NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase said Wednesday that it will start building wealth advising services that help athletes who come into money as a result of their talents make that money work for them a long time.
The initiative is not aimed just at ultrawealthy athletes of legend. The initiative is aimed at athletes across all sports, ages and income levels, from college athletes earning royalties from their name, image and likeness for the first time, to established athletes who have earned substantial sums but are now looking at retirement in their mid-30s and need to make those sums last for decades.
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Kristin Lemkau, CEO, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, center left, poses for a picture with, from left, Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, Dwyane Wade, former NBA basketball player, Tom Brady, former NFL football player, A'ja Wilson WNBA basketblal player, and Meg Rapinoe, former women's soccer player, during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Kristin Lemkau, CEO, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, listens to Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, during an interview after taking part in a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Dwyane Wade, entrepreneur and former NBA basketball player, attends a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
A'ja Wilson, WNBA basketball player, speaks during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase Head Quarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, speaks during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Kristin Lemkau, CEO, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, center left, poses for a picture with, from left, Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, Dwyane Wade, former NBA basketball player, Tom Brady, former NFL football player, A'ja Wilson WNBA basketblal player, and Meg Rapinoe, former women's soccer player, during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
JPMorgan hopes to reach these athletes early, maybe as early as high school but certainly on college campuses, in hopes of teaching them good financial habits from the start.
“They are coming into a lot of money, and they don’t know what to do with it,” said Megan Rapinoe, the professional soccer player and Olympic gold medalist.
JPMorgan isn’t doing this for charity. Those few who become professional athletes can end up millionaires many times over, and the biggest stars can end up billionaires. Managing those funds through JPMorgan’s wealth management arm could lead to millions of dollars in fees for the bank, and athletes' name recognition can bring future customers to the bank.
There have been numerous stories of athletes running into financial difficulties despite coming into tremendous wealth during their careers. Academic research has shown that one in six NFL players will end up filing for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement. Mike Tyson reportedly made half a billion in his boxing career but had to file for bankruptcy, and there are similar stories for legends like boxer Evander Holyfield and basketball player Antoine Walker.
The stories are often the same: athletes come into tremendous wealth but are not given the education to make it last as long as it needs to.
Peloton Instructor Ally Love said she often felt embarrassed or scared to ask for financial advice, even after she found success with Peloton. She remembered one of her first meetings with a bank where her interactions with financial advisers left her with more questions than answers.
“I was like, ‘Who’s Roy?’ I thought Roy was spelled with a Y,” Love said in an interview with The Associated Press. Only later did Love learn that “Roy” was not a person, but an abbreviation for return on investment, or ROI.
Love is one of nine athletes who will sit on JPMorgan’s new Athlete Council. The council also includes Dwayne Wade, the two-time NBA Hall of Famer from the Miami Heat, Sue Bird, the WNBA champion, and legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady. Other athletes and personalities include Jalen Brunson from the New York Knicks, World Cup Champion Alex Morgan, Kayvon Thibodeaux of the New York Giants, and A’Ja Wilson, the four-time WNBA MVP winner.
Love talked about how she often felt bankers talked down to her, and she felt intimidated.
“I just sat there for many years and I said ‘okay’ and ‘sure’, and did a lot of head nodding, but I wasn’t really being informed, wasn’t really being educated and I was too nervous and too scared to ask for help."
The athlete financial health initiative was the brainchild of Kristin Lemkau, CEO of J.P. Morgan Wealth Management. Lemkau invited Love to be part of the program after they saw each other at a U.S. Open tennis match, and talked to Love about how banks all want to go after the biggest names in the business, but ignore those who probably need the most help.
“There is an underserved segment of athletes, whether they are young and in college, professionals, or retired,” Lemkau said. “They’re all different. And most financial services companies are going after the Ally Loves, the Tom Bradys and the Dwyane Wades, and 99.99% of athletes don’t fit into that space."
Lemkau and Love joked that athletes, like anyone who comes into wealth suddenly, are going to want to be able to spend their money on luxuries. But after the handbags and jewelry and cars are purchased, it’s just as important for those athletes to be able to live off what they’ve earned for decades to come.
“Enjoy the fruits, but also let the fruit last,” Love said.
Kristin Lemkau, CEO, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, listens to Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, during an interview after taking part in a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Dwyane Wade, entrepreneur and former NBA basketball player, attends a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
A'ja Wilson, WNBA basketball player, speaks during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase Head Quarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, speaks during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Kristin Lemkau, CEO, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, center left, poses for a picture with, from left, Ally Love, Peloton Instructor + VP, Instructor Strategy & Development, Dwyane Wade, former NBA basketball player, Tom Brady, former NFL football player, A'ja Wilson WNBA basketblal player, and Meg Rapinoe, former women's soccer player, during a Pro Athlete event at JPMorganChase headquarters in New York, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
HELSINGBORG, Sweden (AP) — NATO allies and defense officials expressed bewilderment Friday at U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would send 5,000 U.S. troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number of forces pulled out of Europe.
The apparent change of mind came after weeks of statements from Trump and his administration about reducing — not increasing — the U.S. military footprint in Europe. Trump's initial order set off a flurry of action among military commanders and left allies already doubtful about America's commitment to Europe's security to ponder what forces they might have to backfill on NATO's eastern flank with Russia and Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it was reducing levels in Europe by about 5,000 troops, and U.S. officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer rotating into Poland from Germany. The dispatch to Germany of U.S. personnel trained to fire long-range missiles was also halted.
But in a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said he would now send "an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland,” citing his strong ties with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, whom Trump endorsed in elections last year.
“It is confusing indeed, and not always easy to navigate,” Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard told reporters Friday at a meeting she was hosting of her NATO counterparts, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Ministers from the Netherlands and Norway were sanguine about Trump’s latest move, as was Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže, who said allies knew the U.S. troop “posture was being reconsidered, and now there is no change of posture. For now.”
U.S. defense officials also expressed confusion. “We just spent the better part of two weeks reacting to the first announcement. We don’t know what this means either,” said one of two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters.
But Rubio said Washington’s allies understand that changes in the U.S. troop presence in Europe will come as the Trump administration reevaluates its force needs. “I think there’s a broad recognition that there are going to be eventually less U.S. troops in Europe than there has historically been for a variety of reasons,” he said.
The latest surprise came despite a U.S. pledge to coordinate troop deployments, including one from NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, on Wednesday.
Trump's initial announcement that he would withdraw troops came as he fumed over remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said that the U.S. was being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and criticized what he called a lack of strategy in that war.
Trump told reporters that the U.S. would be cutting even more than 5,000 and also announced new tariffs on European cars. Germany is the continent’s biggest auto producer.
Rubio insisted that Trump’s decision “is not a punitive thing. It’s just something that’s ongoing.”
About 80,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Europe. The Pentagon is required to keep at least 76,000 troops and major equipment on the continent unless NATO allies are consulted and there is a determination that such a withdrawal is in U.S. interests.
The withdrawal of 5,000 troops might drop numbers below that limit.
But Trump's latest post suggests that troop numbers in Europe would not change. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski welcomed the decision to send more forces to his country, saying it ensures that “the presence of American troops in Poland will be maintained more or less at previous levels.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte also welcomed the move. On Thursday, before Trump took to Truth Social again, Rutte had underlined that it was important for Europe to take care of its own security. “We have a process in place. This is normal business,” he told reporters.
At NATO headquarters in Brussels, meanwhile, U.S. officials briefed the allies on the Pentagon's aims for its commitments to the NATO Force Model, which involves contingency planning for Europe’s defense in the event of serious security concerns. It was widely expected that a further reduction of U.S. forces would be coming.
Asked whether any cuts were announced, Rutte said: “I’m afraid it’s much more complicated than that.” He said the procedure “is highly classified” and declined to give details.
Rubio played down concerns about a shift in U.S. force levels in Europe, saying: "Every country has to constantly reevaluate what their needs are, what their commitments are around the world, and how to properly structure that.”
Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Emma Burrows in London contributed.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with journalists during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, front second left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, front left, speak with each other during a group photo at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte look at each other as they deliver a statement during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže speaks at the doorstep of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting at Sea U in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte deliver a statement during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks to media at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives with his wife Jeanette at Malmo Airport, Friday, May 22, 2026, in Malmo-Sturup, Sweden, ahead of a NATO foreign ministers meeting. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, second from left, shakes hands with Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson, as he is greeted by King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Silvia of Sweden and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Maria Malmer Stenergard, right, before a dinner at Sofiero Castle in Helsingborg, Sweden, Thursday May 21 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard speaks to media at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Friday, May 22, 2026. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)
