JPMorgan taps A’ja Wilson, Tom Brady in athlete wealth management push

JPMorgan Chase has recruited some of the biggest names in American sports to help tackle a persistent problem: professional athletes going broke.

The bank on Wednesday announced an initiative called the JPMorgan Chase Athlete Council, led by two-time NBA Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade and featuring other high-profile athletes, including Tom Brady, Sue Bird, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, A’ja Wilson and Jalen Brunson.

The stars will meet with JPMorgan executives to help the bank craft programs designed to serve athletes from college to professional life and retirement, JPMorgan said in a release.

The move reflects growing competition among banks and wealth managers to serve athletes, the most prominent of whom are increasingly becoming entrepreneurs, investors and media personalities.

Most athletes don’t receive personal finance education in school, and their relatively short careers leave a narrow earning window that requires careful planning, according to JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets. About one in six NFL players declare bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring, the bank said.

“We heard a lot of the same thing over and over again, which is a lot of young athletes coming into money very suddenly, they develop unsustainable lifestyles, they don’t always get great advice around them, and those are the lucky ones,” Kristin Lemkau, head of JPMorgan Wealth Management, told CNBC’s Leslie Picker on Wednesday.

Wade said in the release that the initiative gives athletes a chance to share hard-won experiences with the next generation.

“Having the right educational resources and guidance is critical to making smart decisions about money as your career evolves,” he said.

WNBA player Wilson said it’s important to her to be able to share money management skills with the next cohort of professional athletes.

“We’re starting to try to turn the page and help the youth in the next generation understand that you have to build trust, you have to build boundaries and know exactly how you want to operate with your money,” Wilson told CNBC.

The bank is also standing up an Athlete Center of Excellence staffed by financial professionals with sports experience and launching a content hub with checklists for athletes navigating the name, image and likeness, or NIL, system and guides for assembling a roster of advisors.

— CNBC’s Laya Neelakandan contributed to this report.