RIA launches NIL deals to teach NCAA athletes financial literacy

A registered investment advisory firm with a strong athletic pedigree launched a name, image and likeness program that pays college athletes to attend financial literacy classes.

Hinsdale, Illinois-based Performance Wealth started the course last month, teaching 17 Division1 National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes about financial planning, estate and tax strategies and corporate finance and entrepreneurship. The eight classes are taught by CEO Tom Salvino, President John Salvino and other members of the RIA's staff, according to Tom Salvino. The program, an extension of sessions that were part of its internships for the last 25 years, has drawn 11 athletes from the football, soccer, baseball and lacrosse teams at the Salvino brothers' alma mater and that of their father, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Reigning NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion Mason Parris of the University of Michigan Wolverines, Women's College World Series softball player Regan Krause of the Stanford University Cardinal and tennis athlete Emma Jackson of the Duke University Blue Devils joined the program as well. Salvino declined to state the exact amount of the NIL contracts the college athletes have, beyond describing it as a "meaningful" amount comparable to a summer job. He and other planners and financial experts have expressed concern that NCAA athletes often lack basic money skills that are important for managing their newly lucrative NIL endorsement deals.    

"We've always enjoyed mentoring and teaching young people," Tom Salvino said. "All the kids come in, and they really don't know much about the markets and investing and finance … We really wanted it to be not just a financial transaction, but we wanted it to be education."

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Like his father, Salvino wrestled for the Fighting Irish. His daughter, Performance Wealth client services representative Grace Salvino, played soccer for the Wolverines. Another daughter, Sara, currently plays soccer for the University of Chicago Maroons, and Salvino's son Alex is a member of the Fighting Irish men's soccer team and part of the new NIL program as well. The Irish football players participating in the Performance Wealth Student-Athlete NIL Alliance are: senior tight end Kevin Bauman; senior punter Bryan Dowd; senior wide receiver Griffin Eifert and senior running back Chase Ketterer.

In contrast to other NIL deals providing athletes with a Lamborghini or BMW, Buffalo Wild Wings or Raising Cane's food and Times Square billboard status, Performance Wealth's program compensates the players for learning about personal finance.

Performance Wealth

In trying to make sense of the roughly two-year-old cottage industry that has sprung up in the form of NIL collectives started by hundreds of universities' athletic boosters since the NCAA legalized the paid endorsements in 2021, Jackson decided her top priority was "to select deals that support your values and future goals," the Duke sophomore said in an email.

"I was very interested in joining Performance Wealth's NIL program because it is a great opportunity for me to learn about finance, investing and preparing for my future beyond being a student-athlete," Jackson said. "It is a unique and amazing opportunity to be able to learn about my financial future, and still be able to train and prepare for competition as an athlete at Duke. For me, I am not sure if I will take the professional athlete career path, or work in the business world, so this is another way to learn more about setting myself up for success in the future no matter what career path I choose after being a student-athlete at Duke."

Any money literacy program that is "not trying to sell financial products, services and investments and instead is coming from an educational place" will help athletes navigate the new environment, according to Liz Davidson, the founder of Financial Finesse, a coaching and wellness benefit firm that works with corporate retirement plans and National Football League Players Association. Earlier this year, Davidson's firm started a free online financial literacy course for NCAA athletes called the "NIL Long Game." 

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When student-athletes approach NIL with a "CEO mindset," they "look at these opportunities more objectively, as opposed to impulsively," Davidson said in an interview. "These decisions need to be made not just for the short term, but for the long term. So, in 10 years, are you going to be glad you did this social media post?"

Performance Wealth's course includes quizzes testing the athletes' new skills and networking enabling them to get "involved in the business world and, ultimately, connected with other people who are successful," Salvino said. The RIA aims for the program to go "beyond a check" to "something that's longer lasting" into their financial future, he said.

"We want it to be beneficial to them not just money-wise, but education-wise," Salvino said. "Transitioning the skill set that they have toward really utilizing that in the real world is the goal."