Did you know the PGA Tour has a retirement plan for its players? Not only does it have one, it's widely considered the best retirement plan in professional sports. A real example: In the 2024 season, Erik van Rooyen made just 9 cuts on the PGA Tour. Nothing flashy, no wins, no headlines. But because he'd played a full schedule, every one of those made cuts dropped $4,800 into his retirement account. Nine cuts × $4,800 = $43,200, set aside for retirement. Then his season fini

Brendan Fraleigh, a Certified Financial Planner, breaks down everything you need to know about the 2026 NBA Pension.

Brendan Fraleigh, a Certified Financial Planner, has the latest on the 2026 NBA Retirement Plan.

Brendan Fraleigh, a Certified Financial Planner, breaks down everything you need to know about the 2026 NFL 401(k).

Brendan Fraleigh, a Certified Financial Planner, has the latest on the 2026 NFL Annuity Program.

Brendan Fraleigh, a Certified Financial Planner, has the latest on the 2026 NFL Pension.

Brendan Fraleigh, a Certified Financial Planner, has the latest on the 2026 NFL Retirement Plan.

Most MLB players know the number six. Six years of service time gets you to free agency. That number gets talked about constantly. Agents track it. Teams manipulate it. Players build their entire early career around it. The number that doesn't get nearly enough attention is 43. Forty-three days of MLB service time is the threshold that determines whether a player walks away from professional baseball with a pension benefit for the rest of his life, or walks away with nothing.

I remember my first big league spring training. The veteran leadership had let us know the Major League Baseball Players Association was coming in the next day for our spring meeting. A naive 18-year-old, I had no idea what that meant or what we would be talking about. That meeting opened my eyes to the sacrifices former players had made to pave the way for current players. Everyone sees the ever-increasing salaries, but what many don't see is the greatest pension allowed und

Done correctly, players can get more than $16,500,000 in retirement plan benefits, countless tax savings, and access to lifelong health care. Retirement planning for professional athletes is a mix of understanding specific information and how it connects to your life. I had seen the big contract numbers. I had heard of the opportunities Major League Baseball players had. Yet, one thing I didn’t understand was the MLB benefits plan. What benefits do players get? How are those

Every year the MLBPA or the Major League Baseball Player's Association speaks during Spring Training to players. Every year the messaging sounds the same and usually has some combination of this: "You will be a former player a lot longer than you are a current player so make sure you understand all of your benefits." One thing I realize now more than ever before is retirement planning as a professional athlete starts with understanding service time and league benefits. Player

"This is the big leagues"! My exact thought as I was walking aimlessly through the Detroit Tigers' clubhouse in 2011. I was a 20-year-old trying to figure out how this "big league" thing worked. It felt like every need I had was being met proactively by a world-class staff and clubhouse attendants. I never thought a clubby would help me save thousands of dollars on my taxes. Yet, that is exactly what happened when a clubhouse attendant, in passing, asked if I was contributing

"I am sure your phone will be ringing with opportunities." This is what I was told. The phone never rang...I had to pick it up and call. That was my reality. This was the start of my transition out of professional baseball. To understand this you have to know where I was coming from: I had played professional baseball for 11 years. I had started when I was just 18 and now I was 29. I had thought this baseball thing would last forever. So there I was 29 years old, no one calli

The day I had waited 18 years for had come, yet instead of excitement, I felt this wave of unknowns. You know, that feeling you get when a big moment is on the horizon but you also realize the stakes are as high as possible. That was me on draft morning in 2009. Now look, I would say I had a better education on the MLB draft than most potential draftees and I still felt that way. I had three high school coaches who were 10-year big leaguers with one, Andy Benes, having been t

I remember my first big league spring training. The veteran leadership had let us know the Major League Baseball Players Association was coming in the next day for our spring meeting. A naive 18-year-old, I had no idea what that meant or what we would be talking about. That meeting opened my eyes to the sacrifices former players had made to pave the way for current players. Everyone sees the ever-increasing salaries but what many don't see is the greatest pension allowed unde

I had more money on paper than ever before, yet I had more nerves than ever before. Yeah, that was me right after retiring from an 11-year MLB career. You see I had set out to avoid being one of the statistics we all see in the news, "Athlete loses everything". What I missed in my crusade to not become "that guy" was that retirement planning for professional athletes entails far more than just being smart with money. Wealth management for professional athletes is part art (em

Done correctly players can get hundreds of thousands in retirement plan contributions, countless tax savings, and access to lifelong health care. Retirement planning for professional athletes is a mix of understanding specific information and how it connects to your life. I had seen the big contract numbers. I had heard of the opportunities Major League Baseball players had. Yet, one thing I didn’t understand was the MLB benefits plan. What benefits do players get? How are th

Sometimes you are good and sometimes you just get lucky. When it comes to money moves one of the luckiest times in my life was when I first got called up to the big leagues. A baby faced 20 year old with more questions than answers. Some opportune guidance from a clubhouse manager ended up saving me serious money in taxes. "Do you know about the MLB 401(k) plan? You should look at contributing to that." That was my first foray into understanding retirement accounts, the tax i