in year 2024, wondering, Max, how can I, how can I amend this? And we're kind of stuck. And so this pre planning with these, these new athletes coming in, and even if you're a current athlete that doesn't have this, better late than never. Get it set up.

Yeah, what he means by 2024. But this is recorded here in the spring of 2025. But the income may have been received. So you're filing a tax return for last year. And you're like, oh, I'll form an LLC now. Okay, that's only good moving forward.

Right?

Anything you received in the past before today is going to be harder to deal with. And again, you parents that own a small business, you get this. You're like, oh, yeah, this makes sense. But everybody makes it hocus pocus, smoke and mirrors. You're dumb. We're smart. And parents and Athletes feel like they're at the mercy of some of these big city advisors. Makes me mad. We're about Main Street. I just.

And I think the. The other thing that I want to point out is be the captain of your ship. Yeah, Right. If you're a student athlete watching this or you're a parent of a student athlete, you be the captain of your ship. Go to the university, go to the ad, go to the general manager, if they have one, and say, hey, I know my student athlete's going to be receiving income. What do you guys have set up? Give us a call. Let us help. We can work with them. I've worked with general managers at universities on this. We need to get your student athletes set up. But don't just wait around and hope that the university is going to take care of this, because as you pointed out earlier, they see a liability a little bit trying to give now tax advice, legal advice. So they're going to stay in their lane. They're going to help your student athlete get paid. They're not going to worry about the back end of it. So be the captain of that ship and take advantage of what we're offering here.

And great point. Don't be mad at the AD or the GM at the university because they didn't tell you this. Put yourself in their shoes. They're scared to death if they send you to the wrong accountant, the wrong lawyer, give you bad advice, now they're on the freaking hook. So what do they do? Say nothing at all that's safer for them. So now you can see where we're coming from. Now, okay, one other topic or two, and then let's wrap this up. I. I want to say this too, as you, the athlete, receive this money, and some people have maybe already said this, I apologize, some old accountant lawyers telling you this, but you are not going to make money forever. This is a window. It may be three years, it may be one year, it may be five years. You may get lucky, make it to the pros and make money. The next 15. I don't know. But you want to go into this assuming that this is maybe the last check you get. So let's be safe. Let's be careful. Yeah, you need to pay some bills, get out of debt, maybe get a new car or truck that works better than the one you have now. But yes, I want you to get with a good financial advisor and put some money away. We're not going to invest your money. We can give your opinion. We'll tell you what to look out for and we can see where you might be getting taken advantage of. But we do want you to save and be careful with your spending because this could be the money, that's the seed money to start a business, buy a rental property, start, buy some raw land, do something you've dreamed of. Because you're not going to be an athlete forever.

No. And I think that's a huge point and to kind of piggyback off of it. What's really interesting, if you look at some statistics, athletes that go for that are college athletes. It's a high number of those athletes that go on and become entrepreneurs that own their own business. And this is just the foundational piece for you to continue to do that. It's important to take these things and, and remember there are ways for us to save as much as we can of what you're earning now so that we can make money and have it continue to grow throughout, throughout your ear

and I want to compliment you. Do you know why these athletes become entrepreneurs? Because being an entrepreneur, being a real estate investor takes self discipline. A normal college student, they don't have that. I'm sorry, I might be upsetting someone, but an athlete, they know how to get up in the morning, eat healthy, work their butt off and be the best at their skill set. And it takes self discipline to do that. Will an entrepreneur. You just nailed 90% of what an entrepreneur has to deal with. And so if you have a dream in business, you're going to take these same skills you built as an athlete and now direct them towards a business idea. And if you can take some of the capital and the money, you're getting paid in nil right now and do that, oh my gosh, where's a pen? Pen drop. So yeah, we, you, you, the, the world is your oyster. We're excited for you.

It is. And the conversation, or the point in the conversation that always gets, for example parents going for their student athlete is when I go, well, we can save in retirement in a 401k for your 20 year old athlete who just made 800 grand as a parent that's turning 55, 60, hitting that retirement age that's trying to max produce into their 401k that they can go, oh my kid might not have to worry about this. If I can max this out through a solo 401k. That gets parents emotional because they're able to see how they can set their kid up for a better future.

Okay, Max, I love what you said about the 401k and so let's just do some math here real quick. Let's say as a student athlete, which you can do, you can set up a solo 401k that's structured as a Roth and we call it the Mega Backdoor Roth. We teach this on YouTube all the time. Business owners do this all the time. So as a student athlete, you could put away for three years. Let's just say hypothetically, you get a good run at this and out of all the money you get paid, we just put away $70,000 a year in savings in a Roth 401K. Is that possible?

Absolutely. Yeah, it's absolutely possible.

Very doable. Some of you are like, hold it, a Roth IRA Roth 401. Just go Google this. I write articles on this all the time. It's called a mega backdoor Roth IRA is a combination of a solo 401k Roth with your traditional, or I should say your individual Roth account. Okay, more to learn on that. But here's the point. You can put away $70,000 for three years as a student athlete and never put in another dollar. If we assume a 12% return because you're going to self direct this, you might put it in real estate, crypto notes, whatever. 12% is very realistic. Wall street would tell you 6 to 8%. Nuh, we're not going to do that. And we've got again podcast after podcast on that point. But let's say it's 12%, 70 grand for three years. Is that crazy?

I don't think it's crazy.

You want to guess what am I going to have in 20 years? 20 years from now? You're now an athlete. You're going to just put it away for set it, forget it. 20 years.

What's my guess?

Yeah, what's your guess?

I'm going over 2 million.

I love it. You're right. 2.493. So that's two and a half million will be sitting there tax free for the rest of your life in 20 years. So if you're a 20 year old athlete right now at 20, that you're 40 years old, but you're going to forget about this. Parents, you know what I'm saying? You want to tell them this, right? You don't even tell them $70,000 in a mega backdoor Roth for three years. Set it and forget it. 12% ROI, you will have two and a half million too aggressive on. You want to go 8%? 1.7 million. Fine. That's what we're talking about. Get this money dialed in. Do some good tax planning. Set it and forget it and build wealth for the future. You can do this.

You can absolutely do it. And it's encouraging because these figures sometimes seem arbitrary. Come meet with us. Let's run them to your specific example and walk you step by step how you can make your dream become your reality.

No, I love it. Well, thanks everybody for watching. Please check out the links and the info below. To work with our law firm, a small boutique tax law firm we've been around for 20 plus years. You can make an appointment with Max Merit here. I would recommend that more so than me. If you're a student athlete, you're going to get a lot better service too. Please do that. Check it out. We've got a great ongoing podcast with the blog articles, our YouTube channel. We're not going anywhere, you parents. We hope that you can join that phone call. Make it happen. Make the investment with the tax lawyer, even if it's not us. To help you build your team for your nil athlete. Thanks for watching, Max. Thanks for being here.

Yeah. Thank you. This is awesome.

It's awesome. We'll see you around. And see you next week for another episode of the Main Street Business podcast.