Services

College athletes can be paid for the use of their name, image, or likeness: endorsement deals, appearance fees, speaking engagements, memorabilia sales, autograph signings, and more. AEA helps athletes capture those opportunities, protect them, and learn the legal, tax, and business skills to make them last.

NIL as a business

We help athletes form and maintain the right entity, such as an LLC or corporation, to limit personal liability and run their NIL business properly.

NIL compliance & transfer portal

We navigate NCAA, state, and university rules, assist with transfer portal opportunities, and represent athletes in NIL negotiations, contracts, and endorsement deals.

NIL marketing & collectives

We support brand partnerships from start to finish and negotiate with the NIL collectives of college institutions to protect the athlete’s best interests.

AEA sets itself apart in how it cares for clients’ off-the-field endeavors and personal lives. Our clients remain at the center of everything we do, and the services and education we add create protections that last beyond an athlete’s playing days.

We see athletes as more than entertainers or roster assets. We give them the education and tools early: how deals off the field work, how to protect their wealth, how to use entities for asset protection, how taxes work for their business, and why estate planning matters. Athletes need to understand not only that there is a life after sports, but how to have one.

Finances

We are not certified financial advisors. We connect athletes with independent CPAs and CFPs, and make sure the business infrastructure we help establish links with their financial goals, so the advice they receive serves their interests and no one else’s.

Athletes are brands themselves, which makes them ideal partners for companies that want to reach a sports audience.

Marketing

We help athletes build a distinct personal image and online identity centered on what they care about and use every day, the building blocks of being brandable and marketable.

Endorsements

We use our relationships to find the right endorsement opportunities, and we represent athletes in endorsement deals whether we sourced them or not.

Every college coach signs an employment contract, yet most assistant coaches are not represented, and turnover in coaching is high. Compensation, benefits, endorsements, termination rights, buyouts, options, and multi-year terms can and should be negotiated. AEA represents coaches to find the right fit, negotiate for their best interests, and add stability to their careers.

Steven Fantetti is a corporate lawyer specializing in drafting, reviewing, and negotiating contracts; mergers and acquisitions; employment law; and sports and entertainment law. He is a professor of law at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, where he teaches Corporate Business Planning with a focus on structuring business entities and the business of sports.

AEA lectures and leads information sessions for athletic departments and teams across the country, on topics athletes can use immediately: business and entity basics, taxes and NIL funds, what collective contracts contain and what to negotiate, and navigating the transfer portal.

Formats

Informational sessions, motivational speaking events, guest lectures, and webinars.

AEA offers athlete representation, NIL services, off-the-field services and business management, marketing and endorsement representation, coaches representation, and speaking services. The services are designed to work together, so representation, NIL strategy, business management, and marketing are handled as one athlete-first relationship instead of separate transactions.

Yes. AEA helps athletes form and maintain the right entity, such as an LLC or corporation, to limit personal liability and run their NIL business properly. Owning an entity is a real responsibility: important decisions come before the articles are filed, and once it is formed, the entity has to comply with the statute it was formed under.

No. AEA is not a certified financial advisor. AEA connects athletes with independent CPAs and CFPs and makes sure the business infrastructure it helps establish links with each athlete’s financial goals, so the advice the athlete receives serves the athlete’s interests and no one else’s.

Yes. Every college coach signs an employment contract, yet most assistant coaches are not represented, and turnover in coaching is high. AEA represents coaches to find the right fit and to negotiate compensation, benefits, endorsements, termination rights, buyouts, options, and multi-year terms, which adds stability to a coaching career.

Yes. AEA uses its relationships to find the right endorsement opportunities, and it represents athletes in endorsement deals whether AEA sourced them or not. Because athletes are brands themselves, AEA also helps them build a distinct personal image and online identity that makes them more brandable and marketable to companies that want to reach a sports audience.

Yes. AEA leads informational sessions, motivational speaking events, guest lectures, and webinars for athletic departments and teams across the country. Topics include business and entity basics, taxes and NIL funds, what collective contracts contain and what to negotiate, and navigating the transfer portal. Steven Fantetti also teaches Corporate Business Planning at Western Michigan University Cooley Law School.