Asset Protection for Athletes and Professional Sports Professionals | Skabelund PLLC
You Have a Decade
to Build Generational Wealth.
Or Lose It.
The average professional athlete earns 70-80% of their lifetime income in under ten years. Without a legal structure built for that compressed window, that wealth is fully exposed - to lawsuits, business failures, and the cost of doing nothing. Skabelund PLLC builds the plan that outlasts your career.
The Earning Window Closes.
The Plan Has to Outlast It.
Most athletes don't lose their wealth to bad contracts - they lose it to structures that were never built. No trust. No entity separation. No plan for the 50 years that follow the final game. Skabelund PLLC builds the legal architecture during the earning years so the wealth is still there when they end.
Six Risk Factors That Combine
to Create a Unique Exposure
Professional athletes face a financial risk profile that no other high-income group encounters: massive income compressed into a short window, high public visibility that invites litigation, complex advisory relationships, and a post-career period that can span fifty years funded by wealth accumulated in under a decade.
The statistics are well-documented and consistent across sports: the majority of professional athletes experience serious financial difficulty within years of retirement. This is not a failure of income - most athletes earn more than enough to fund a lifetime of financial security. It is a failure of structure. The assets were never placed behind legal barriers that could protect them from the inevitable claims, disputes, and vulnerabilities that follow.
The solution is the same one that protects surgeons, executives, and real estate investors: a multi-layer legal structure built before the claims exist. For athletes, the urgency is greater because the earning window is shorter. Every year without the plan is a year the wealth is fully exposed.
Build Your Plan During the Earning YearsCompressed Earning Window
Most professional athletes earn 70-80% of their lifetime income before age 35. A career-ending injury, a single bad contract, or an off-season lawsuit can eliminate years of accumulated wealth overnight - if no structure is in place.
High Public Profile = High Lawsuit Target
Public recognition creates legal exposure. Frivolous lawsuits, predatory claims, and settlement demands are disproportionately directed at athletes because plaintiffs know they have assets and resources to settle rather than litigate.
Agent & Financial Advisor Fraud
Athletes are disproportionately victimized by financial fraud. Discretionary control over accounts, Ponzi schemes disguised as investments, and misappropriation of endorsement proceeds are documented patterns across professional sports. Structural separation is the only effective preventive measure.
Endorsement & Business Venture Liability
Endorsement deals, personal brand businesses, restaurant franchises, tech investments, and apparel ventures all create contract and tort liability. Without entity separation, a dispute with any business partner reaches the athlete's personal estate directly.
Family & Entourage Financial Demands
Family members, childhood friends, and personal networks often expect financial support. Without legal structures separating personal wealth from accessible cash flow, informal obligations can accumulate into substantial long-term liability and estate depletion.
Post-Career Lifestyle Burn Rate
Athletes accustomed to high income often maintain that lifestyle after retirement on investment returns alone. Without a plan built during the earning years, the capital base is insufficient to sustain it - and no legal structure can protect assets that no longer exist.
The Right Game Plan.
Built During the Earning Years.
Championships are won with the right game plan. Protecting a professional athlete's wealth requires the same strategic approach. From sophisticated offshore trusts to simple LLC structures, every asset protection plan should be tailored to the athlete's goals, assets, and risk tolerance. When properly structured, these strategies help safeguard a lifetime of success, protect future generations, and preserve the freedom to make a lasting impact on the communities and causes they care about.
Disability, Liability & Umbrella Coverage
Career-ending disability insurance, personal liability coverage, and excess umbrella policy. For active athletes, coverage must account for both career-ending injury and post-career litigation. Insurance handles the claim up to its limits. The entity and trust structures protect what it leaves exposed.
Endorsement LLC + Business LLCs + Real Estate LLCs
Personal brand and endorsement income is received by and held in a dedicated LLC. Each business venture, real estate investment, and income stream is separated into its own entity. A dispute with any single business partner cannot reach the athlete's personal estate - and personal creditors cannot reach the business assets.
DAPT + Irrevocable Trusts + LLCs & Limited Partnerships
No single structure fits every athlete. Domestic asset protection trusts, irrevocable trusts, family limited partnerships, and LLC holding structures each play a role - and the right combination depends on the athlete's goals, assets, and risk tolerance. Homestead and retirement exemptions round out the personal layer at no structural cost.
"John breaks down asset protection in simple terms. He is the legal quarterback for any business owner looking to protect and grow their wealth with peace of mind."
Bryan L. Ramirez
CPA - Verified
"John and his firm are top notch in both knowledge and service excellence. His process is transparent. What he is doing for the industry is a breath of fresh air."
Adam Ripperdan
CPA - Phoenix Metro
Six Legal Structures That Protect
Athlete Wealth Across Every Phase
Each structure serves a distinct purpose. Together, they create a legal system that protects the wealth accumulated during a short career across the full arc of a life.
Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT)
An irrevocable self-settled trust established during the earning years. Assets transferred into the DAPT during the career are beyond the reach of unsecured creditors after the statutory seasoning period. For athletes, the DAPT is the primary structure for removing personal wealth from the exposed estate and preserving it for retirement and generational transfer.
Endorsement & Personal Brand LLC
A dedicated LLC receives all endorsement income, licensing revenue, appearance fees, and personal brand proceeds. Contract disputes, sponsor litigation, and business partner claims are isolated inside the entity and cannot reach the athlete's personal estate. The LLC membership interest is held in the DAPT for an additional layer of protection.
Retirement Plan Maximization
ERISA-qualified plans and IRAs receive broad creditor protection - federal for ERISA plans, state-law exemptions for IRAs applied in the athlete's home state. For athletes who are self-employed, a SEP IRA or solo 401(k) can shelter substantial income annually in a creditor-exempt, tax-deferred structure that will compound for decades.
Irrevocable Trusts for Generational Transfer
Irrevocable dynasty trusts structured for multi-generational wealth transfer allow an athlete to remove assets from their taxable estate permanently, protect them from creditors, and direct their distribution across multiple generations under carefully designed terms. A SLAT provides similar protection for married athletes while preserving spousal access.
Privacy
Professional athletes often seek more than asset protection; they seek privacy. When implemented early, proper planning can help keep wealth, ownership, and financial affairs confidential, reducing exposure to plaintiffs, unwanted scrutiny, and the intense media attention that often accompanies public success.
Family Limited Partnership (FLP)
A Family Limited Partnership consolidates diverse investment holdings - equity, real estate, business interests - in a single structure where the athlete retains general partner control. Creditors can only obtain a charging order against limited partnership interests and cannot force distributions or access the underlying assets.
Legal Expertise in the Same Engagement
Most professional athletes come to Skabelund PLLC the same way: referred by the financial advisor, agent, or CPA who already manages their money. The firm's role is the legal architecture - the trusts, entities, and titling - built in coordination with that existing team, so your advisors keep doing what they do best inside structures designed to protect it.
Meet Your Asset Protection Attorneys
Two attorneys, one engagement - the litigator who spent a decade attacking these structures in court, and the entity-and-trust attorney who coordinates fluently with your advisory team.
John Skabelund, J.D., M.B.A.
Asset Protection AttorneyASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law | W.P. Carey School of Business | 10+ years trust & estate litigation | Builds the protection plans he spent a decade attacking in court on behalf of creditors.
Logan Woodruff, J.D., Series 65
Asset Protection & Business Law AttorneyASU Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law | Series 65 | Licensed in Arizona, Texas, Utah & Oklahoma | Coordinates entities, titling, and trust funding fluently with the athlete's advisory team.
A Plan That Moves
With the Career
There is no single right order and no one-size timeline - the right plan reflects what an athlete owns, earns, and wants at each point in a career. These are the conversations that come up at every stage, built and revisited with your existing advisory team.
Draft
The Foundation Conversation
Before the first professional dollar arrives, the questions are about what is coming: agent agreements, name-image-likeness income, and how future earnings will be received. Reviewing the paperwork now means the structures can be ready when the income is.
Year
First Contract, First Structures
Signing bonuses, rookie contracts, and first endorsements raise the titling questions: which income flows through an entity, how a first home or investment property is held, and what the advisory team needs from the legal side to keep everything coordinated.
Earn
Scaling the Structure
As wealth and complexity grow, the plan is revisited: additional entities for new ventures, trust structures sized to the balance sheet, and multi-state questions as homes and investments spread. The annual review keeps the structure matched to the career.
Career
The 50-Year Horizon
The earning window closes and the plan's job changes: sustaining a lifestyle, supporting family, and passing wealth on under the structures built during the career. Entities are kept, restructured, or wound down as post-career ventures take shape.
Six Mistakes That Destroy
Athlete Wealth After the Career Ends
Waiting Until Retirement to Plan
The DAPT seasoning period requires years of establishment before it provides full protection. An athlete who waits until retirement starts that clock when the earning window has already closed - and may face claims that predate the establishment.
Giving Advisors Discretionary Control
The most direct path to financial fraud is allowing a single advisor discretionary control over accounts and investments. Legal structures - DAPT with independent trustee, LLCs with athlete as controlling member - are the structural defense against this pattern.
Signing Endorsement Deals Personally
Every endorsement signed by the athlete personally is a contract where disputes, IP claims, and partner litigation can reach the athlete's personal estate. All endorsement deals should be signed by the athlete's personal brand LLC.
Business Ventures Without Entity Separation
Restaurant, apparel, tech, and franchise investments made personally - without LLC separation - mean every business failure or partner dispute is a personal liability. Each venture needs its own entity with its own operating agreement.
Maintaining Career-Level Lifestyle on Investment Income
The single most reliable predictor of post-career financial collapse is maintaining a spending level that requires drawing down capital rather than living on returns. The plan must account for realistic post-career cash flow - not peak salary.
No Annual Review as Wealth Grows
A plan built for a rookie with one endorsement deal doesn't fit an established star with multiple business ventures, investment real estate in three states, and a family trust. Every contract extension should trigger a plan review.
Asset Protection for Athletes -
Answers to Common Questions
The questions athletes and their advisors most often ask about protecting career wealth.
Additional Reading & Pages
The Earning Window Closes.
The Plan Has to Outlast It.
Most athletes earn more than enough to fund a lifetime of financial security. The ones who don't make it to the other side aren't missing income - they're missing structure. One consultation builds the legal architecture that protects what the career creates.