Fee-Only Fiduciary Advisory for Hockey Players
The decisions that outlast hockey get made during it.
Every elite hockey player has a team off the ice. We're the position that's been missing.
You already have a team. We're the position that's been missing.
Your Agent
Role: Negotiates your contracts. Protects your career.
What they can't do: Build your financial plan. Coordinate your taxes. Plan your exit.
Your Trainer / Team Staff
Role: Keeps you on the ice. Protects your body.
What they can't do: Structure your cross-border filings. Plan for life after hockey.
TSPW (new position)
Role: Builds your financial plan. Coordinates your taxes. Plans your exit.
Fiduciary. Fee-only. Hockey-exclusive.
One fee, set by career earnings. Every service included. No AUM. No surprises.
Your agent has a role. Your trainer has a role. Your advisor should have one too, not a piece of everything you own.
Call-Up
For players getting their shot. Build the foundation right.
Total career earnings under $500K
~$15,000/year
- First-contract financial playbook
- Tax strategy & jock tax planning
- Insurance & risk review
- Budget & cash flow system
- Career transition groundwork
Core Four
For players the team is built around. Full financial specialist on your roster.
Total career earnings $500K to $10M
~$35,000/year
- Everything in Call-Up
- Cross-border US-Canada tax planning
- Investment management & allocation
- Contract review coordination
- Estate planning & family protection
- Real estate & business ventures
Captain
For players whose legacy extends beyond the ice. Full family office coordination.
Total career earnings $10M+
Starting at $75,000/year
- Everything in Core Four
- Dedicated family office coordination
- Multi-entity tax optimization
- Philanthropy & foundation strategy
- Post-career business incubation
- Legacy & generational wealth design
Why do we use total career earnings?
We use total expected career earnings, not annual, because hockey careers are non-linear. Rookies have signing bonuses. Veterans have multi-year deals. Players get traded, called up, sent down. We look at your trajectory, not last year's W-2.
I watched the financial industry underserve hockey players for too long. Then I built the position that was missing.
Your teammate's “advisor” sold him an annuity because the commission was bigger. The “financial planner” your agent mentioned is getting a kickback on every dollar he recommends you save. I've seen all of it. I'm not walking away from the industry. I'm changing how it works from the inside, starting with hockey players.
Here's what I realized: you already have a team off the ice. Your agent negotiates. Your trainer conditions. Your coach strategizes. Each one is a specialist playing one role. But there was one position nobody was playing well: the financial specialist.
That's why Top Shelf Private Wealth exists. Not to replace anyone on your team. To play the position that's been missing. Fiduciary. Fee-only. Hockey-exclusive. On your team, in your corner, one role.
I grew up with a rink in my front yard in Litchfield, New Hampshire. I play beer league in Lake Tahoe. I know this world because I've lived in it my entire life.
Joshua St. Laurent
CFP® · CFT™ · APFC® · ACC · MS Advanced Financial Planning
- 01Left the brokerage world after watching advisors prioritize commissions over clients
- 02Master's in Advanced Financial Planning, concentration in Financial Life Planning, from Golden Gate University
- 03Founded Wealth In Yourself, a fee-only fiduciary for entrepreneurs and real estate investors
- 04Built Top Shelf Private Wealth to play the position hockey players have been missing
Professional tools for professional careers.
Every specialist has their gear. Here's ours.
- Altruist
- Custody & cross-border capability
- RightCapital
- Financial planning software
- Monarch Money
- Budgeting & net worth tracking
- Sequence
- Cash flow mapping
- Cross-Border CPA Coordination
- We coordinate athlete-specialist CPAs for your filing needs
Hypothetical Scenario
What duty-day planning can look like on paper.
This is a hypothetical composite scenario for illustration, not an actual client or an actual result. Assumptions and math: available on request.
A Hypothetical AHL Forward
Illustrative composite, not an actual client
Hypothetical Season Salary
$400KModeled Year-1 State-Tax Difference
~$27KU.S. States Modeled
4Picture a veteran AHL forward on a $400,000 AHL contract, playing for a Nevada-based club in the Pacific Division. Staying a California resident (where the offseason home is) would put his state income tax near $33,500 for the season. Establishing a bona fide Nevada domicile changes the math: Nevada has no income tax, and each game state can only tax the share of salary earned on duty days spent there. In the road states modeled (California, Colorado and Arizona), the duty-day taxes total roughly $6,200, a modeled difference of about $27,000 in year one. That gap is exactly what duty-day planning exists to catch.
On fees: 1% of a $600,000 portfolio is $6,000 in year one, and that dollar figure rises with every dollar the portfolio grows, typically for investment management alone. Our fee is set by your career earnings, disclosed before you sign, and covers the whole job: tax strategy, duty-day coordination, cross-border planning, and the transition after hockey. Neither structure is free. The difference is what's included and how the cost scales.
Assumptions: single filer, standard deduction, no other income, 2025 published state tax rates (California nonresident duty-day method; Colorado 4.4%; Arizona 2.5%), estimated duty-day counts (not built game by game from the club's schedule), Canadian road games excluded, road games in states not modeled excluded (the club also plays in Wisconsin, which taxes nonresident wages, so the modeled difference is likely overstated), and a residency change that is genuine, not paperwork. Full math and sources are documented and available on request. This illustration is not tax advice, and no outcome is guaranteed or implied.
Trusted expertise.
Press coverage includes general advisory work. TSPW-specific press mentions in development.
The Hockey Money Playbook
The financial fundamentals every professional hockey player needs to know, from your first contract to your last season. No jargon. No sales pitch.
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The financial side of your players' careers shouldn't be your problem.
You negotiate the deal. You protect their career. We play the position that supports the life they're building with the money you help them earn. Same team. Different specialties. Your clients get a fiduciary specialist. You get to focus on what you do best.
See how TSPW supports agents →Life-changing money should change your life.
Book a 30-minute Opening Faceoff call. No pitch. Just a conversation about what your career earnings could actually build.
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