Picture a founder two years into building something real. It started at a kitchen table. Now there are actual clients, actual revenue, and a calendar booked out further than they ever imagined. For a long time, that founder was the whole operation. Every email, every deal, every problem, they handled it themselves, because nobody else existed yet to hand it to. For a while, that's not a warning sign. That's just what building something looks like early on. Then the business keeps growing, and something shifts. A referral comes in for a project that would've been a dream client a year ago, and the founder has to say no. Not because the work isn't good. Because there's no room left in the week. It happens again a few months later. Then it becomes a pattern, good opportunities quietly turned away, because the person who built the business is now the ceiling on how big it can get. That's usually the moment a founder finally asks: do I need to hire someone? It's a fair question, and a loaded one, with a lot more to it than yes or no. Let's get into it. Here's Hiring Your First Employees as a Solo Entrepreneur. Step 1: Figuring out if you're actually ready Why "I'm Overwhelmed" Isn't the Right Reason A lot of founders treat their first hire like a finish line. Get through the hard part solo, then reward yourself with help. It's backwards. The hire is what unlocks the next stage of growth, not a prize for surviving the last one. I've watched founders put off hiring for a year, run themselves into the ground, and then bring someone on out of desperation instead of strategy. That's a rushed decision dressed up as a smart one, and it usually shows. The good news is there's a way to catch this before it happens, if you know what to actually watch for. The Signals Worth Paying Attention To The clearest one is money you're leaving on the table. You're saying no to clients or projects simply because there's no time left in the week. You're spending hours on work that pays far less than your time is actually worth. Deadlines are slipping, and the honest answer is that you're the reason why. Any one of those is a sign you need more hands. All three together means you needed them a while ago. That said, wanting help and being able to afford it aren't the same thing. If your revenue can't comfortably carry a salary for a full year, it's not time yet, even if the exhaustion says otherwise. The founders who get this right are honest with themselves about which one they're actually feeling. As Financial Advisors for Business Owners, we have experience navigating these type of questions. What To Hire For First Most founders default to hiring someone who reminds them of themselves. Someone who "gets it" the way they do. I understand the instinct. It's still usually the wrong call. Try splitting your business into three categories instead. The stuff only you can do: the vision, the key relationships, the calls that carry real risk. The stuff you're good at but shouldn't be doing anymore: delivery, execution, the daily grind of the work itself. The stuff you're bad at and have been avoiding: admin, invoicing, scheduling, the follow-up that never happens. Founders tend to hire into the first bucket when they should be hiring into the second and third. Your first employee should be filling in your gaps, not mirroring your strengths. That's how you end up with a business that gets stronger with each hire, instead of just louder. Step 2: Actually Making the Hire What An Employee Really Costs You Founders almost always budget for the salary line and stop there. That's not the real number. Payroll taxes, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, benefits, tools, and the time you'll spend training someone all stack on top of it. A fair estimate is 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary once everything is accounted for. If your business can't comfortably absorb that fully loaded number, the answer isn't to skip the math. It's to either adjust the offer or wait a little longer. This is one of the first things we sit down and run through with founders before they ever extend an offer. Contractor, Part-Time, or Full-Time How you structure the hire matters just as much as who you pick. Going straight to a full-time employee is the biggest commitment and the biggest risk you can take on. For most first-timers, it's smarter to test the role before you commit to it permanently. Contract or fractional help lets you prove the role needs to exist before you build a full-time position around it. Part-time makes sense when the need is real, but not yet a 40-hour-a-week need. Full-time is the right call once the workload and the budget have both proven themselves out. There's no bonus points for jumping straight to the biggest commitment. Getting the structure right matters more than getting there fast. Write the Job Down Before You Post It Without a documented process, your new hire spends their first months just asking you questions instead of doing the work. This is the step I see skipped most, and it's the one that costs founders the most later. Write out what the role owns. Write out what a strong week looks like in that seat. Write out the tools and systems they'll actually use day to day. Do that work up front, and you're handing someone a real job. Skip it, and you're handing them a puzzle to solve on your dime. Step 3: Keeping Them Around The First 90 Days Decide More than the Hire Does This is the part founders think about the least, and it might matter more than anything above it. Picture this. You make a great hire. They show up ready to go. And three weeks in, they still can't tell you what success in the role even looks like. Without a clear target, even a genuinely talented hire starts to drift. Founders who keep their first employees are the ones who treat the first three months as a real plan, not just a formality before the "real" job starts. That means a written 30-60-90 day roadmap, consistent check-ins, and a concrete outcome they're working toward, not a job description they got handed once and never revisited. The Boring Legal Stuff You Can't Skip None of this is exciting, but skipping it doesn't make it go away. An EIN and the right state payroll registration. Workers' compensation coverage in place. A real, signed employment agreement. A written job description that actually reflects the role. Skipping these steps doesn't save you time now. It just pushes the cost down the road, where it's more expensive and harder to untangle. Final Thought If you're a solo entrepreneur weighing your first hire, here's the question I'd actually ask you. Are you hiring because you're the bottleneck, or because you're just tired? If you can't answer that cleanly, it's worth talking through before you make the leap. Get the structure right early, and you save yourself from a lot of expensive corrections down the line. That's the kind of planning we do alongside founders every day at Moment Private Wealth, building the business and the personal financial picture together, so decisions like this one move you forward instead of creating something to clean up later. If you are a business owner who is looking at hiring your first employee or wondering the best way to structure your business, schedule a call, and talk with a Moment founder. For more on how we are working with Entrpreneurs check out "Entrepreneurship Explained: Quick Wins or Long-Term Wealth?" Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. How do I know if I'm actually ready to hire my first employee? Look at what you're turning down, not just how tired you feel. If you're declining work, delaying projects, or spending your time on tasks well below your value, that's your answer. Exhaustion isn't the same signal as readiness. Your revenue also needs to be able to carry the cost for a full year, not just the first few months. Should my first hire be full-time or a contractor? For most first-time founders, starting with a contractor or fractional hire is the safer move. It gives you a chance to confirm the role is actually necessary before you commit to the ongoing costs of a full-time employee. What does an employee actually cost beyond their salary? Budget for roughly 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary once you factor in payroll taxes, workers' comp, unemployment insurance, benefits, and the tools they'll need. Founders who only plan for the salary number are almost always caught off guard later. What's the biggest mistake founders make with their first hire? Hiring someone who works just like them, instead of someone who covers what they're weak at. Your first hire should expand what the business can do, not repeat what you already do well. Can Moment Private Wealth help me think through the financial side of hiring? Yes. Understanding the true cost of a hire, how it impacts your income, and how it fits into your broader financial plan is exactly the kind of work we do alongside founders. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

There's a new account with the President's name on it, and every parent I talk to has the same question: is this actually worth it, or is it just noise? The short answer is it depends. The long answer is worth five minutes of your time, because part of this account is free money, and part of it is a trap if you don't understand the rules. What Is a Trump Account A Trump Account is a new type of retirement account, built just for kids. It was created by the tax law signed on July 4, 2025, and families will be able to start contributing beginning July 4, 2026. Here's the simplest way to think about it: it's a starter IRA. The government opens the door for your child to begin saving for retirement before they can walk. The account belongs to the child. An adult, usually a parent or guardian, manages it until the child turns 18. At that point, the child takes over, and the account turns into a regular traditional IRA. Every eligible child qualifies. They need to be under 18 and have a valid Social Security number. That's it. The Rules You Need to Know This is the part that trips people up, so let's go slow. The government seed money. If your child was born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, and is a U.S. citizen, the federal government will put $1,000 into their account. But it's not automatic. You have to elect it, using a form called Form 4547. Skip that step, and the $1,000 never shows up. If your child falls in that window, this part isn't a close call. It's free money, sitting on the table, waiting for one form. There's no reason not to take it. The yearly limit. Family and friends can put in up to $5,000 a year, combined, while the child is under 18. Grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, neighbors, it all counts toward that one number. Go over it, and the excess gets hit with a 6% penalty tax every year until it's pulled back out. Employer contributions. If your employer offers it, they can kick in up to $2,500 a year on your child's behalf, and that money doesn't count as taxable income to you. It does eat into the $5,000 total, though. Where the money goes. During childhood, the account can only be invested in low-cost index funds that track U.S. stocks, similar to the S&P 500. Fees are capped by law at 0.10% a year. You can't gamble this account away on individual stocks or crypto. That's the point. The money is locked. Nobody can touch this account before January 1 of the year your child turns 18. Not for a medical emergency, not for school, not for anything, unless the child passes away or you're moving the money to another Trump Account. This is the biggest tradeoff of the whole account, and we'll come back to it. That "unless the child passes away" clause is a good reminder that every account you open for your kids, this one included, needs a beneficiary plan behind it. We cover the importance in this video on estate planning. Where It Fits: 529, UTMA, or Trump Account Every family asks the same question. Which account should I actually use? The honest answer is that it depends on what you're solving for. Saving for college? A 529 plan wins. The money grows without being taxed, and it comes out tax-free when you use it for school. There's no better tool built for education than a 529. Want your child to have real flexibility? A UTMA is your answer. There's no cap on how much you can put in, and the money can be used for anything that benefits the child: a car, a first apartment, a wedding, whatever life throws at them. The tradeoff is that a UTMA becomes fully theirs at the age your state sets, sometimes 18, sometimes later, and they can spend it on anything once it's in their hands. Already optimizing a 529 and UTMA, or specifically thinking about your child's retirement? That's when a Trump Account earns its spot. It's not a replacement for the other two. It's a third bucket, built for a longer timeline than either one. Think of it like this: a 529 is a shovel built for digging one specific hole. A UTMA is a Swiss Army knife. A Trump Account is a time capsule you can't open for eighteen years. Sorting out which buckets to fund, and in what order, is really just wealth management for your family. If you want the full picture of how these pieces fit together with everything else you're building, The Moment Guide To Wealth Management For Business Owners walks through it. Trump Account Guide – The Roth Conversion Opportunity at 18 Here's where this account gets interesting. On January 1 of the year your child turns 18, the growth period ends, and the account becomes a regular traditional IRA. From that point forward, your child owns it and runs it like any adult would run an IRA. That opens the door to a Roth conversion. Your child can move some or all of the money from the traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. Once it's in the Roth, it grows tax-free for the rest of their life, and qualified withdrawals in retirement owe no tax at all. But a conversion isn't free. Any money that hasn't already been taxed, including that original $1,000 government deposit, gets added to your child's taxable income the year it's converted. Money that family members contributed out of pocket was already taxed once, so that part comes over clean. Timing matters more than almost anything else here. The smart move is to convert during a low-income year, often right after college, before your child's salary climbs. Converting while they're still a full-time student and a dependent can backfire, because that conversion income may get taxed at your rate as a parent instead of theirs. We'll explain why in the next section. Kiddie Tax and Other Rules to Watch The kiddie tax is one of the most misunderstood rules in family financial planning, so let's clear it up. While the money sits inside the Trump Account, growing, the kiddie tax doesn't apply. There's no yearly tax bill on the growth, because the account is tax-deferred, the same as any IRA. Nothing gets taxed until it comes out. The kiddie tax shows up at a different moment: the Roth conversion. When your child converts the account after turning 18, the taxable portion of that conversion counts as unearned income. If your child is still a dependent, either under 19, or under 24 and a full-time student who doesn't cover half their own costs, that income can get taxed at your tax rate instead of theirs. For a lot of families, that rate difference is significant. This is exactly why waiting until after college, once your child is no longer a dependent, often makes the conversion far cheaper. Trump Account Guide – How to Open One Opening a Trump Account takes three steps. First, confirm eligibility. Your child needs to be under 18 with a valid Social Security number. Second, decide who's opening it. The law sets an order of priority: a legal guardian first, then a parent, then an adult sibling, then a grandparent. Third, file Form 4547. This is the form that opens the account and, in the same step, elects the $1,000 government contribution if your child qualifies. You can also apply online through trumpaccounts.gov. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Does every child automatically get a Trump Account? No. A parent or guardian has to actively open one using Form 4547 or the online portal. Do we lose the $1,000 if we don't act right away? The election can be made anytime during childhood, but there's no reason to wait. The sooner the money is in, the longer it has to grow. Can my child have both a Trump Account and a regular IRA once they're working? Yes. A working teenager can fund an IRA with their own earnings and still keep contributing to their Trump Account, up to the separate limits on each. Is a Trump Account better than a 529 or a UTMA? A 529 is built for education. A UTMA is built for flexibility. A Trump Account is built for a head start on retirement. Most families end up using more than one. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

Imagine the day the wire finally hits your account. You have spent a decade or more building your company, grinding through late nights, navigating making payroll, and eventually executing a successful exit. You are likely prepared for the immediate capital gains tax hit. But while you are celebrating the liquidity event, the IRS is waiting for a second cut. Without smart planning, capital gains, estate taxes, and income taxes can swallow 30–50% of your business sale. Most founders are so focused on the income tax from the sale that they completely miss the estate tax. If your net worth suddenly spikes past the federal exemption limit, up to 40% of your life's work could eventually go to the government instead of your family. This is where a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) becomes one of the most effective strategies for high-growth entrepreneurs. By transferring ownership before you sign a Letter of Intent (LOI), you can shield your exit proceeds from estate taxes while maintaining indirect access to the capital. For a deeper understanding of how to prepare your wealth for an acquisition, review our Moment Guide to Business Exit Planning. What is a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) A Spousal Lifetime Access Trust (SLAT) is an irrevocable trust where one spouse gifts assets to benefit the other. For entrepreneurs, transferring privately held business shares into a SLAT before a liquidity event removes the future appreciation and exit proceeds from their taxable estate. This avoids the 40% federal estate tax while still allowing the business owner indirect access to the cash through their spouse. The Estate Tax Threat on a Liquidity Event When you sell your business, your balance sheet shifts overnight from illiquid equity to highly liquid cash. If that cash sits in your personal name, it becomes part of your taxable estate. Currently, the federal estate tax exemption is historically high. If your estate exceeds the exemption limit of $15,000,000 when you pass away, the IRS levies a 40% tax on every dollar over the threshold. For a founder exiting for $30 million or $50 million, that translates to an eight-figure tax bill that your heirs must pay in cash. How a SLAT Works for Business Owners A SLAT allows you to move assets out of your taxable estate without completely giving up the ability to benefit from the money. Here is the mechanical breakdown of how entrepreneurs execute this strategy: Establish the Trust: You (the Grantor) create an irrevocable trust naming your spouse as the primary beneficiary. Transfer the Shares: You gift a portion of your company stock into the SLAT. The Exit Happens: When the company is acquired, the shares inside the SLAT are sold. The cash proceeds are deposited directly into the trust's bank account, not your personal account. Accessing the Capital: Because your spouse is the beneficiary, they can request distributions from the trust to fund your shared lifestyle, buy real estate, or make investments. For a visual breakdown of how trust structures can protect your wealth from the IRS, watch this resource: How Estate Taxes Impact Business Owners on YouTube. Why Timing is Everything: Funding Before You Sell The biggest mistake business owners make is waiting until after the exit to start estate planning. If you wait until you have $20 million in cash to fund a trust, you use up $20 million of your lifetime exemption. If you fund the SLAT before the transaction, the math works heavily in your favor: Lower Valuation: Pre-exit, your company shares can often be valued lower through a formal appraisal, especially if you apply minority interest or lack of marketability discounts. Tax-Free Growth: You might transfer shares valued at $3 million into the SLAT today. A year later, those shares sell for $15 million in the acquisition. That entire $12 million of appreciation happens outside of your taxable estate. Preserved Exemption: Because the IRS only saw a $3 million gift, you still have the vast majority of your lifetime exemption intact to shield other assets. The "Grantor Trust" Tax Advantage SLATs are typically structured as "Grantor Trusts" for income tax purposes. This means that while the assets are outside of your estate, you still pay the income taxes on the trust's earnings (like dividends or capital gains) out of your personal pocket. While paying taxes sounds like a negative, it is actually a massive wealth-transfer feature. By paying the trust's tax bill with your personal cash, you allow the assets inside the SLAT to grow 100% tax-free. You are essentially making an additional, tax-free gift to your heirs every time you pay the IRS on the trust's behalf. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Frequently Asked Questions Can I be a beneficiary of my own SLAT? No. If you are a beneficiary of the trust you create, the IRS will include the assets in your taxable estate, defeating the entire purpose. You access the funds indirectly because your spouse is the beneficiary. What happens to the SLAT if we get a divorce? Because the trust is irrevocable and your spouse is the beneficiary, they typically retain access to the assets after a divorce. To protect against this, many SLATs are drafted with a "floating spouse" provision, meaning the beneficiary is defined as the person you are currently married to, rather than a specific individual by name. When is the exact right time to transfer shares into the SLAT? The transfer must happen before there is a binding agreement to sell the company. If you wait until the Letter of Intent (LOI) is signed or the deal is certain, the IRS may apply the "assignment of income" doctrine, taxing the proceeds as if you still owned the shares personally. Does a SLAT help me qualify for the QSBS (Section 1202) tax exemption? Yes, it can. If the trust is structured correctly (typically as a non-grantor trust for income tax purposes, which requires different drafting than a standard SLAT), the trust itself can claim its own $10 million (or 10x basis) QSBS exemption. This is a strategy known as "stacking," which can multiply your total tax-free exit proceeds. Can both my spouse and I set up a SLAT for each other? Yes, but you must be incredibly careful to avoid the IRS's "Reciprocal Trust Doctrine." If you create identical trusts for each other at the same time, the IRS will unwind them. The trusts must be drafted at different times, with different terms, and ideally with different assets to ensure they are respected as separate legal entities. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

You built something real. Revenue is up. Your business runs without you micromanaging every decision. By every external measure, you've made it. But here's the question most entrepreneurs never stop to honestly answer: when the business stops, what do you actually have? This is the core challenge of retirement planning for business owners, and it's one of the most common financial blind spots we see at Moment Private Wealth. High earners who have been generating serious income for years, sometimes decades, but have little to show for it outside the business itself. If you want to learn more With greater income comes greater responsibility. Business owners who fail to structure their finances correctly don't just miss opportunities; they leave serious money on the table. Having the right financial team isn't optional. It's the difference between building real wealth and simply earning a high income. If you want to learn more, here is Moment's Guide To Retirement For Entrepreneurs. In this blog, we're going to break down exactly why this happens, what the IRS is actually offering entrepreneurs in terms of tax-advantaged retirement savings, and what a real plan looks like. The numbers might surprise you, both how far behind many business owners are and how quickly that gap can close with the right structure. Personal Wealth VS. Business Wealth This is the distinction that changes everything once you truly internalize it, and it's the core reason most high-income business owners arrive at retirement underprepared. When you reinvest profits back into the business, you are building business value. That's a good thing. But it is also a concentrated bet, a bet that when the time comes, you will be able to sell the business, extract that value, and live comfortably on what's left after taxes, deal fees, and the reality of what buyers are actually willing to pay. Personal wealth is different. It is what you own independently of whether the business succeeds, sells, or survives. It's the retirement account growing while you sleep. It's the investment portfolio that doesn't care if you lose your biggest client. It's the financial foundation that lets you make business decisions from a position of strength, not desperation. Most business owners spend 90% of their financial energy building one and almost no energy building the other. Your Wealth Building Machine Think about it in terms of compounding. Two business owners, both earning $500,000 per year. One starts aggressively funding a Solo 401(k) at age 35. The other starts at age 48. Assuming a 7% average annual return, by age 65, the difference in that single account can exceed $4.5 million, from the same annual contribution. Missing years of tax-advantaged contributions is not a minor issue. It is one of the most consequential financial decisions a business owner can make, even when it doesn't feel like a decision at all. The Service Time Equivalent for Business Owners: Contribution Years Just like MLB service time determines a player's pension benefits, contribution years determine the foundation of a business owner's retirement. Every year you're eligible to max a retirement plan and don't is a year you can't get back. Here's what that looks like in practice. The three biggest retirement benefits available to business owners are: Tax-deferred growth through a Solo 401(k) or SEP-IRA Tax-free growth through a Roth 401(k) (available inside a Solo 401(k)) Dramatically accelerated contributions through a defined benefit or cash balance plan Contribution Limits These numbers are significant. A business owner in the 37% federal bracket who maxes a Solo 401(k) is saving $26,640 in federal taxes in a single year, money that stays invested and compounds rather than going to the IRS. The right plan depends on your business structure, income, and whether you have employees. Contribution limits vary meaningfully between an S-Corp and a sole proprietorship. Solo 401(k) vs. SEP-IRA: Which Is Right For You? Both are powerful. But they are not the same, and the right choice depends on your business structure and income. Solo 401(k) Best for sole proprietors, single-member LLCs, and S-Corp owners with no full-time W-2 employees (other than a spouse). The Solo 401(k) allows both an employee deferral and an employer profit-sharing contribution, making it the most powerful savings vehicle available for most self-employed business owners. Most business owners don't realize their Solo 401(k) can include a Roth designation on the employee deferral portion. This is one of the most underutilized planning tools available to high-income entrepreneurs, and it works differently from a Roth IRA in one critical way: there are no income limits. A Roth IRA contribution in 2026 phases out at $153,000 for single filers and $242,000 for married filing jointly. Most of our clients are well above those thresholds and cannot contribute to a Roth IRA directly. But a Roth 401(k) has no income limit whatsoever. Any business owner with a Solo 401(k) can designate their employee deferral, up to $24,500 in 2026, as Roth contributions. The trade-off: Roth contributions are made with after-tax dollars, so you give up the immediate tax deduction. But the growth and all qualified distributions in retirement are completely tax-free, including decades of compounding on a potentially large balance. For business owners who expect to be in a high tax bracket in retirement, or who want tax diversification across their accounts, the Roth 401(k) is worth a serious look. SEP-IRA Simpler to administer, but structurally less powerful for most high earners. The SEP-IRA only allows employer contributions, no employee deferral. This limits total contributions at lower net income levels compared to the Solo 401(k). What Happens After You Max Out Your Retirement Accounts? Maxing your Solo 401(k) at $72,000 is a significant accomplishment, but for many high-income business owners, it's not enough. If you're earning $500,000, $750,000, or more per year, tax-advantaged accounts alone will not get you to retirement. The math simply doesn't work on the timeline most entrepreneurs need. This is where a taxable brokerage account becomes one of the most important tools in your financial plan, and one of the most overlooked. The Taxable Brokerage Account: Your Wealth-Building Layer A taxable brokerage account has no contribution limits, no income restrictions, and no rules about when you can access your money. You can invest as much as you want, in whatever you want, and withdraw at any time without a penalty. For a high-income business owner who has exhausted their tax-advantaged options, it is the natural next layer of a complete wealth strategy. The tax treatment is also more favorable than most people realize: • Long-term capital gains, investments held longer than one year, are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%, depending on your income, far below ordinary income tax rates • Qualified dividends are taxed at the same preferential long-term capital gains rates • Tax-loss harvesting allows you to strategically offset gains by selling underperforming positions, reducing your tax bill while keeping your portfolio on track • Unlike a traditional IRA or 401(k), there are no required minimum distributions (RMDs) forcing you to withdraw on the government's schedule The right investment strategy inside a taxable account matters. Tax-efficient funds, asset location strategy, and disciplined rebalancing all play a role in keeping more of your returns. This is not a set-it-and-forget-it account; it is an active part of your overall tax and wealth plan. What a Real Retirement Plan for a Business Owner Actually Looks Like A real plan is not a retirement calculator from a website. It is not a rough idea that you'll figure out when the time comes. A real plan answers four specific questions: • How much do I need to retire and maintain my lifestyle? • What do I currently have outside the business working toward that number? • What is the gap, and what does the business sale realistically contribute? • What specific accounts, contribution targets, and milestones close that gap on my timeline? A critical piece of that plan is an honest business valuation. Business owners almost always overestimate what their company is worth on the open market, and underestimate the taxes, deal fees, and earnout risk that reduce the net proceeds. A plan that relies entirely on a business sale is a plan with enormous risk built in. The businesses we see sell cleanly and at strong valuations are almost always the businesses whose owners didn't need to sell. They had personal wealth built outside the business, which meant they could be patient, selective, and negotiate from strength. If you are a business owner who wants a clear answer to what retirement actually looks like for you, schedule a call, and talk with a Moment founder. For more on taxes for business own related to business owners, check out this video here. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Are you a fiduciary? Moment Private Wealth serves clients as a fiduciary 100% of the time. Does Moment help set up a Solo 401(k)? Yes. We can open the account for you and coordinate everything, from selecting the right plan structure for your business to ensuring contributions are set up correctly from day one. Does Moment help with tax planning? Yes. We provide year-round tax planning and work closely with your CPA to make sure your investment strategy and tax strategy are working together, not against each other. Why should I consider hiring Moment Private Wealth? Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn’t hire us. If you’re looking for an advisor who will pitch shiny object investments or be a “yes man” you are in the wrong place. Why? Because we believe in being truth tellers and only giving advice that we take ourselves. The investments, strategies, and planning we do are all things our advisors do with their own money. If you are an athlete or entrepreneur interested in things like lowering your tax bill, investing smarter, and finding a trusted partner, we might be a good fit. What do I do with money once I've maxed out my retirement accounts? A taxable brokerage account is the answer most high-income business owners overlook. No contribution limits, no restrictions on when you can access it, and more favorable tax treatment than most people expect, long-term gains taxed at 15% to 20%, loss harvesting to offset gains, and no RMDs. It's the natural next layer after your 401(k) is full, and for owners earning $500,000 or more, it's often where serious wealth is actually built. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

Most founders we work with are really good at building. They know how to grow revenue. They know when to reinvest. They know how to push through the hard stretches that come with building something from scratch. What we find ourselves talking about constantly is whether the personal financial side of their life is growing with the same intention. Because here is what we see happen. A founder builds something impressive. The business is growing. And then they get close to the exit and realize the personal side of their financial picture never kept pace with what they built professionally. There is a gap between the business and personal side. And the two aren't running together. In this blog I am going to break down the three stages of building a business and what you should be executing while you are living it. Here's The Founder's Guide to Building Wealth While You Build Your Business. The Founder's Guide to Building Wealth While You Build Your Business Stage One: Growing the Business The Cost of Betting Everything on the Business Most wealth advisors will tell you, you need to be investing in the market. And while they aren't wrong, they negate to inform you… Your business is your most important investment. You should be reinvesting into your business during the growth stage. It is how you get to the exit you are building toward. But here is what we see happen when reinvesting becomes the only move. A founder puts everything back into the business for years. By the time they get close to an exit, the business is worth something real, but the personal side of the picture tells a very different story. Everything you own is tied up in the business itself. When that is the picture, everything is riding on one transaction. That is a significant amount of pressure to put on a single event. And it is completely avoidable if the personal plan is running alongside the business plan from the beginning. Start with Your Personal Retirement Account One of the most underutilized tools we see in this stage is the retirement account. Solo 401(k)s SEP IRAs Defined Benefit plans All of these retirement accounts exist specifically for business owners and can move serious money into a protected, tax-advantaged environment every single year while you are still building. Not only does this grow your personal balance sheet, it reduces your tax bill in the process. The founders who feel the most secure at exit are the ones who were quietly building something real on the personal side the entire time. And no better place to start than putting money away for retirement. If you want to dive deeper, we have a simple guide to retirement planning for business owners. Next up: The Distributions Question The Distributions Question How much are you taking out of the business, and how much are you keeping in? For most founders, the honest answer is whatever the business allows or whatever they need at the time. That is understandable. But it is not a strategy. Think about your business finances in three buckets. Your fixed cost, the non-negotiables that do not change month to month. Your variable costs, the expenses that fluctuate and can be managed. And your profit and distributions, what is left and what flows to you personally. The mistake we see constantly is founders treating that third bucket as an afterthought. Whatever is left over at the end of the month becomes the distribution. But when you build the distribution into the plan from the start, everything changes. What you take out builds your personal financial life. What you keep in fuels the growth of the company. Both matter. And the right balance looks different at every stage. Founders who are deliberate about this, who actually decide how much flows to the personal side and how much stays in the business, are in a fundamentally stronger position by the time the exit comes. They have been building something on the personal side the entire time. They have not been living off of whatever was left over. But the distribution strategy and budgeting strategy need to coincide with your personal life. Stage Two: Preparing for the Exit Do You Know What Your Number Actually Needs to Be? Most founders have a number in mind. Sometimes that is a figure they are building toward. Or even an exit value that feels good to take the next step personally. But very few have ever worked backward from that number to understand what it actually means for their personal life. Because after taxes, after the structure of the deal, the number that actually hits your account is not the number on the term sheet. Whether that real number funds the life you want on the other side of the exit is a question worth answering long before you are sitting across from a buyer. We help founders like you work through this math and have a plan before the sale. Finding Your North Star The framework to exiting your business takes a strategy. More importantly, you need to be able to answer three fundamental questions: What does it cost to live the way you want to live? What do you want to give? What do you want to leave behind? Add it up, subtract projected taxes, and what you get is a north star. A real number that tells you what the outcome actually needs to be. That clarity changes everything. It changes how you evaluate offers. It changes your timeline. It changes how much pressure you feel when a deal is moving. And it gives you the confidence to walk away from something that does not actually get you where you need to go. How to Make the Most of your Taxes We all don't like paying them. But with any successful business, the government wants theirs. This one needs to be said plainly. The tax implications of how you sell your business are significant. And the strategies that can meaningfully change what you keep require decisions made well in advance of the transaction. Retirement account contributions made consistently throughout the growth stage reduce your tax burden today and build your personal balance sheet at the same time. Business structure decisions made early have direct implications for how the sale is taxed. And certain planning strategies, the ones that actually move the needle, require decisions long before you look to exit. By the time a deal is on the table and moving, most of those doors are already closed. What could have been planned around becomes something that has to be absorbed. If you are building toward an exit, this conversation needs to start now. So much so, that we have a blog post on tax strategies for business owners. Stage Three: Life After the Exit Have You Thought About What Comes Next? This is the part of the conversation most founders are not having and oftentimes gets overlooked. But honestly, it is arguably the most important. Here is what we have seen play out. You sell your business and the money hits your account. You are "financially free," but deep down, something is missing. The thing that drove you, the building, the problem solving, the chase of growing something from nothing, is no longer there. And for a lot of our founders, that is harder to navigate than anything that happened during the business itself. Your identity was tied to your business and now that it's no longer there,. You feel lost. What we have seen is that the founders who navigate this well are the ones who had a financial plan running alongside the business the entire time. So that when the exit came, they were not scrambling on the money side while also trying to figure out who they are next. It means you can take real time before making any major decisions. You do not have to rush into the next thing because the pressure of the money demands it. You can be thoughtful about what the next chapter actually looks like, whether that is starting something new, investing in others who are building, giving back, or simply living the life the business was always supposed to fund. That is what the personal plan, the one that ran alongside the business the entire time, actually makes possible. Not just a better outcome at the table. The freedom to figure out what comes next on your own terms. Final Thought If you are in the growth stage, building something real and thinking about where it eventually goes, here is what we would ask you. What does your personal financial picture look like, independent of what this business is worth? If that question creates any uncertainty, it is worth a conversation with a wealth advisor specializing in helping entrepreneurs. The earlier it happens, the more options you have. That is exactly the work we do with founders at Moment Private Wealth. We build the personal plan alongside the business so that when the exit comes, and when life after begins, you are ready for both. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I receive frequently from entrepreneurs. When should I start building my personal financial plan as a founder? The earlier the better. The founders who feel most secure at exit are the ones who were quietly building something on the personal side the entire time, not scrambling to catch up when a deal is on the table. Our role at Moment Private Wealth is to help you build that structure. How does Moment Private Wealth help business owners with taxes? Moment Private Wealth serves clients by running quarterly tax projections. Additionally, the firm works directly with your CPA to ensure all parties are on the same page, estimates are known and communicated to be paid in advance of deadlines. Can Moment Private Wealth help business owners with succession planning? Yes, this is part of creating a roadmap for your goals. Having first-hand knowledge of selling a business will allow you confidence throughout the process. Many business owners get one chance to sell a business. Having a firm that can help is key. What does your average client look like? Our clients are nearly all athletes and business owners. Our average client has a net worth greater than $5M. The strategies, solutions, and planning that we implement have a high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth client in mind. Can Moment Private Wealth help set up retirement accounts for me as a business owner? Moment Private Wealth uses Fidelity Investments as a third-party custodian for our client investment accounts. As a result, Moment is able to open IRAs, Solo 401(k)s and Defined Benefit plans and help manage those investments on your behalf. Why should I consider hiring Moment Private Wealth? Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn’t hire us. If you’re looking for an advisor who will pitch shiny object investments or be a “yes man” you are in the wrong place. Why? Because we believe in being truth tellers and only giving advice that we take ourselves. The investments, strategies, and planning we do are all things our advisors do with their own money. If you are an athlete or business owner interested in things like lowering your tax bill, investing smarter, and finding a trusted partner we might be a good fit. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

Picture this. You just finished a brutal loss. The locker room is quiet. Reporters are waiting outside. Your phone is blowing up. And underneath all of it, you feel something you cannot quite name — not just disappointment, but a kind of emptiness that has been building for months. You are making more money than most people will see in a lifetime. And yet something feels off. That feeling is more common than the league wants to admit. The International Olympic Committee's 2019 consensus statement on mental health in elite athletes, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that mental health disorders affect between 5% and 35% of elite athletes across prospective studies. You are not weak for feeling it. You are human. And knowing how to safeguard your mental health as a professional athlete is one of the most important skills you can develop, for your performance, your relationships, and your life after sport. In this blog, I am going to break down the mental health challenges unique to professional athletes, what your league is actually required to provide you, and the practical steps that move the needle. Why Mental Health Is A Financial Issue Too Here is something most financial advisors will not tell you straight: your mental health and your financial health are the same game. When you are struggling mentally, your decision-making suffers. You become more vulnerable to bad investments, predatory advisors, impulsive spending, and short-term thinking. The research on this is clear. A National Bureau of Economic Research study tracked every NFL player drafted between 1996 and 2003 and found that 1 in 6 NFL players files for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring. Critically, career length and total earnings made almost no difference. Players who earned more were just as likely to go broke as players who earned less. Financial insecurity is also one of the top triggers of anxiety among athletes, particularly during contract negotiations, free agency, and the years immediately following retirement. A proactive mental health strategy is not just good self-care. It is a competitive edge and a financial safeguard. Both need to be part of your playbook. The Unique Mental Health Challenges Athletes Face Mental health challenges in sports are not the same as those in the general population. Your situation comes with a specific set of pressures that most people never face. Identity Tied To Performance From a young age, your entire identity has been built around your sport. When performance dips, injury strikes, or the final buzzer sounds on your career, it can trigger a deep identity crisis. You are not just losing playing time. You feel like you are losing yourself. A 2025 peer-reviewed study tracking 138 retiring elite athletes across 28 sports disciplines found that athletic identity declined by an average of 32% in the first three months post-retirement, with depression and anxiety symptoms peaking at that same three-month mark. This is not a metaphor. It is a measurable psychological event. And athletes who have built no identity outside of sport face the steepest drop when it arrives. Constant Public Scrutiny Every game is analyzed. Every contract is public knowledge. Social media puts a microscope on every aspect of your life. That level of external judgment is unlike anything most people ever experience, and it compounds over a career in ways that quietly erode mental health long before an athlete recognizes what is happening. Isolation and Trust Issues Wealth and fame make genuine relationships harder to build. Athletes frequently report feeling isolated, unsure who truly has their best interests at heart. The same environment that makes it hard to trust people financially makes it hard to trust people personally. Those two problems feed each other directly. The Career Cliff The average NFL career lasts approximately 3.3 years, according to the NFLPA. NBA careers average around 4.5 years. Most professional athletes retire before age 40. The abrupt loss of structure, teammates, purpose, and routine that follows is one of the most significant mental health events in an athlete's life. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis published in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine found that anxiety and depression are the most common mental health disorders in retired elite athletes, occurring at more than twice the rate of the general population. The transition out of sport is not a footnote. It is a documented mental health risk event, and athletes who are not prepared for it pay a real price. This is not a worst-case scenario. This is the norm. And it does not have to be. What Your League Is Required To Provide You Most athletes are sitting on mental health resources they have never used. Here is a breakdown of what each major league has built into the CBA. NBA Mental Health Resources The NBA and NBPA formalized their mental health mandate requiring all 30 teams to retain a licensed clinical social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist on staff as a team mental health clinician. The program operates independently of team management, which means what you share cannot be passed to coaches, front office staff, or ownership without your explicit consent. The NBPA also appointed its first-ever Director of Mental Health and Wellness and maintains a directory of vetted mental health practitioners in every NBA market city. Please note: These services are fully confidential and protected under HIPAA. Your team's clinician works for your wellbeing, not for the front office. Key resources available to you: Licensed mental health clinician required at every franchise NBPA Player Wellness program with independent counselors Mental health practitioner directory covering every NBA market Culturally competent care requirements written into the program NFL Mental Health Resources The NFL and NFLPA built their Behavioral Health Program into the 2020 CBA, establishing a network of independent Behavioral Health Clinicians who are employed by the program, not by individual teams. 1) NFL Total Wellness Program Provides access to mental health professionals for current players, former players, families, and coaching staff. Services extend beyond your playing career into retirement. 2) NFL Life Line A 24/7 confidential crisis support line available to all active and former players. This resource does not report to the league or to teams. 3) NFLPA Player Assistance Program Provides confidential access to behavioral health providers who are fully independent of team structure. Please note: The Behavioral Health Clinicians assigned to each team are not employed by that team. They report to the program, not to ownership or coaching staff. MLB Mental Health Resources Major League Baseball codified mental health requirements in the 2022 CBA, requiring all 30 clubs to employ a behavioral health clinician on staff. The MLB Player Assistance Program (PAP) provides confidential support for players and their immediate families. Key resources available to you: Behavioral health clinician required at every MLB club MLB PAP covering mental health counseling, substance use support, and crisis intervention Services extend to immediate family members Zero impact on playing status or contract negotiations Please note: Seeking support through the MLB PAP has no bearing on your roster status, playing time, or contract. This protection is written directly into the 2022 CBA. NHL Mental Health Resources The NHL and NHLPA operate the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, offering confidential access to mental health professionals, addiction counseling, and family support services for both current and former players. Key resources available to you: Confidential mental health counseling through the Player Assistance Program Addiction and substance use support Family services for immediate family members Resources specifically available to retired players Practical Strategies To Protect Your Mental Health Resources only help if you use them. Here are the habits that actually move the needle. Treat Mental Training Like Physical Training You would not skip the weight room for six months and expect to perform at a high level. The same logic applies to your mind. Elite athletes who work consistently with a sports psychologist or mental performance coach build the kind of psychological resilience that holds up under pressure. This is not crisis therapy. It is performance optimization. Year-round consistency is what separates athletes who thrive from those who just survive. Build An Identity Outside The Sport This is the single highest-leverage thing you can do before retirement. Invest in relationships, business interests, causes, and pursuits that have nothing to do with your sport. Athletes who build this kind of depth do not just retire better. They compete better, because their self-worth is not entirely riding on every game. Working with a financial advisor who understands the full arc of an athlete's career is part of this equation. When your financial future is secured and planned, your sense of stability does not collapse every time you have a bad stretch on the field. Limit Social Media During The Season You cannot control what people say about you. You can control how much of it you consume. Many professional athletes have made a deliberate decision to reduce or eliminate social media during the season. Given the volume and intensity of public commentary athletes face, limiting that exposure is one of the fastest and lowest-cost mental health decisions you can make. Build A Trusted Inner Circle Surround yourself with people who have nothing to gain from your success or failure. A therapist. A mentor who has been through what you are going through. A financial advisor with a fiduciary obligation to act in your best interest. Close friends who knew you before the contract. The quality of your inner circle directly impacts both your mental health and your financial outcomes. Plan For The Transition Before It Happens The career cliff is real, but it is not a surprise. Research consistently shows that athletes who build a post-career identity, cultivate outside interests, and establish a financial foundation while still playing experience significantly better outcomes in retirement, both mentally and financially. That means developing interests outside sport now. It means financial planning that accounts for a career that could end tomorrow due to injury. And it means working with advisors who have guided dozens of athletes through this exact transition. Read our full guide to retirement planning for professional athletes to see what a comprehensive post-career plan looks like. The Link Between Financial Security and Mental Health This connection is worth saying plainly, because it rarely gets said directly. Financial stress is one of the leading triggers of mental health decline among professional athletes. The two are not separate problems. They are the same problem showing up in different ways. An athlete who is anxious about money cannot focus. An athlete who is struggling mentally cannot make sound financial decisions. The spiral runs both directions. The NBER study referenced above makes the financial picture undeniable: 1 in 6 NFL players files for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement, with career earnings and length offering almost no protection. Income alone does not create financial security. A deliberate, well-managed plan built for the realities of an athlete's career does. And building that plan early is one of the most direct things you can do to protect your mental health for the long term. Learn what a complete financial strategy looks like in our guide to wealth management for professional athletes. What Next? Mental health is not a weakness to manage. It is a foundation to build. The athletes who take it seriously give themselves a real advantage, on the court, on the field, and in the decades that follow. If you are navigating the pressures of a professional career and want to make sure your financial plan is not adding to your mental load, schedule a call with a Moment Founder today. Schedule a Call With Moment Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Is it normal for professional athletes to struggle with mental health? Yes, and the research is clear. The International Olympic Committee's consensus statement on mental health in elite athletes found that mental health disorders affect between 5% and 35% of elite athletes in prospective studies, with anxiety, depression, and burnout among the most commonly reported. The unique combination of performance pressure, public scrutiny, short career windows, and identity attachment creates risks most people never face. Struggling does not mean you are weak. It means you are playing a game that takes a real psychological toll. Will seeking mental health support affect my playing status or contract? In all four major leagues, mental health resources provided through the players association or the league's behavioral health programs are confidential and protected under HIPAA. Your team's mental health clinician cannot share what you discuss with coaches, front office staff, or ownership without your explicit consent. In MLB specifically, this confidentiality protection is written directly into the 2022 CBA. Seeking help has no bearing on your roster status or contract. If you are uncertain about your specific league's policies, contact your players association directly. What is the connection between financial planning and mental health for athletes? Financial insecurity is one of the top triggers of mental health decline among professional athletes. A National Bureau of Economic Research study found that 1 in 6 NFL players files for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement, regardless of how long they played or how much they earned. The stress of financial uncertainty corrodes mental health over time. A clear, proactive financial plan reduces that stress directly and gives you the stability to focus on what you do best. When should I start building an identity outside of sport? Now, regardless of where you are in your career. Research tracking retiring elite athletes across 28 sports found that athletic identity drops by an average of 32% in the first three months post-retirement, with depression and anxiety symptoms peaking at that same point. Athletes who develop outside interests, relationships, and a financial plan before retirement consistently report smoother transitions. You do not need to be thinking about retiring soon to start building that foundation. How do I access the mental health resources my league provides? Start with your players association. Every major league has a dedicated mental health or player assistance program that operates independently of team management. Your team's staff can also connect you with the licensed clinician required to be on staff at your franchise. If you prefer resources entirely outside the league structure, ask a trusted advisor or agent for referrals to professionals who specialize in working with elite athletes. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

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 finish did the rest. Van Rooyen ended the year 132nd in the FedEx Cup standings, and because every player ranked 126th–150th gets a retirement contribution, that finish added another $85,000 to his account. Add it up: a quiet, no-win season still funneled roughly $128,000 into retirement, on top of every dollar he earned in prize money. That's the magic of this plan. You don't have to win. You just have to show up and compete. As a professional golfer, you need to understand the frameworks at work here. What benefits do players get? How do players know if they are eligible? What do players need to do to access those benefits? What should players look out for? There is a lot to focus on inside the ropes. But understanding the money the Tour is setting aside on your behalf is just as important as your next tee shot. In this article, I'm going to break down everything a PGA Tour player needs to understand about the PGA Tour Retirement Plan in 2026. At Moment, we work with professional athletes that are participating in their sports retirement plan. The PGA Tour Retirement Plan Before we get into the specifics, it's important to understand how this plan is built, because it works nothing like a traditional pension. The PGA Tour Retirement Plan is a non-qualified deferred compensation plan. In plain English, it's a pool of money the Tour sets aside for players, invests on their behalf, and pays out later in life. How healthy is it? As of year-end 2024, 372 players had retirement balances north of $1 million. Of that group, 179 had balances of $3 million or more and that's on top of on-course winnings and endorsements. The Tour has contributed roughly $47 million per year to player retirement accounts in each of the last four years. That's real money. And most of it shows up automatically just for showing up and competing. There are three parts to the program: The "Cuts" Plan (funded by the Tour) The FedEx Cup Bonus Plan (funded by the Tour) The Supplemental Plan (funded by you, optional) The first two are automatic. You don't have to do anything to receive contributions other than play and perform. The third is optional and comes out of your own earnings. Let's break down all three. How Do Players Qualify? Unlike leagues with rosters and contracts, qualifying here comes down to two things: being a PGA Tour member and playing enough golf. The two automatic, Tour-funded buckets each have their own trigger: The Cuts Plan requires you to play a minimum of 15 events in a season to start earning contributions. The FedEx Cup Bonus Plan rewards players based on where you finish in the season-long FedEx Cup standings. Think of it like this: First, you have to earn PGA Tour status. Second, you have to tee it up, at least 15 times a season to unlock the Cuts Plan. Third, the better you play and the higher you finish, the more the Tour sets aside for you. No "credited seasons." No vesting clock counting to three. On Tour, your play is your eligibility. As financial advisors for professional athletes, we ensure all players' are taking advantage of all beenfits included in the their 401k plan. The "Cuts" Plan This is the engine of the whole thing, and it's one of the most underrated benefits in pro sports. Here's how it works. If you play in at least 15 events in a season, the Tour contributes a set dollar amount to your retirement account for every cut you make. In 2024, that amount was roughly $5,000 per cut (the Tour calls each one a "point"). But here's the kicker that rewards the grinders: For your first 15 made cuts in a season, you earn 1 point (~$5,000) per cut. For every made cut after 15, you earn 2 points (~$10,000) per cut. Play a full schedule, make a lot of cuts, and the money piles up fast. A real example: In 2024, the Cuts Plan leader wasn't a household name at the top of the money list. It was Mark Hubbard, who made 26 cuts in 30 starts. That earned him 37 contribution points, roughly $187,881 in a single season, dropped straight into his retirement account. Make 20 cuts a year for a decade and you can see how a journeyman builds a multi-million-dollar nest egg without ever winning a major. When can you access it? You can begin drawing on your Cuts Plan money at age 50, as long as you're no longer an active player on the PGA Tour or PGA Tour Champions. You must begin taking it by age 60, though you can leave it invested and growing in the meantime. The FedEx Cup Bonus Plan This is the bucket that makes headlines. A portion of the season-ending FedEx Cup bonus money doesn't go straight into a player's pocket, it gets deferred into their retirement account. The model traces back to 2008, when the Tour set it up so the FedEx Cup champion would receive a split: cash now, plus a chunk deferred for retirement. That basic structure is still in place today. A real example: When Scottie Scheffler won the FedEx Cup in August 2024 and earned $25 million, $1 million of that was automatically deferred into his retirement account. And it's not just the champion. A portion of the year-end bonuses is deferred for all 30 players who advance to the Tour Championship. Players who don't advance but still finish in the top 150 of the FedEx Cup also earn a piece of the deferred pie. When can you access it? You can begin collecting your FedEx Cup deferred money at age 45, provided you're no longer active. Players typically collect it over a five-year period. The Supplement Plan The first two buckets are gifts from the Tour. This one is on you, and a lot of players leave it on the table. The Supplemental Plan lets you defer a portion of your own earned income into a tax-advantaged retirement account, up to the maximum the IRS allows each year (around $24,500 in 2026; it was $23,000 in 2024). Why bother? Two reasons: Immediate tax savings. Money you defer comes off your taxable income for the year. In the top federal bracket, deferring the max can save you north of $8,000 in federal tax — before you even factor in state tax savings. Tax-deferred growth. Those dollars get invested and grow tax-deferred until you pull them out. One thing to watch: If you don't actively choose your investments, many of these plans default you into a generic placeholder fund. These accounts will eventually make up a meaningful slice of your net worth — they deserve a real investment strategy, not an autopilot setting. A Few Other Benefits Working: The retirement plan is the headliner, but it's not the whole package. As a Tour member, you may also have access to: The Earnings Assurance Program — Since 2023, fully exempt players are guaranteed to earn at least $500,000 in a season, with rookies and Korn Ferry graduates able to take it as an up-front stipend. Health insurance subsidy — The Tour subsidizes premiums on quality health plans (note: the subsidized amount counts as taxable income to you). Disability insurance — Coverage of up to $10,000 per month is provided automatically based on your earnings over the prior three seasons, after a six-month elimination period. Each of these has its own rules and tax wrinkles, which is exactly why a specialist in athlete wealth management is worth having in your corner. As financial advisors for athletes, we run yearly analyses on the three options for players to ensure our athletes are choosing the correct plan. What Next? Making it to the PGA Tour is an achievement few ever reach. Don't leave the benefits you've earned sitting unmanaged. All too often, we see talented players who have no idea how much the Tour is setting aside on their behalf, or how to make the most of it. At Moment Private Wealth, we make sure you understand every benefit available to you, and we build a strategy around them that fits your life and your career. If you're a PGA Tour player and want to better understand your retirement benefits, at Moment Private Wealth we work with professional athletes just like this. If you are a PGA Tour player and want to understand the PGA Tour retirement plan schedule a call, and talk with a Moment founder. IF you are an professional athlete in another sport like baseball, we can show you your best options when enrolling into the MLB 401k Plan. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. How does a player qualify for the PGA Tour Retirement Plan? You qualify by holding PGA Tour membership and competing. The two automatic, Tour-funded buckets are triggered by play: the Cuts Plan requires a minimum of 15 events in a season, and the FedEx Cup Bonus Plan rewards players based on their year-end FedEx Cup finish. How much does the Tour contribute per cut? In 2024, roughly $5,000 per made cut for your first 15 cuts, then roughly $10,000 per cut for every made cut after that, as long as you've played at least 15 events. What age can players access the money? FedEx Cup Bonus money can be accessed starting at age 45 (if no longer active). Cuts Plan money can be accessed starting at age 50 and must begin by age 60. IS there a player funded option? Yes. The optional Supplemental Plan lets you defer your own income up to the IRS limit each year (around $24,500 in 2026) for immediate tax savings and tax-deferred growth How do you work with other members of my team? We believe in the power of the team. For most of our clients, their team consists of Moment Private Wealth, an accountant, an attorney, a banker, and an insurance specialist. We help our clients build out their team of individuals or work with existing partners that clients have. Our goal is to ensure every family has a team of experts to protect their interests. How generous is the plan, really? As of year-end 2024, 372 players had retirement balances over $1 million, and 179 of those were over $3 million, all in addition to their on-course and endorsement earnings. What does your average client look like? Our clients are nearly all athletes and entrepreneurs. Our average client has a net worth greater than $10M. The strategies, solutions, and planning that we implement have a high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth client in mind. Why should I consider hiring Moment Private Wealth? Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn’t hire us. If you’re looking for an advisor who will pitch shiny object investments or be a “yes man” you are in the wrong place. Why? Because we believe in being truth tellers and only giving advice that we take ourselves. The investments, strategies, and planning we do are all things our advisors do with their own money. If you are an athlete or entrepreneur interested in things like lowering your tax bill, investing smarter, and finding a trusted partner, we might be a good fit. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

The 2026 Reality Check Most business owners treat tax season as a historical reporting event. In 2026, if you aren't planning proactively, you are likely overpaying. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has restored some massive benefits like 100% Bonus Depreciation but it also introduced "High Earner Penalties" that can strip away your deductions if your Modified AGI exceeds $500,000. If you are a business owner, this blog is for you. It will outline 5 simple ways to reduce your tax bill in 2026. No fluff, just simple strategies you can implement. Here are each of the strategies we will review in detail in this blog. The Strategy What You Get The 2026 Bottom Line The Retirement "Stack" Massive immediate income deduction Combine 401(k) and Cash Balance plans to shelter $370k+ Entity Optimization Payroll & capital gains savings Utilize S-Corps for SE tax or C-Corps for the $15M QSBS exclusion Real Estate Engine Accelerated "paper" losses Use 100% Bonus Depreciation and REPS status to offset active income SALT Cap Bypass Unlimited state tax deduction Beat the $40,400 cap phase-out with a Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) election Year-End Timing Tactical control of tax liability Defer revenue and accelerate expenses using Cash Method accounting Are you looking for more... Check out Moment's complete tax planning guide here. 1. Retirement Plans: The "Stacking" Strategy Most business owners under-utilize retirement vehicles, viewing them as simple savings accounts rather than the massive tax-shielding tools they are. By layering different plan types, you can create a "stack" that shelters hundreds of thousands of dollars from the IRS. Solo 401(k) (2026 Limits): Employee Deferral: $24,500. This is the amount you can contribute as an employee of your own business. Total Limit (Employee + Employer): $72,000. Your business can contribute additional "employer" funds, typically up to 25% of your compensation, as long as the total doesn't exceed this cap. Catch-Up (Age 50+): $8,000 (Total: $80,000). "Super" Catch-Up (Age 60–63): Under the latest provisions, if you fall into this specific age bracket, your catch-up limit increases to $11,250, bringing your total potential 401(k) contribution to $83,250. Defined Benefit / Cash Balance Plans: The Heavy Hitter: These plans function like a "private pension" for the business owner. They allow for significantly higher contributions than a 401(k) because they are based on the "benefit" you want to receive at retirement rather than a flat contribution cap. 2026 Limits: For 2026, the maximum annual benefit limit has been raised to $290,000. The Strategy: By "stacking" a Cash Balance plan on top of a 401(k), a business owner in their 50s can often deduct $250,000 to $400,000+ in a single year, effectively wiping out the tax bill on a massive portion of their income. The 2026 Advantage: Immediate Vesting: In many of these owner-only structures, you are 100% "vested" in the contributions from day one, meaning the money is yours immediately and cannot be taken back by the plan. Tax-Deferred Growth: Every dollar put into these plans grows tax-free until you withdraw it in retirement, which, as many owners find, is often a time when they are in a much lower tax bracket. Your takeaway should be reviewing your retirement plan strategy. If you haven't looked at it for a while, you are likely leaving money on the table. 2. Choosing the Right Engine: S-Corp, Partnership, or C-Corp? Your entity structure isn’t just a legal checkbox, it’s the engine that determines how much of your hard-earned revenue actually lands in your pocket. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) has introduced new incentives and traps for 2026, making it critical to match your entity to your long-term goals. S-Corporations: The Cash Flow King For most profitable service businesses and mid-sized operations, the S-Corp remains the gold standard for annual tax savings. Self-Employment Tax Savings: Unlike a sole proprietorship, where 100% of your profit is hit with a 15.3% self-employment tax, an S-Corp allows you to split income. You pay yourself a "reasonable salary" (subject to payroll tax) and take the rest as a "distribution" (exempt from self-employment tax). The 2026 Math: If your business clears $400,000 and you set a reasonable salary of $150,000, you only pay social security and medicare taxes on that $150k. The remaining $250k is distributed tax-free from a self-employment perspective, saving you roughly $9,500 to $12,000 every single year. PTET Efficiency: S-Corps are perfectly positioned to utilize the Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) election, allowing you to bypass the personal SALT cap phase-outs that now kick in at $500,000 of income. Partnerships: Maximum Flexibility If your business has multiple owners or complex profit-sharing arrangements, the Partnership structure offers a level of customization that other entities can't match. Special Allocations: Unlike S-Corps, which must distribute profit strictly according to ownership percentage, Partnerships can allocate "special" distributions or losses to specific partners. This is a massive tool if one owner needs the tax write-off more than another. Step-Up in Basis: Partnerships allow for a "Section 754" election. If an owner exits or a new one buys in, the business can "step up" the basis of its assets to the current market value, creating fresh depreciation deductions for the remaining owners. 100% Bonus Depreciation: Because the OBBBA made 100% bonus depreciation permanent, Partnerships can pass massive immediate write-offs from equipment or real estate directly to partners' personal returns. C-Corporations: The Exit Strategy & The $15M QSBS Exclusion For the first time in decades, the C-Corp is becoming a preferred choice for high-growth businesses due to the massive expansion of Section 1202, also known as Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS). The $15M Windfall: Under the OBBBA, stock issued after July 4, 2025, now carries an increased federal capital gains exclusion of $15 million (up from $10M). The $75M Asset Test: The OBBBA raised the "Gross Asset Test" limit to $75 million, meaning your business can grow much larger and still issue tax-free stock to founders and early employees. Tiered Exclusions: You no longer need to wait 5 full years for a benefit. The 2026 rules allow for a 50% exclusion after only 3 years and a 75% exclusion after 4 years. The Double Taxation Trap: While the C-Corp is the "Holy Grail" for exits, it remains inefficient for businesses that want to distribute annual cash flow. You are taxed at the corporate level, and again at the personal level when you take a dividend. Use a C-Corp if you are building to sell, not if you are building to fund a lifestyle. Don't settle for simply filing your tax return in 2026. Let this be the year that you review your entity structure. After all, this could be the difference in your paying millions of extra dollars to the IRS. 3. Real Estate: Maximizing 100% Bonus Depreciation and REPS For business owners, real estate shouldn't just be an investment; it should be a strategic tax engine. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) permanently restored 100% Bonus Depreciation, reversing the previous phase-down and creating a powerful avenue to offset high active income. The "Permanent" 100% Bonus Depreciation Under the OBBBA, the ability to immediately expense the full cost of qualifying property is now a permanent fixture of the tax code. Immediate Write-Offs: You can deduct 100% of the cost of qualifying equipment and property components with a "useful life" of 20 years or less in the year they are placed in service. Cost Segregation Studies: This is the technical linchpin. A study identifies and reclassifies portions of your real estate (like lighting, flooring, or landscaping) from a 39-year or 27.5-year recovery period into 5, 7, or 15-year buckets. These accelerated buckets qualify for 100% bonus depreciation, allowing you to front-load decades of deductions into Year 1. Unlocking the "REPS" Shield The most common trap for business owners is having massive "paper losses" from depreciation that they cannot use because the IRS classifies rental activity as "passive." To use these losses to offset your active business income, you must qualify as a Real Estate Professional (REPS). The 750-Hour Rule: You (or your spouse, if filing jointly) must spend more than 750 hours per year in real property trades or businesses. The >50% Rule: You must spend more than half of your total working time in real estate. For many business owners, this is the hardest hurdle. Material Participation: Beyond REPS status, you must "materially participate" in each specific rental property (typically 100–500 hours depending on the test used) to convert the loss from passive to active. The Short-Term Rental (STR) Loophole If you cannot meet the REPS hour requirements due to your primary business, the STR Loophole offers a technical workaround. The 7-Day Rule: If the average stay at your property is 7 days or less, the IRS does not classify it as a "rental activity" under Section 469. Active Offset: If you materially participate in the STR, the resulting depreciation losses are considered "active" and can offset your W-2 or K-1 income, even if you don't qualify as a full-time Real Estate Professional.3. Real Estate: 100% Bonus Depreciation is Permanent Real estate can be an amazing tax strategy, but you need to make sure you aren't doing it only for tax benefits. A bad real estate deal can wipe you out if you aren't careful. 4. Bypassing the 2026 SALT Cap and the "High Earner" Trap One of the most significant changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) is the permanent extension of the SALT (State and Local Tax) deduction cap, combined with a temporary "bump" that features a sharp sting for high-income business owners. The 2026 SALT Calculation: $40,400 with a Catch While the headlines celebrate the increase of the SALT cap to $40,400 for the 2026 tax year, the law introduces a "High Earner Penalty" that can quickly erode these benefits. The Phase-Out Threshold: The $40,400 cap is only fully available to joint filers with a Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) below $505,000. The 30% Haircut: For every dollar your income exceeds this threshold, your SALT deduction is reduced by 30 cents. The Floor: This phase-out continues until your deduction hits $10,000, which serves as the permanent floor for the deduction regardless of how high your income goes. The Result: If your MAGI hits $606,334 or higher, your SALT deduction is effectively reset to the old $10,000 limit, making the "increase" completely irrelevant for many successful business owners. The PTET Strategy: Shifting from Personal to Entity To counter this, business owners should utilize the Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) election, which the OBBBA explicitly left intact. Unlimited Federal Deduction: When your S-Corp or Partnership makes a PTET election, the state taxes are paid at the entity level rather than the individual level. Above the Line Benefit: Because these are considered business expenses, they are 100% deductible on your federal return and are not subject to the $40,400 personal SALT cap or the $505,000 phase-out. Self-Employment Tax Savings: For partnerships, paying tax at the entity level reduces the net distributive share of income, which can also lower your self-employment (SE) tax liability. Unlocking the Standard Deduction By moving your state tax burden to the business entity via PTET, you may find that your remaining personal itemized deductions (like mortgage interest) fall below the $32,200 standard deduction for joint filers. The "Double Dip": You essentially get to "double dip" by taking a full business deduction for your state taxes via PTET and still claiming the full standard deduction on your personal return. 2026 Bonus: Starting in 2026, the OBBBA also allows a new above-the-line charitable deduction of up to $2,000 for joint filers who do not itemize, further increasing the value of this strategy. If you are in a high-income tax state like California or New York, look into this early in the year. There can be special state rules that you need to follow earlier in the year. 5. Year-End Timing: Cash vs. Accrual and the "Check-in-Hand" Rule If your business has under ~$30M in receipts, you likely qualify for the Cash Method of accounting. This is arguably the most powerful lever you have for year-end tax planning because it allows you to control the exact moment income is recognized and expenses are deducted. The Power of Revenue Deferral Under the cash method, income is generally not taxed until it is "actually or constructively" received. This creates a massive window for strategic timing as December 31st approaches. The Invoicing Strategy: If you have a high-income year and want to push tax liability into 2027, delay your final December billings until the very end of the month. If the client doesn't pay until January, that income is not taxable on your 2026 return. The Constructive Receipt Trap: A common mistake business owners make is holding a check in their desk drawer. If a client hands you a check on December 30th, the IRS considers that "constructive receipt." Even if you don't walk into the bank until January 2nd, that money is taxable in 2026 because it was available to you. To truly defer income, the payment must not be in your possession by midnight on New Year's Eve. Accelerating Expenses: The 12 Month Rule Conversely, you can "pull forward" 2027 expenses into 2026 to lower your current tax bill. Pre-Paying Operations: You can pre-pay for up to 12 months of insurance, software subscriptions, or rent. As long as the benefit doesn't extend beyond one year, the IRS allows you to deduct the full amount in the year you pay it. Inventory and Supplies: If you know you’ll need $50,000 in supplies for Q1 of 2027, buying them in late December 2026 creates an immediate deduction. Year-End Bonuses: Timing is Everything Bonuses are a dual-purpose tool: they reward your team and provide a significant tax shield for the business. However, the timing rules differ based on your entity structure. S-Corps and Partnerships: For owners and "related parties," the bonus must be paid (and the check must be out of your hands) by December 31st to count as a 2026 deduction. C-Corporations: C-Corps have a slight advantage; they can sometimes deduct bonuses in 2026 even if they aren't paid until early 2027 (specifically within 2.5 months of year-end), provided the obligation was "fixed and determinable" by year-end. The Strategy: If you are having a banner year, increasing your year-end bonus pool is one of the fastest ways to lower your business's net profit and your personal tax bill while investing back into your company's most valuable asset: your people.5. Mastering the Cash Method Timing If you are a business owner looking to better understand tax planning, schedule a call and talk with a Moment founder. Not sure what questions to ask, check out this video on 10 questions you should ask when interviewing a financial advisor. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Is the SALT cap really $40,000 now? Yes, it is indexed to $40,400 for 2026, but high earners (> $500k AGI) will see this deduction reduced by 30% of the excess income. Can I still use PTET if the SALT cap is higher? Yes. In fact, it is more important for high earners because the PTET bypasses the new phase-outs that apply to the personal SALT deduction. What is the "Super" catch-up for 401(k)s? Starting in 2025/2026, business owners aged 60, 61, 62, or 63 can contribute an increased catch-up amount (approximately $11,250) instead of the standard $8,000. Does 100% Bonus Depreciation apply to everything? No. It applies to assets with a "useful life" of 20 years or less. It does not apply to the structural building of a rental property, though a Cost Segregation Study can help you find components that do qualify. How do I qualify for the $15M QSBS exclusion? You must hold stock in a domestic C-Corp with less than $75M in gross assets at issuance for at least 5 years. However, the OBBBA now allows for partial exclusions (50–75%) if you sell after only 3 or 4 years. Can I pay my kids to lower my taxes? Yes. You can pay your children for legitimate business work. For 2026, you can pay them up to the standard deduction (~$16,100) tax-free to them, while your business takes a full deduction at your higher tax bracket. When is the deadline for a 2026 Cash Balance Plan? The plan must generally be adopted by your tax filing deadline (including extensions), but it is best practice to have it established by December 31, 2026, to ensure the deduction is locked in. Is the 1099 reporting threshold still $600? No. The OBBBA officially raised the 1099-NEC reporting threshold to $2,000 for the 2026 tax year. Why should I use the Cash Method instead of Accrual? The Cash Method allows you to control the timing of your income. You only pay taxes when the money hits your bank account, which is better for your business's cash flow. How does the "High Earner Penalty" work on SALT? It is a "haircut" on your deduction. For joint filers, the $40,400 cap is reduced by 30 cents for every dollar your MAGI is over $500,000. This makes the PTET election the only way to get a full, uncapped state tax deduction. Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

The NFL Draft is one of the biggest moments in a football player’s life. It is also one of the most misunderstood moments from a financial standpoint. Draft weekend brings headlines, grades, and projections. What matters far more happens quietly over the next several years through contract structure, guaranteed money, tax planning, and long-term financial decisions. For a deeper dive into how we think about Wealth Management, specifically for athletes, make sure you check out our blog here. In this blog, I will break down the NFL Draft from start to finish and highlight what athletes and families should understand before draft weekend arrives. NFL Draft The NFL Draft is the league’s primary method for distributing incoming talent and maintaining competitive balance. The draft consists of seven rounds, with teams selecting eligible college players in an order largely based on the prior season’s standings. Teams that finished lower in the standings generally pick earlier. While draft position impacts opportunity, it also impacts compensation. That is because the NFL uses a league wide rookie wage scale that largely assigns contract values by draft slot. To fully understand the NFL Draft, you need to understand what is fixed, what is flexible, and where players and families can gain clarity before draft night. NFL Draft Eligibility A player becomes eligible for the NFL Draft once they are three years removed from high school. Most prospects enter after three or four college seasons, though eligibility is based on time rather than graduation status. Players must formally declare for the draft to be eligible. Once drafted, a player’s rights belong exclusively to the selecting team. NFL Draft Contracts NFL rookie contracts are governed by the Collective Bargaining Agreement and follow a league wide rookie wage scale. This is important because unlike veteran contracts, rookie compensation is largely predetermined by draft position. All drafted players sign four year contracts. First round picks also include a team controlled fifth year option. The primary area of negotiation in an NFL rookie contract is not how much the contract is worth. It is how much of that contract is guaranteed. As a general rule: First-round rookie contracts are fully guaranteed Most second-round contracts, particularly early second-round picks, are also largely or fully guaranteed As the draft progresses beyond Round 2, guaranteed money declines meaningfully and becomes more concentrated in signing bonuses NFL Rookie Contract Values By Draft Round Because rookie contracts are slotted, compensation follows a predictable pattern by round. As the draft moves forward, total contract value and guaranteed money decline. Below is a simplified round-by-round view of typical rookie contract ranges. Round Approx. Total Contract Value Signing Bonus Round 1 ~$16M–$55M ~$8M–$36M Round 2 ~$7.5M–$13M ~$2M–$6M Round 3 ~$6.6M–$7.2M ~$1.2M–$1.8M Round 4 ~$5M–$5.5M ~$750K–$1.2M Round 5 ~$4.6M–$5M ~$360K–$750K Round 6 ~$4.4M–$4.6M ~$200K–$360K Round 7 ~$4.3M–$4.4M ~$115K–$175K Signing Bonus vs. Salary While total contract value often receives the most attention, signing bonuses represent the most meaningful guaranteed money in an NFL rookie contract. Signing bonuses are typically paid upfront and are not dependent on weekly roster status. Base salaries are earned week to week and can be impacted by roster decisions or injuries. There is also an important tax distinction between signing bonuses and salary that many athletes and families overlook. In general, signing bonuses are taxed based on your state of residency at the time the bonus is paid, not the states where games are played. Base salary, however, is subject to so called jock tax rules and is allocated across the states where games and team activities occur. This difference can materially impact an athlete’s tax bill. For example, establishing residency in a low or no income tax state before a signing bonus is paid can result in significant tax savings compared to being domiciled in a high tax state. Over the course of a rookie contract, that planning decision alone can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. From a financial planning standpoint, signing bonuses form the foundation of an athlete’s early career strategy not just because they are guaranteed, but because when and where they are paid matters. Because signing bonuses are taxed based on residency, establishing proper state residency before draft night and before a contract is signed can be one of the most impactful planning decisions an athlete makes early in their career. Why Draft Position Matters Because rookie contracts are predetermined, even small differences in draft position can result in meaningful differences in guaranteed compensation. As draft position moves later, guaranteed money becomes more limited and financial margins tighten. This makes preparation and planning ahead of draft night increasingly important. Understanding how contracts change by round allows players and families to approach the draft with clarity rather than uncertainty. To put it in perspective, head over to YouTube to see how draft position can alter the state of NFL contracts HERE. Final Thoughts The NFL Draft is not just a football milestone. It is the starting point of an athlete’s professional and financial life. Draft position sets the structure. Planning determines the outcome. Understanding how rookie contracts work, where guaranteed money comes from, and how compensation changes across the draft allows athletes and families to make better decisions long after draft weekend ends. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. How many rounds are there in the NFL draft? In 2026, there are 7 rounds in the NFL draft. How long are NFL rookie contracts? Drafted players sign four year rookie contracts. First round picks also include a team controlled fifth year option. What part of an NFL rookie contract is negotiable? The total contract value is largely determined by draft slot under the rookie wage scale. The primary negotiable component is how much of the deal is guaranteed. Are signing bonuses taxed the same way as salary? In general, signing bonuses are taxed based on your state of residency at the time of payment, while base salary is typically allocated across states where games and team activities occur. How does Moment Private Wealth help NFL draftees? Our role in the draft process is to educate families about the financial elements of the draft and work with the players to maximize their signing bonus. Having walked in the player's shoes we know how hard it is to earn significant money in sports and our goal is to help players make the most of that. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

A professional golfer's apparel sponsorship portfolio is one of the most efficient wealth-building engines in sports. Unlike the NFL or NBA, where team-wide contracts dictate what you wear, a golfer is a walking billboard with full control over their inventory. When you see a player on a Sunday afternoon, every inch of their apparel from the front of the hat to the back of the collar has been negotiated, priced, and structured to maximize both cash flow and brand alignment. For the top 1% of the tour, these "off-course" earnings often dwarf their actual tournament winnings. For avid golf fans, we immediately think of guys like Billy Horschel or Jason day, who have had significant branding on their apparel throughout their career. Moment works with Athletes in these exact situations and understand how to best make it work. Billy Horschel is notorious for having an RLX sponsorhship and being featured in mutltiple TV commercials with them. The Logomap: Breaking Down On-Body Real Estate Not all space is created equal. Sponsors buy real estate based on "TV minutes"—the amount of time a logo is visible during a broadcast. The Front of the Hat: This is the "Anchor Tenant." It accounts for roughly 50% of a player’s total endorsement value because it’s in every close-up shot. For a Top-30 player, this deal is almost always seven figures and typically includes the bag and equipment. The Lead Sleeve: For a right-handed golfer, the left sleeve is prime real estate because it faces the camera during the setup and backswing. The right sleeve is often called the "Follow-Through" sleeve, less valuable, but a favorite for "lifestyle" brands. The Chest / Pocket: This is the traditional home for financial institutions and insurance companies. It’s professional, steady, and visible during post-round interviews. The Collar and Back of Neck: These are "niche" spots. They often command $100k to $500k for mid-tier pros and are highly visible during putting strokes when the player is looking down. If these deals are structured correctly, the money can be a large part of your career earnings. Payout Structures: Performance vs. Presence Most fans think these are flat-fee deals. They aren't. A sophisticated sponsorship contract is structured like a high-growth cap table: The Base: The guaranteed amount paid regardless of performance. The "Made Cut" Bonus: For many mid-tier pros, sponsors pay a small kicker just for playing all four days (ensuring weekend TV time). The OWGR Kicker: Payments triggered when a player moves into the Top 50, Top 20, or Top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking. The Major Bonus: Winning a Major (The Masters, U.S. Open, etc.) can quadruple a player’s base pay for that year through specific "escalator" clauses. As financial advisors for professional athletes, we have experience with athletes earning money off-the field. Why Golf is Different (NBA vs. PGA) In team sports, the league or team owns the "inventory." In the NBA, teams sell a single 2.5-inch "jersey patch" (like the Rakuten patch for the Warriors) for $10M–$30M per year. In golf, you are the team. You own the hat, the shirt, and the bag. This allows for "Stacking", the ability to sign five or six non-competing sponsors (e.g., a car company on the sleeve, a bank on the chest, and a watch on the wrist). Victor Hovalnd takes advantage of "stacking' logos with mutliple different corporate sponsors. The "Moment" Wealth Angle: Structuring the Billboard If you're a golfer making $2M in logo money, you aren't just an athlete—you're a corporation. We focus on two specific areas: S-Corp Structuring: By funneling endorsement income through an S-Corporation, players can split their income between a "reasonable salary" and "shareholder distributions." This significantly lowers the 15.3% self-employment tax hit. The "Jock Tax" Defense: Unlike tournament winnings, which are taxed in the state where the event is held, endorsement income can often be "sourced" to your home state. If you live in Florida or Arizona, that is a 0% state tax win on millions of dollars. The Short Answer Professional golfers are paid for logo placement through a combination of "Base Fees" (guaranteed cash) and "Performance Bonuses" (kicker payments for wins or Top-10 finishes). While a hat deal for a top player can exceed $3 million annually, the true value lies in how these 1099 contracts are structured through S-Corps to mitigate self-employment taxes and leverage QBI deductions As financial advisors for athletes, we run analyses on how to effecively structure income to minimize taxes. If you are a Professional athlete with questions related to earning off the field income schedule a call, and talk with a Moment founder. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Are you a fiduciary? Moment Private Wealth serves clients as a fiduciary 100% of the time. How does Moment Private Wealth make money? We are only paid in one transparent way, by our clients. We receive no kickbacks or participate in any profit-sharing arrangements. Our fees are simple, transparent, and clear for our clients. How does Moment specifically help professional athletes and golfers with brand income? We treat your off-field earnings like a business. Our team focuses on "income stacking," where we help you structure endorsement and NIL deals through entities like S-Corps to lower your self-employment tax. Because we specialize in athlete wealth management, we work alongside your agent to ensure that "on-field" and "off-field" teams are in sync to maximize your net take-home pay Why should an athlete or golfer choose a specialist like Moment over a traditional advisor? Professional sports have a "rocket ship" wealth arc with a limited fuel supply. Traditional advisors often lack the niche expertise needed to navigate league-specific benefits like the MLB pension, NFL annuity, or the "Jock Tax" across multiple states. As a firm founded by a former MLB player, we’ve walked in your shoes and built the specialist team we wanted during our own careers—one that prioritizes conflict-free advice and focuses on long-term wealth preservation. How do you work with other members of my team? We believe in the power of the team. For most of our clients, their team consists of Moment Private Wealth, an accountant, an attorney, a banker, and an insurance specialist. We help our clients build out their team of individuals or work with existing partners that clients have. Our goal is to ensure every family has a team of experts to protect their interests. How do you choose investments for clients? As independent financial advisors, we can gather research and make recommendations based on all available options. We determine clients’ portfolios in partnership with some of the largest asset managers in the world. Each quarter, we have calls with teams of CFA (Chartered Financial Analysts) to ensure our clients are receiving the most up-to-date strategies and recommendations. What does your average client look like? Our clients are nearly all athletes and entrepreneurs. Our average client has a net worth greater than $10M. The strategies, solutions, and planning that we implement have a high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth client in mind. Why should I consider hiring Moment Private Wealth? Great question! But first, let us explain why you shouldn’t hire us. If you’re looking for an advisor who will pitch shiny object investments or be a “yes man” you are in the wrong place. Why? Because we believe in being truth tellers and only giving advice that we take ourselves. The investments, strategies, and planning we do are all things our advisors do with their own money. If you are an athlete or entrepreneur interested in things like lowering your tax bill, investing smarter, and finding a trusted partner, we might be a good fit. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. Moment Private Wealth

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've spent my career working with professional baseball players on exactly this. I've had the conversation too many times where a player or his family asks whether he qualified for the pension, and the answer comes down to a handful of days. That's a conversation nobody should be having after the fact. This guide breaks down everything MLB players and their families need to know about the MLB pension, how it works, and what it's actually worth. What Is the MLB Pension? The MLB pension plan dates back to 1947. It is the longest-running pension plan in professional sports and one of the best employer-sponsored pension plans in the country. The plan is negotiated through the Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLB owners and the MLBPA. Every player who qualifies receives a monthly payment for the rest of his life. The word "qualifies" holds a massive amount of importance. For more information on how the pension works, be sure to check out our piece, Everything You Need To Know About MLB Pensions How Qualifying Works: The 43-Day Rule To receive any pension benefit at all, a player must accumulate at least 43 days of MLB service time. Service time counts when a player is on the active 26-man roster or the MLB injured list. Days spent in the minor leagues do not count. Forty-three days equals one quarter of a full year of service. A full year is 172 days. The pension builds in quarters. Each quarter a player earns adds to his lifetime benefit. The plan maxes out at 40 quarters, or 10 years of service time. Here is what the pension is worth at full retirement age (62) based on 2026 figures: MLB Service Time Annual Pension Benefit (Age 62) 43 days (1 quarter) $7,250 per year 172 days (1 year) $29,000 per year 5 years $145,000 per year 10 years (maximum) $290,000 per year These numbers increase every year. The MLBPA projects an annual cost of living adjustment of approximately 1.8%, which means a $100,000 pension benefit becomes $101,800 the following year. At Moment Private Wealth, we run specific calculations for each player on when it makes the most sense to start taking pension benefits based on their full financial picture. To hear it another way, head over to YouTube and listen to how it all works Turning a Signing Bonus Into Generational Wealth. Early Access at Age 45 Players do not have to wait until age 62 to collect. The pension can be accessed as early as age 45, but taking it early comes with a permanent reduction. A player with 10 years of service who waits until age 62 collects $290,000 per year. That same player who starts taking it at 45 collects approximately $91,500 per year. That's a $198,500 annual difference. The right answer depends on a player's overall retirement plan. There is no universal rule. But it is a decision that needs to be made with a full picture of everything else in place, not in isolation. Health Benefits: A Separate Threshold The pension is not the only benefit tied to service time. Health coverage is a different calculation entirely. A player earns access to the MLB health care plan the moment he is added to the 40-man roster. That coverage is active while he is in the league. After four years of MLB service time, a retired player has the option to stay on the MLB health plan in retirement. The player pays the premiums himself, but the plan itself is one of the best available anywhere. For most retired players, it is significantly better than anything they could find on the open market. Health care is one of the most overlooked post-career expenses in athlete financial planning. Four years of service time changes that picture. What 43 Days Is Actually Worth Over a Lifetime Players sometimes hear $7,250 per year and think it's not that much. Run the numbers. A player who earns one quarter of service time at age 25 and starts collecting at age 62 has 20-plus years of payments ahead. With the 1.8% annual COLA adjustment compounding over that period, the lifetime value of a single quarter of service time is well into six figures. Multiply that by two quarters, three quarters, or more. Every day of service time has a dollar figure attached to it. Less than 10% of MLB players ever reach the 10-year maximum. That makes the value of every quarter even more important. Most players are building a partial pension, and the difference between 10 quarters and 14 quarters is not a small number over a lifetime. The Survivor Benefit: A Decision Most Players Aren't Ready For When a player retires and begins the pension election process, one of the most important decisions he makes is whether to elect a survivor benefit. The survivor benefit allows a portion of the pension to continue to a surviving spouse after the player's death. Electing it reduces the player's own monthly payment in exchange for that continued protection. This is not an automatic election. A player has to choose. And very few players are walking into that decision with a proper plan in place. The right choice depends on the player's age, health, overall financial picture, and family situation. It is one of the most consequential long-term financial decisions a retired player makes, and it needs to be handled with care. The Pension Is One Piece of a Larger Plan A pension is not a retirement plan. Even at $290,000 per year, the pension alone is not enough to sustain the lifestyle most players build during their career. And for players who collect well under the maximum, it is even more important that the rest of the plan is built correctly. At Moment Private Wealth, we work with MLB players on income planning, tax planning, risk management, estate planning, and investment management. The pension fits into all of it. We look at when to take it, how it interacts with other income sources, and what role it plays in a player's overall retirement picture. For more information on how we work with our athlete clients, make sure you read The Moment Guide To Financial Planning For Professional Athletes Someone has to be thinking about all of this before the career ends. What Players and Families Should Be Doing Now Know your service time number. Your agent has it. If you don't know it, that changes today. Understand the threshold you're chasing. If a player is at 30 days of service time, everyone around him should know that 43 is the target. Don't wait to build the plan. Whether a player hits the minimum threshold or 10 years, the financial planning conversation needs to start before the career is over. Get the right team in place. The agent handles the contract. The attorney reviews it. The financial planner, as a CFP, builds the plan around it. If those three aren't working together, things fall through the cracks. That is exactly how we work at Moment. We coordinate directly with a player's agent and CPA so nothing gets missed. If you are an MLB player, a minor leaguer working toward the big leagues, or a parent trying to understand how all of this fits together, schedule a call with our team. At Moment, our mission has stayed the same since day one. To build the firm we wanted for athletes. One with a singular focus on the people we know best. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. What counts as MLB service time toward the pension? Days spent on the active 26-man roster and the MLB injured list both count. Days in the minor leagues do not count toward MLB service time. Can a player collect the pension before age 62? Yes. Players can begin collecting as early as age 45 with a permanently reduced benefit. The full benefit is available at age 62. The right timing depends on each player's full financial picture. What if a player never played a full season? If a player accumulated at least 43 days of MLB service time, he qualifies for a pension benefit. The amount is smaller than players with more service time, but the lifetime benefit is real and worth planning around. What is the pension worth at the minimum threshold? In 2024, one quarter of service time (43 days) earns a player $6,875 per year at full retirement age of 62. That amount increases approximately 1.8% per year with the COLA adjustment. What is the survivor benefit and how does it work? The survivor benefit is an optional election that allows a portion of the pension to continue to a surviving spouse after the player's death. Electing it reduces the player's own monthly payment. This decision should be made with proper planning, not defaulted into. How does Moment Private Wealth help MLB players with this? We work with players to understand their service time, calculate their pension benefit, and build a complete financial plan where the pension is one piece of a much larger picture. We also work directly with agents and CPAs so everyone is aligned and nothing falls through the cracks. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.

You want to pay for your kid's college. That's clear. What's not always clear is how, or which account, you should be putting the money into in the first place. Most parents default to whatever they've heard of first. Sometimes that's a 529. Sometimes it's a custodial account. Sometimes it's just a savings account sitting somewhere earning almost nothing. The problem is the wrong account can cost you tens of thousands of dollars in taxes, financial aid, or both. In this blog, I'm going to break down the two main college savings vehicles, how they compare, and critically, every legitimate way to get money out of a 529 when the time comes. If you're approaching a business sale, the year of the exit may be the best opportunity you'll ever have to fund your child's education. Read our guide on liquidity event planning here. First, Let's Talk About the Problem College costs are not slowing down. The Consumer Price Index tells you what everyday goods cost. College costs its own version, and it runs hotter. Tuition has historically increased around 5% per year. What costs $50,000 per year at a private university today could cost $80,000+ by the time your 5-year-old is 18. Saving money in a low-yield savings account is not a plan. It's falling behind on purpose. The accounts below were built to fix that. The Two Main Options: 529 vs. UTMA The 529 Plan A 529 is a tax-advantaged savings account built specifically for education. You invest the money. It grows. You pull it out for qualified education expenses and pay zero federal taxes on the growth. That's the core deal, and it's a good one. Missouri residents get an extra bonus: you can deduct up to $8,000 per year, or $16,000 if you're married filing jointly, from your Missouri state income taxes for 529 contributions, and because Missouri has "tax parity," that deduction applies to contributions to any state's 529 plan, not just Missouri's own MOST plan. You stay in control. The money is yours. And the account never expires. The UTMA (Uniform Transfers to Minors Act) A UTMA is a custodial account held in your child's name. You manage it until they reach adulthood, then it's legally theirs to do whatever they want with. No restrictions on what the money is used for. No qualified expense rules. Total flexibility. But that flexibility comes at a cost. Taxes: In 2026, UTMA earnings above $1,350 are taxed at the child's income tax rate, and earnings above $2,700 are taxed at the parent's income tax rate. This is called the "kiddie tax," and it limits how much you actually benefit from your child's lower rate. Financial aid: This is where it really hurts. On the FAFSA, parent-owned 529 plans are assessed at 5.64% in the expected family contribution calculation. UTMA accounts are considered student assets and assessed at 20%. Put simply: if your student has a UTMA account with $20,000 in it, it's assessed as though 20% will go toward college costs, reducing financial need by $4,000. A 529 with the same $20,000 would only reduce need by about $1,128. That's not a small difference. Over four years, the wrong account could cost your family tens of thousands in aid eligibility. Control: With a UTMA, the child gains full control at age 18 to 21, depending on the state, and can use the money for any purpose. You cannot change the beneficiary. The money is theirs, period. So Which One Wins? Here's the honest answer: it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. And in most cases, having options is better than going all-in on one account. A lot of families do both, a 529 for education savings and a UTMA for everything else. The 529 handles the tax-advantaged, education-focused bucket. The UTMA gives you flexibility if life goes sideways or your kid needs money for something outside of school. That combination can be a smart approach, and it's one worth having a real conversation about. If the money is definitely going toward education, the 529 wins on taxes and financial aid, it's not close. But locking every dollar into an education-only account isn't always the right call either. The best plan is usually one that gives you flexibility. Every Way to Get Money Out of a 529 This is where most people stop reading, and where the real planning lives. Most families know you can use a 529 for tuition. Far fewer know about the other exits. 1. Qualified Education Expenses (The Standard Route) This is the one everyone knows. Withdraw money for qualified expenses and pay zero federal tax on the growth. What counts in 2026: For college and post-secondary: tuition, fees, room and board (if enrolled at least half-time), books and required supplies, computers, software, and internet access used for school, and trade or apprenticeship programs. For K-12: starting in tax year 2026, the annual limit for K-12 expenses is $20,000 per student. Qualifying expenses now include tuition, books, tutoring, homeschool curriculum, test fees, vocational training, and educational therapies including support for learning differences like ADHD. For credentialing programs: 529 funds can now be used for qualified postsecondary credentialing expenses, including tuition, fees, books, supplies, and equipment for recognized credential programs. 2. Your Kid Gets a Scholarship This is the one most parents have never heard of, and it matters. If your child receives a tax-free scholarship, you can withdraw an amount equal to the scholarship from the 529 without paying the 10% penalty. You'll still owe income tax on the earnings portion of that withdrawal, but the penalty is waived. So if your kid earns a $25,000 scholarship, you can pull $25,000 out of the 529, pay ordinary income tax on the earnings, and keep the rest. The money doesn't disappear. It just changes form. This exception also applies to fellowships, employer education assistance, and attendance at a U.S. military academy. 3. Roll It Into a Roth IRA This is the rule that killed the biggest fear about 529s. For years, parents worried: what if my kid doesn't use it all? Now there's a clean answer. For distributions made after December 31, 2023, unused 529 funds can be rolled into a Roth IRA for the beneficiary. The rules: The 529 must have been open for at least 15 years. The lifetime rollover limit is $35,000. Contributions made within the prior 5 years cannot be rolled over. The rollover is subject to annual Roth IRA contribution limits, $7,500 in 2026, or $8,600 if age 50 or older, and the beneficiary must have earned income at least equal to the rollover amount. Open a 529 when your child is born. If they get a full ride or take a different path entirely, those funds, after 15 years, can become a retirement account head start. That's a powerful outcome either way. 4. Change the Beneficiary You don't have to cash anything out. You can change the designated beneficiary to another member of the family with no tax consequences. Oldest kid gets a scholarship? Move the money to the next child, a grandchild, a niece, or nephew. You can even move it to yourself for a graduate degree. The account doesn't lock you in. It travels with your family. The Bottom Line College funding isn't a one-size-fits-all decision. But it is a decision — and making it by default almost always costs you money. The 529 remains the most efficient vehicle for most families. Better tax treatment. Better financial aid impact. More control. And more ways out than most people realize. But pairing it with a UTMA for flexibility is a strategy worth considering, depending on your goals. The earlier you start, the more time your money has to work. A few hundred dollars a month invested at birth looks completely different by the time your kid is 18. Want to see how this all fits together? Watch our full breakdown on college funding strategies on YouTube, here. If you are looking for a financial advisor, watch our YouTube video on 10 questions you should ask when interviewing a financial advisor. Get in Touch With An Advisor Frequently Asked Questions Here are some answers to questions I received frequently about this topic. Can grandparents contribute to a 529 without it hurting financial aid? Moment Private Wealth serves clients as a fiduciary 100% of the time. What happens to the money inside the DAF after I contribute it? Under the updated FAFSA rules that took effect in 2024, grandparent-owned 529 distributions no longer count as student income on the FAFSA. This was a major change. Grandparents can now contribute directly or even own their own 529 for a grandchild without the financial aid penalty that existed under the old rules. How are you different than other financial advisors? We are specialists in working with professional athletes and entrepreneurs. We limit the number of new clients we take on. This allows us to provide unparalleled value and highly personalized service to professional athletes. We work as a team to service our clients. We believe in building a team of “A” players. This ensures our clients receive world-class tax, estate, insurance, and investment strategies. We focus on educating first, then executing. What if I have multiple kids? Do I need a separate 529 for each one? No. You can open one account and change the beneficiary as needed. Many families fund a single 529 and shift it toward whichever child needs it most. You can also split an account or open separate ones per child; there's no rule requiring one approach over the other. How do you work with other members of my team? We believe in the power of the team. For most of our clients, their team consists of Moment Private Wealth, an accountant, an attorney, a banker, and an insurance specialist. We help our clients build out their team of individuals or work with existing partners that the clients have. Our goal is to ensure every family has a team of experts to protect their interests. *Moment Private Wealth offers information on tax and estate planning that is general in nature. Tax and Legal advice are not provided by Moment Private Wealth. Consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation.