Los Angeles County has more major sports venues than any comparable area in the country, a training-facility corridor in El Segundo, two large athletic departments generating NIL income, and a representation industry clustered in Century City. What actually changes locally is residency and real estate: becoming a California resident changes what the state taxes, and which city the house sits in changes what a sale costs.
Where professional athletes and their agents are in Los Angeles County
Inglewood is the centre of gravity now. SoFi Stadium and the YouTube Theater sit inside the Hollywood Park redevelopment, with the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum within walking distance of them, and the surrounding city has changed shape around all four. Downtown carries Crypto.com Arena and, in Exposition Park, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and BMO Stadium; Dodger Stadium sits in Chavez Ravine above Sunset Boulevard; Dignity Health Sports Park is in Carson. El Segundo is the training corridor — the practice and performance facilities that professional basketball and hockey run out of are there, a few minutes from the airport. And the 2028 Games will use venues across this county, which is already changing schedules, construction and travel patterns for everyone who works in this economy.
The residential geography is separate and it is specific. Athletes and the people who represent them concentrate in Calabasas and Hidden Hills at the western end of the Valley, in Brentwood and the coastal Westside, in Manhattan Beach and the South Bay near the training facilities, and in Malibu and West Hollywood. The representation industry — agencies, sports and entertainment law, business management — sits mostly in Century City and Beverly Hills, which is why an agent's commute and an athlete's commute look nothing alike.
The college layer is large here too. USC and UCLA field full athletic programmes, Long Beach State, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Fullerton just over the county line, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine all compete at the NCAA level, and the county's community college athletics programmes are among the largest in the state. Since the House settlement received final approval on 6 June 2025, schools have been able to pay athletes directly, and NIL agreements of $600 or more with associated entities are reported through the NIL Go platform to the College Sports Commission. For a nineteen-year-old in Westwood or Exposition Park with a marketing deal, that means self-employment income, no withholding, and a filing obligation that starts the same year.
What changes locally
The first thing that changes when you sign here is not the tax rate on a game cheque — it is residency. A nonresident athlete playing at SoFi Stadium or Crypto.com Arena is taxed by California on the days worked here, allocated against total working days. A California resident is taxed by California on income from everywhere: away games, endorsement income earned in other states, investment income, all of it, at rates reaching 13.3% once taxable income passes $1,000,000. Signing with a club based here, buying a house here and moving a family here is a residency question with a very large number attached, and it is exactly the kind of question that goes to a CPA who does this work — before the move, not after the first return.
The second is the map of city lines, which almost nobody checks until escrow. Measure ULA applies to conveyances of real property within the City of Los Angeles at 4% of consideration above $5,400,000 and 5.5% above $10,900,000, in addition to the 0.45% base documentary transfer tax, with the thresholds adjusted annually. Brentwood, Bel Air, the Palisades, Venice, Hollywood and Encino are in the City of Los Angeles. Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills, Malibu, West Hollywood and Santa Monica are separate cities with their own rules. For a house at the price points this audience buys at, that single distinction is worth more than most of the advice given about it. Whether it applies and who bears it are legal and contractual questions for your attorney and the escrow officer.
What we do about it
We are a fee-only fiduciary in Norwalk with no relationship to any club, league, association or agency, and nothing about this practice depends on knowing anyone. For an athlete the work is: an annual household cost, honestly counted, including the things that only exist in this city — the second home, the travel, the family the money now supports; a fixed proportion of every payment invested on arrival rather than at the end of the season; and a written plan for the years after the career that assumes the career is shorter than anyone hopes. Tax goes to a multi-state specialist. Contracts go to counsel.
For an agent or a business manager's client the work is the irregular-income problem in its purest form: income that follows contract dates rather than pay periods, quarterly estimates, and a retirement plan that nobody else will build. A solo 401(k) or SEP for the commission income, sized to the year rather than to the month, and a cash balance layer considered only after several years of stable profit.
And for a college athlete in this county the whole thing is smaller and more useful: set aside a fixed percentage of every NIL payment the day it arrives, keep the records, make the quarterly payments, and open a Roth IRA against earned income at eighteen or nineteen. We will say the boring part again because it is the valuable part — eligibility, disclosure and compliance questions belong to your school's compliance office and your own attorney, and the rules keep changing. When you are the first in the family handling this.
The structures that apply: League plans (union CBAs), Solo 401(k), Cash balance, deferred compensation, jock-tax filings. The full guide for professional athletes and their agents goes through each one, and here is the same audience in Orange County.
Fifteen minutes, no charge
We are in Norwalk, which is inside Los Angeles County and minutes from the Orange County line. Come to us, we come to you, or we do it by video — evenings by video.
Your city
Los Angeles County has 88 incorporated cities and about 9.7 million residents. These are the ones where professional athletes and their agents concentrate, each with its own page:
- Financial advisor in Los Angeles
- Financial advisor in Inglewood
- Financial advisor in Downtown Los Angeles
- Financial advisor in Calabasas
- Financial advisor in Hidden Hills
- Financial advisor in Brentwood
- Financial advisor in Malibu
- Financial advisor in West Hollywood
All 89 cities we publish a page for →
Our fees, published
No competing advisor page in this area publishes its fees. Here are ours.
| What | Fee |
|---|---|
| Investment management | 1.5% to 2.0% of assets per year; Advisers may set a rate below the standard schedule, as low as 0%, at their discretion — and whatever rate applies to you is disclosed in writing before you engage. Our Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5, states the fee as up to 2.00% of assets per year, subject to negotiation; the firm may waive all or part of it. Generally billed quarterly in arrears |
| Account minimum | No minimum account balance |
| Commissions and product fees | None — we are fee-only |
| Solicitor compensation | May be received or paid under disclosed arrangements |
| Initial conversation | Free, 15 minutes, no obligation |
Complete fee details in our Form ADV Part 2A, Item 5.
Questions
I just signed with a club based here. Am I now a California resident?
Probably, but it is a facts-and-circumstances determination rather than a checkbox, and the consequences are large enough to pay someone to get right. A nonresident is taxed by California on income allocated to days worked here. A resident is taxed on income from all sources everywhere — including away games, endorsement income earned in other states, and investment income — with a credit for tax paid to other states that has limits. Days, family location, home ownership, licences and where your life is centred all feed the answer. Take it to a CPA who handles athlete residency, ideally before the season.
I play for a school here and have NIL deals. What do I do first?
Take the agreement to your school's compliance office before you sign it, and to your own attorney if there is anything unusual in it. Then treat the money as a business: the IRS treats NIL income as generally taxable, including non-cash items, and where you are an independent contractor it is self-employment income with estimated payments due during the year. Open a separate account, move a fixed percentage of every payment into it for tax the day it lands, and keep every contract and receipt. Then, if there is earned income, a Roth IRA — the 2026 limit is the lesser of $7,500 or what you earned.
I am an agent in Century City. Do you work with people on my side of the desk?
Yes, and it is the same page for a reason. Commission that arrives on a contract schedule is the same structural problem as a season's earnings arriving in a window: irregular income, no withholding, no employer plan, quarterly estimates, and a strong temptation to treat the best year as the normal one. The work is a conservative baseline budget, estimates paid on time, and a solo 401(k) or SEP funded hard in the good years.
Do you have athlete clients?
We do not discuss who our clients are, and California rules prohibit state-registered advisers from using testimonials or endorsements of any kind, so you will not find any on this site. What we can tell you is how we are paid — a published fee, no commissions, no insurance sales, no referral payments — and that we have no affiliation with any league, club, players' association or agency.
Is a house in Calabasas or Hidden Hills treated differently from one in Brentwood?
For state income tax, no — the rate is identical everywhere in California. For a conveyance, yes: Brentwood is inside the City of Los Angeles and subject to its additional transfer tax above the thresholds, while Calabasas and Hidden Hills are separate cities that are not. Property tax turns on Proposition 13's assessed value and, for transfers within a family, on Proposition 19. Those are attorney and CPA questions, and they are worth asking before an offer rather than at closing. Proposition 19.
The 2028 Games are coming. Does that change anything for me?
Mostly schedules and traffic rather than tax. The one financial theme worth flagging is that large events generate a burst of appearance, endorsement and hospitality income for people connected to this economy — income that arrives on 1099s with no withholding, in a single year, often pushing a normal year into an abnormal bracket. That is a quarterly estimates problem and a plan-contribution opportunity in the same breath, and it is worth modelling with your CPA in advance rather than in April.
I live in Manhattan Beach and train in El Segundo. Norwalk is a drive.
It is, and most South Bay and Westside relationships run by video with occasional in-person meetings, including evenings by video. we maintain our principal office, in Norwalk, and we would rather say that plainly than imply a presence we do not have.
What does this cost, and is there a minimum?
There is no minimum to open an account. We ask for $50 a month of continuing deposits, because a plan you do not fund is not a plan. Investment management is 1.5% to 2.0% of assets per year, billed quarterly, and it is published on the site — which is more than most firms in this market will tell you before a meeting.
Do I have to have a lot saved already?
No, and that is deliberate. Most firms set a minimum precisely to avoid people at the start of this. We built the opposite: $0 to open, and the same fiduciary standard whether the account is four figures or seven.
¿Atienden en español?
Sí. Atendemos en español, y buena parte de nuestro material existe en español, escrito originalmente, no traducido por máquina.