For nearly five decades, DVI has advised affluent individuals and families, business owners, and institutions facing complex financial decisions. While our clients have achieved success, many look to us to help refine their goals and bring clarity to their long-term financial plans.
Working with a dedicated DVI team, clients explore questions they may not have considered, gain education on key investment concepts, and evaluate how a partnership with DVI can support their pursuit of financial peace of mind. Many of our relationships span generations, reflecting our clients’ thoughtful approach to stewardship and legacy.
Through years of serving clients, we’ve found that the strongest relationships are grounded in shared values and mutual trust.
DVI is particularly well-suited for clients who:
Seek to preserve and thoughtfully grow their wealth
Embrace a patient, disciplined investment approach
Prioritize long-term strategy over short-term gains
Delegate portfolio management to a seasoned investment advisory firm
Value professional guidance and work within an asset-based fee structure, not commission-based compensation
The DVI Approach in Practice
We invite you to explore several case studies that illustrate the types of financial circumstances and planning strategies our team has addressed. These examples are derived from themes in real client experiences but are presented as hypothetical scenarios for illustrative purposes only. They do not represent actual client experiences or portfolio performance and are not a prediction or guarantee of future results, a recommendation, or individualized investment advice.
What They Needed:
When the Caulfield family sold their business, complexity only grew: $20 million spread across dozens of accounts and hundreds of overlapping holdings they barely recognized. Their financial picture was so fragmented that even basic questions about investment performance and portfolio risk were nearly impossible to answer.
What We Delivered:
Consolidated accounts across custodians, using aggregation tools to pull in activity and balances and cutting the number of accounts in half while streamlining hundreds of holdings into clear, understandable categories.
Applied proprietary reporting tools to deliver a unified, family‑level view that captured every position with clear transparency into holdings, fees, costs, risk, investment performance, and portfolio cash flows.
Coordinated with professional partners by simplifying and unwinding borrowing arrangements, such as pledged‑asset loans, without disrupting liquidity, and by working with the Caulfields’ tax and legal advisors on a multiyear, tax‑aware transition plan.
Provided ongoing, structured fiduciary oversight, managing documentation, logistics, and follow‑through—including coordinating cash flows from less liquid alternative investments—so the Caulfields can focus on decisions, confident every step supports their best interests and long‑term goals.
Lasting Peace of Mind:
DVI replaced fragmentation with clarity and control. For the first time since they sold the business, the Caulfields can see their full net worth, investment performance, cash flows, and costs in one place.
“DVI delivers a clear, organized view of a family’s wealth so each member can see how investments are aligned with their goals, values, and future generations.”
—Stephanie Ricketts, CFP®
Managing Director, Relationship Management & Client Services
PARTNER
What They Needed:
Evergreen Solutions, Inc. offered a 401(k) with a company match, but employee participation remained modest and IRS nondiscrimination testing constrained what the owners could contribute to their own retirement accounts. Employees were also concerned about high investment fees, prompting ownership to seek a more efficient solution that would boost employee savings, allow owners to contribute up to the IRS limits, and deliver more meaningful benefits to key team members without adding administrative burden.
What We Delivered:
Redesigned plan features and employer contributions by analyzing the employee census and historical plan records, then partnering with a retirement plan administration firm to better fit the plan to the workforce and the owners’ savings goals.
Optimized the 401(k) platform and investment menu by transitioning assets to a lower‑cost provider with institutionally priced investment options and a streamlined, fiduciary‑minded process.
Introduced a cash balance pension plan to complement the 401(k), creating an additional tax‑advantaged channel for larger contributions to owners and select key employees.
Clarified governance and participant communication so fees, investments, and participation trends could be monitored consistently and communicated clearly across the organization.
Lasting Peace of Mind:
Evergreen Solutions, Inc. now has a coordinated, lower‑cost retirement program that boosts participation, gives owners more predictable contributions, and rewards key contributors—while better aligning with fiduciary duties and long‑term team well‑being.
“DVI partners with businesses to help their employees and other stakeholders make the most of their retirement benefits while simplifying the steps it takes to pursue long-term goals and support sustainable growth.”
—Mike Flaherty, CFP®, ChFC®
Senior Relationship Manager
ASSOCIATE PARTNER
What She Needed:
After her husband received a terminal diagnosis ten years into retirement, Ellen faced a future very different from the one they had planned. She had to navigate a complex financial picture that was entirely new to her, all under a tight, uncertain medical timeline, while trying to gain confidence that she would be okay on her own.
What We Delivered:
Clarified Ellen’s lifetime needs, modeling cash flow under different lifespans and spending levels to align travel, lifestyle, and both family and charitable gifting within a coordinated retirement income plan.
Optimized titling and estate tax use by adjusting ownership and trust titling to use her husband’s remaining federal and state estate tax exemption and to improve the date of death tax treatment for Ellen and her heirs.
Engineered a tax-aware withdrawal plan, sequencing withdrawals across IRAs, taxable accounts, and trusts to manage and minimize realized capital gains, ordinary income from retirement accounts, and estimated tax payments over time.
Developed clear, decision-ready reporting by aggregating Schwab and outside accounts into focused summaries that showed which assets funded Ellen’s lifestyle, provided reserves, and supported heirs, making a complex picture easier for Ellen to navigate and helping place growth and income in the right accounts.
Lasting Peace of Mind:
Ellen now has a written, repeatable framework she can revisit each quarter. With resources organized around her travel plans and continued generosity, she can move forward knowing the plan can adjust as her life evolves. DVI has also strengthened ties with the next generation to support planning continuity across the family.
“Even in times of crisis, DVI helps clients see their entire financial life more clearly—organized, explained and overseen—so they can focus on family and feel confident their plan is designed to carry them forward.”
—Michael Armistead, CFP®
Relationship Manager
What They Needed:
After years of successful fundraising, the GreenStar Foundation grew its endowment into the tens of millions. The board recognized that the foundation’s portfolio had outgrown its passively managed structure and needed a more disciplined framework to guide investment decisions and support long‑term sustainability. GreenStar sought institutional oversight, strategic asset allocation, and a partner to help balance spending needs with prudent risk management.
What We Delivered:
Clarified objectives and built a policy portfolio by analyzing the foundation’s grantmaking history, defining mission‑aligned return and spending goals, and designing a custom policy mix with clear ranges, a liquidity reserve, and an agreed benchmark.
Implemented disciplined, institutional‑quality portfolio management through a structured quarterly process that combined DVI strategies with carefully selected third‑party managers, ongoing research, segment reviews, and manager adjustments as needed.
Delivered rigorous, decision‑ready reporting by comparing performance against the policy benchmark, analyzing risk, detailing segment‑level attribution, and providing full expense transparency so the finance committee could focus on governance and high‑impact decisions rather than data gathering.
Aligned implementation and governance with real‑world constraints and values by integrating liquidity needs, restrictions, and legacy holdings, tailoring the asset mix to the foundation’s mission and donor expectations, and formalizing these choices in an investment policy statement and review framework.
Lasting Peace of Mind:
With DVI as its OCIO partner, GreenStar has become an intentional, policy‑driven, institutionally managed endowment. The board now follows a data‑informed strategy with clear return and spending goals, robust risk evaluation, and transparent reporting—freeing leadership to focus on GreenStar’s mission, not markets.
“DVI gives boards the confidence to make long-term decisions grounded in data and aligned with their organization’s mission, so they can focus on advancing the work that truly matters.”
—Glenn Maxey, CFA
Senior Portfolio Manager
PARTNER
What He Needed:
At 62, with multiple retirement plans, outside accounts, inherited IRAs, real estate proceeds, and a practice buyout ahead, Dr. Hayes wanted to know whether work was still a financial requirement or had become a choice—and whether his resources could support a secure, tax-efficient retirement for his household.
What We Delivered:
Clarified retirement readiness by assessing spending needs, mapping the timing of practice buyout payments, and testing different retirement dates so he could see when continued work was a choice, not a necessity.
Organized scattered accounts and benefits by consolidating multiple employer plans, outside custodian accounts, inherited IRAs, and real estate proceeds into a single coordinated balance sheet with defined roles for each asset.
Coordinated tax-aware income sequencing by planning how practice buyout income, portfolio withdrawals, inherited IRA distributions, and Social Security work together. This focused on income replacement, including delaying his own benefit while coordinating spousal benefits, and seeking to lower his effective tax rate as salary and payroll taxes fall away.
Built a disciplined drawdown structure that replaced the paycheck, designing systematic distributions from investments and buyout proceeds so income arrives predictably rather than through ad hoc decisions.
Lasting Peace of Mind:
DVI designed a plan aligned with Dr. Hayes’s conservative risk profile and family priorities, giving him a clear view of how his assets can replace his paycheck and sustain his family’s retirement lifestyle.
“DVI provides the clarity to recognize when it may be time to step back—and the confidence that the numbers can support that decision.”
—Dalton Mellon, CFA
Portfolio Manager
What She Needed:
Lena, a mid‑career professional and single parent, became the beneficiary of a $2.5 million inheritance and needed a straightforward way to align this wealth with her priorities for a young child and her partner, including treating her partner differently from her child while still honoring the legacy her family created.
What We Delivered:
Implemented transfer-on-death instructions as a first‑step solution, then encouraged the drafting of revocable trusts to create a more durable estate framework tailored to her partner and child.
Coordinated and structured accounts and titling so an existing irrevocable trust could continue to benefit lineal descendants (including her young child as a future “grandchild” beneficiary), while her revocable trust focused on providing for her partner during life, then passing to her child.
Aligned investment, tax, and beneficiary design so accounts, trusts, and registrations worked in tandem across generations rather than at cross‑purposes.
Arranged a pledged asset line of credit, using her investment portfolio as collateral for a loan from a banking partner so she could build a home without triggering large, immediate capital‑gains taxes.
Lasting Peace of Mind:
Lena now has a documented plan that supports her goals, manages taxes, and preserves flexibility for future generations. Her accounts are coordinated in one framework so investments, beneficiaries, and lending strategies work together.
“DVI builds plans that reflect real life. We bring structure so strategies work together, giving clients confidence that they’re caring well for the people they love and the legacy they hope to leave.”
—Deanna Baele, CFP®
Relationship Manager
Let’s Start the Conversation.
We listen first, then craft custom strategies—grounded in fiduciary discipline and steady guidance—to help your hard-earned wealth reflect what matters most to you. Connect with an Associate to begin.
