Who We Are

1. Valad Plus® Investment Advisors (VPIA®) is an investment advisor firm formed in 2005. VPIA® has its offices in Plano, Texas. VPIA™ is currently accepting new clients, subject to the limitations set forth below in Paragraph 8 Client Criteria. VPIA™ is a DBA for the investment advising business of it three principals: David Evaul, Richard Adkisson, and Steve Celuch. 

2. Diversity of Backgrounds/Simple Solutions to Complex Problems. VPIA® is a DBA for the combined investment advisor businesses of the VPIA® Principals who are three executives/entrepreneurs whose initial business/investment successes were not in Liquid Asset Investments or the investment advisor business. The backgrounds of VPIA Principals are a rather diverse array of professional / business/investment areas including Manufacturing, Real Estate Consulting, Amateur Sports, Drug Discovery, Insurance, IT, Family Wealth, Electrical Engineering, Venture Capital, Law, Healthcare, Oil & Gas investment, Cyber Security, Internet Sales, Retail (Sporting Goods, Groceries and Flowers), Real Estate Investment, and Taxes. Please see the VPIA® Principal Bios. It is the belief of VPIA® that the diversity of the prior business / professional / investment careers of the VPIA® Principals is one of the fundamental advantages of VPIA® in the development of their investment strategies and in making their investment decisions. An additional advantage that the Principals believe sets VPIA™ apart from other investment advisors is their history of finding Simple Solutions to Complex Problems. In the case of each of the Principals, their successes in prior business / professional / investment careers could be traced to finding Simple Solutions to Complex Problems. And it was this commitment to simple solutions that lead to the VPIA® investment strategy - SURIS®, and the VPIA® provision of investment Services to Family Offices, Private Foundations, and Other Charitable Institutions approach.

3. The Beginning of SURIS®. In 2000 Mr. Evaul (upon the sale of a DeMarini Sports, Inc., in which he had been a part owner, to Wilson Sporting Goods) began to address the problem that he then faced-how to invest his now significant liquid assets. Over the next few years in keeping with his business/investment career history of finding Simple Solutions to Complex Problems, Mr. Evaul developed a straightforward, easy to understand and apply approach to liquid asset investment. Over those few years, Mr. Evaul fine tuned the approach and came to believe that he had found a sensible way to increase Returns and reduce Risk. In that time-frame Mr. Evaul came to not only invest his own liquid assets, but found himself investing the liquid assets of his family and sharing his insights on liquid asset investment with his friends. When his friends began to bring their friends to lunch to discuss Mr. Evaul’s investment insights and his friends, David Bower and Kevin Thomason, encouraged him to consider the business of investment advice, Mr. Evaul determined that it was time to get paid for his efforts. While contemplating the creation of a new business venture as an investment advisor, Mr. Evaul engaged in discussions with his friend, Mr. Adkisson, as to how he might go about getting into the investment business. Mr. Adkisson through his contacts in the Dallas business community identified Crescent Advisor Group, Inc. Associating with Crescent Advisor Group, Inc would allow Mr. Evaul to operate his investment advisor business in the way he felt would best serve his clients, keep the investment business as his own and have the administrative side of the business be the concern of Crescent Advisor Group, Inc. (thus making the new business simpler). In assisting Mr. Evaul in contemplating the investment advisor business, Mr. Adkisson became convinced that the Simple Understandable Risk and Investment Strategy (SURIS®) created by Mr. Evaul was sound. As such, Mr. Adkisson came to believe that the investment advisor business being contemplated by Mr. Evaul would be a business in which Mr. Adkisson would be interested in participating. Mr. Adkisson also had reached that stage in his business career where the investment of his liquid assets was a major concern.

4. VPIA®. In 2005, Mr. Evaul and Mr. Adkisson as Principals formed Valad Plus® Investment Advisors (VPIA®) and associated with Crescent Advisor Group, Inc. At first, Mr. Evaul and Mr. Adkisson continued with other business/investment pursuits, but eventually VPIA™ became their primary business activity. In 2022, VPIA® grew to have Assets Under Management (AUM) exceeding 100 million dollars. In 2022, Mr. Evaul and Mr. Adkisson determined that, for the business to continue to grow, a third Principal would need to be added to VPIA®. After some thought and discussion, it was decided to offer the opportunity to join VPIA® as a Principal to one of VPIA's™ long time investment Clients and a friend of Mr. Evaul’s-Mr. Celuch. In 2023, Mr. Celuch accepted and joined VPIA® moving his family from Florida to Texas to join VPIA®.

5. Why VPIA®.

A. SURIS™. Each of the three VPIA® Principals reached a stage in their business careers when the investment of their assets became a major concern. Having been successful in their wide variety of business/professional/investment careers, each of them eventually decided to focus the issues that arise in the investment of liquid assets. While their backgrounds are rather diverse, in discussions which led them to become a part of VPIA® it became clear that their their business/investment backgrounds did have one very striking thing in common from . Each of them had a history of finding Simple Solutions to Complex Problems in their to date business/investment careers. As such before joining VPIA®, Mr. Adkisson and Mr. Celuch committed to the Simple Understandable Risk and Investment Strategies (SURIS™) that had been created by Mr. Evaul to be applied to Liquid Asset investing. 

B. Frequent Portfolio Reviews. The Principals frequently review (often more than once a week) each account managed by VPIA®.

B. Diverse Backgrounds It is the belief of the Principals that in addition to the SURIS® approach, the Diverse Business, Professional, and Investment Experiences of the Principals also acts as a fundamental advantage. This experience sets VPIA® apart from most other investment advisors, who often have backgrounds that are primarily limited to investing and finance.

C. Experience as Entrepreneurs. In addition for Clients that have survived the entrepreneurial experience, VPIA® provides a unique perspective. Mr. Evaul, Mr. Adkisson, and Mr. Celuch each have first hand Experience As Entrepreneurs. It the belief of the Principals that their Experience As Entrepreneurs is an advantage, when they are advising entrepreneurial Clients (including Professionals, such as Lawyers and CPAs) on how to approach of their investment in liquid assets. Indeed, this need to address Liquid Asset investment of entrepreneurs is the very reason Mr. Evaul and Mr. Adkisson created VPIA™ in the first place.

D. Family Office, Private Foundations, and Other Charities. Because of the unique backgrounds of the Principals (Principal Bios) in Family Wealth Planning, Private Foundations, and Other Charities, VPIA® in recent years has found that background coupled with its understanding of the Investment Advisor business to be a valuable resource to offer to Family Office, Private Foundations and Other Charitable Institutions. As such, VPIA® has in recent years found itself providing value to Family Office, Private Foundation and Charitable Clients beyond its actual Investment Advisor services of creating investment portfolios for its Clients. Indeed, VPIA® has been engaged by a Family Office and its Private Foundation to help it evaluate other potential Investment Advisors. As it was the initial advice of VPIA® that the Client would be imprudent to choose only one Investment Advisor when the amount of the Foundation was taken into account, VPIA® was also able to assist the Private Foundation in setting the bench marks for its Investment Advisors to operate against, in evaluating potential Investment Advisors and in evaluating the results of those Investment Advisors that were ultimately engaged by the Private Foundation. In the more traditional Investment Advice service for that Client, VPIA® advised the Client that it was the view of VPIA® that the 40% bond portion of the traditional 60%/40% (equity/bond) portfolio might not be prudent beginning in 2021. As a result of that advice, the Client did replace the bond portion of the traditional 60%/40% portfolio approach with the VPIA® VALAD Income Portfolio (VIP) strategy. Because the VIP strategy includes holding a substantial portion of the portfolio in US Treasury Bills/Notes, the level of safety was high and the risk understandable. And the results through the end of 2022 were a dramatic compared to that of the 40% bond portion of the traditional 60%/40% portfolio¹. Thus in addition to what are viewed as the traditional Investment Advice Service of created Investment Portfolios (for VPIA®, applying the SURIS® approach to creating Investment Portfolios for Clients), VPIA® is available to provide Investment Services that include evaluating the Client’s use of Investment Advisors and the overall investment approach of the Client for certain Family Offices, Private Foundations and Other Charitable Institutions as set out in Paragraph 8 Client Criteria.

6. The VPIA® Team. In addition to three Principals, Mr. Evaul, Mr. Adkisson and Mr. Celuch (Bios of the three Principals are here), VPIA® through Crescent Advisor Group, Inc. has administrative assistance from Michelle Vargas and administrative supervision and portfolio advice from Russel Travis. Michelle Phelan also provides administrative assistance to Mr. Evaul. It is the current plan of VPIA® to add more investment talent to VPIA® in the next few years. It is the expectation of VPIA® that the addition of more investment talent will occur once Mr. Celuch is completely assimilated into VPIA®. As has been the case in adding Mr. Adkisson and Mr. Celuch, any new addition will only be a person who is interested in the VPIA® way of investing liquid assets-SURIS®. Such additions will be expected to be willing to apply SURIS®, as opposed to teaching VPIA® the way everyone else does it or how a new addition might think it should be done. While VPIA® expects to learn from anyone added to the VPIA® team (and indeed, would be disappointed if an addition did not teach VPIA® something), VPIA® is committed to keeping their SURIS® approach to liquid asset investing.

7. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. VPIA utilizes Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. as our custodian of record. As a result, VPIA® clients have the comfort of a major Investment firm holding their accounts with real time electronic access to all activity in their accounts. VPIA® has no access to the securities, cash or any assets in the client accounts. All VPIA® only has the right to make trades and allocate assets in the accounts of Clients and to take quarterly charges from those accounts for the fees VPIA® has earned as clearly set forth by the engagement agreement signed by VPIA® and the Client.

8. Client Criteria.

A. Investment Portfolio Creation. Aside from recently added new account minimums ($300,000 for accounts that will be added to regularly/$500,000 for Accounts that are not being added to regularly), there is one additional criteria. VPIA® requires its new and continuing Individual Clients to take the time to understand and accept our VPIA® SURIS® approach and have at least a cursory understanding of investing fundamental concepts. As such VPIA® Principals do not get calls from Clients telling them that the Client has decided to sell all of their stocks because that they heard they should from some talking head on television. No one who understands the VPIA® investment approach would think such a call was appropriate. If a potential Client is not willing to take a couple of hours to gain at least a cursory understanding of the investing fundamentals and the VPIA® investment approach, that potential Client will not want to be a Client of VPIA® and VPIA® will not want them as a Client. 

B. Other Services for Family Offices, Private Foundations, and Other Charitable Institutions. With respect to engagements with Family Offices, Private Foundations, and Other Charitable Institutions for Services other than the creation of Investment Portfolios, the criteria for engagement is substantially different. The size of the liquid asset portfolio of such potential Clients should not be smaller than $25 Million and should not be larger than $2 Billion (smaller potential clients simply do not require the Services and larger should, as a general rule, have these services provided by in house professionals). Indeed many with less than $2 Billion may already have these Services provided by in house professionals. But for those who fit VPIA®'s criteria, VPIA® is available to add value with these services. 


¹Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Investment Advisor Services offered through Crescent Advisor Group, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor