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In the spring of 2019, I invested in a real estate lending fund with DLP (Dream Live Prosper) My investment has performed as projected, giving me an internal rate of return right around 10%.
In 2021, Rich Delgado, my contact at DLP, arranged a virtual meeting to tell me all about the DLP Prosperity Membership, a program for accredited investors that focuses on optimizing wealth, legacy, and family for its members.
To qualify as an accredited investor, you need either income of $200,000 as an individual or $300,000 as a couple for a minimum of two years. Alternatively, a net worth of one million dollars not counting your primary home makes you an accredited investor. That will apply to most, but not all, Physician on FIRE readers.
What I was told about this membership sounded too good to be true, and you know what they say about that. I decided I’d better check it out myself. I figured there must be “a catch” if they were offering what they told me they were.
The Cost of a DLP Prosperity Membership
The list price of membership is listed as about $15,000 per individual or couple. That’s half of what Tiger 21, a membership program for 8-figure folks, costs per year. Seems reasonable.
However, DLP investors can join for $5,000 per year. That $10,000 savings sounds like a pretty good perk!
It gets better, though. To grow the membership and bring in more high-income people like yourselves to the party, DLP offers the membership for free to readers of Physician on FIRE and the White Coat Investor.
In other words, if you’re reading this, you can join for free. The other way to score a free membership is to have $2 Million invested with DLP.
What the Prosperity Membership Entails
The backbone of the membership, in my opinion, is a series of three annual long-weekend conferences put on each year. My wife and I attended our first one in Asheville, North Carolina in July of 2021, and we will be in attendance again in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida in November.
There are also shorter events, like the Legacy Builder event at the new DLP Capital headquarters in St. Augustine, FL.
In addition to the in-person events, there are monthly membership calls with DLP CEO Don Wenner, webinars, and free resources like the Elite Journal and Building an Elite Organization books that arrived at my doorstep after joining.
Again, the focus of the membership is on wealth, legacy, and family. DLP has a network of partners that can help with estate planning, asset protection, legacy planning, accounting, and more.
You can learn more about the different aspects of the Prosperity membership here.
Our Experience at our First DLP Prosperity Event
On somewhat short notice, my wife and I decided to take a road trip down to Asheville for the weekend. We left on a Wednesday morning, getting to Knoxville, Tennessee in time to meet physician friends of ours for a sushi dinner downtown.
We drove the final two hours Thursday morning, arriving at the Asheville Marriott Renaissance in time for the first session, and, of course, lunch, which we ate at our table for the first session. All meals, snacks, refreshments, and adult beverages were complimentary throughout the weekend, and there was never a shortage of any of it.
The Speakers
This event was put on by a real estate company, but real estate was rarely a topic of discussion. If I had to put a label on the weekend, I’d call it a personal development retreat. The keynote speakers weren’t there to talk about syndications and funds. They came to share their messages of personal growth and fulfilling your potential.
Eric Maddox, author of Mission: Black List #1, wowed us with tales of his “good cop” interrogations in Iraq that led to the capture of Saddam Hussein. He taught us how to best listen and relate to others and how to find common ground.
Hal Elrod of The Miracle Morning fame expressed gratitude for life after two near-death experiences that included a 6-minute code followed by the message that he’d likely never walk again after a horrendous car accident. He went on to not only walk but also run an ultramarathon.
I’ve incorporated most of the elements of his morning routine into one of my own that now includes a brief meditation, exercise, reading, and writing, all of which I typically have done by about 7:30.
Michael Cole, a former CEO and now managing director for R360, a membership for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, spoke to the fact that most family wealth is squandered within three generations, whereas the Zildjian family has held on for 16 generations.
I also appreciated his insight into different types of capital beyond financial capital: intellectual, social, human, emotional, spiritual, and time.
Brad Stulberg, author of Peak Performance, spoke of mental health, empathy, and groundedness. Don Wenner showed us his detailed schedule that allows him to run a billion-dollar business while still coaching youth football and taking time to learn every day.
Tom Burns, a self-deprecating orthopedic surgeon who authored Why Doctors Don’t Get Rich, actually did talk a bit about real estate investing, but only to demonstrate how it helped put him in a position to live life to the fullest without having to rely on his physician income. As a doctor to the US ski team, he has traveled all over the world pursuing his passions. Tom’s talk was given at the same time as one given by The Familly Board Meeting author Jim Sheils who, I’m told, focused on the fact that you get 18 summers with your kids to create a lasting connection.
The Workshops
One of the goals of the weekend is to get you thinking about guiding principles and long-term goals. Where do you want to be in 5, 10, or 50 years? What do you want to accomplish and what values will help lead you to where you want to be?
In small groups, generally with the people who happened to join us at our table, we contemplated and brainstormed with the aid of post-it notes, easels, and oversized handouts.
We worked on creating a Family Compass, Life Assessent, and Legacy Roadmap. You can learn more about these documents and their purpose from DLP. I wish we had been given a little more time to work on these, as the workshops felt a bit rushed, but I think the idea is to be introduced to the concepts at the meeting and work on refining them at home afterward.
The most interesting workshop was a Your Journey & Building a Legacy Presentation, a peer review of a person’s asset allocation and financial plan. I applaud the members of our group who were brave enough to bare all to their peers. These are highly confidential given the subject matter, so I can’t say much other than that I believe the couple who shared their plan and vision with us got some useful and much-needed feedback.
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The Entertainment and Activities
In the afternoons, there were a couple hours of downtime if you chose to take it, but you also had the option to partake in some group activities.
My wife and I got in on the trolley tour of Asheville (and we were given stickers to hop on and off for the rest of the weekend). We also toured Biltmore on Sunday before leaving town, and DLP provided tickets plus transportation to and from the grand mansion.
On Saturday, I hopped on the bus to visit Green Man Brewing for an organized beer tasting and brewing education session that I probably could have taught. But I’m not known to turn down free beer. Another member and I decided to pub crawl our way back to the hotel in time for happy hour, which started daily at 5 p.m
The dinners were excellent; one was held in the hotel conference center in conjunction with a presentation from Hal Elrod. The others were at historic locations in Asheville. Beforehand, we were asked to choose from common main dishes like beef, fish, chicken, or vegetarian. I believe I had filet mignon, sirloin, and some tasty fish another night.
On the third and final evening, we were bussed to the Omni Grove Park Inn, a magnificent craggy-rock-laden hotel overlooking the city and mountains for dinner and entertainment. Oz Pearlman, a Merrill Lynch analyst turned mentalist who took 2nd place on America’s Got Talent, put on a show that had everyone talking and asking questions.”How did he do that?!?”
He’ll be joining us again in Ponte Vedra Beach come March.
The People
As is true of most large gatherings, the people make the experience memorable.
We had some great conversations with a diverse crowd. Most attendees were people who have invested in DLP. Others were the operators who borrow from DLP for their real estate projects.
Some were business executives and others had made successful exits from companies they had built. Others had aspirations of doing the same someday. There were more than a handful of dentists and physicians, a few of whom first heard about the event when I shared that I would be in attendance.
You can see some of those people in the following video that was filmed at the Asheville Prosperity event:
Don and his team did an excellent job of making everyone feel welcome and well taken care of. They clearly put an incredible amount of effort (and money) into making sure everyone leaves with new knowledge, wisdom, and quite likely some new friends.
While there was plenty of wealth in the room among the 200+ attendees, humility was highlighted more than a few times by both the speakers and DLP brass. The ability to give generously and have a positive impact in your community and beyond is a key part of what drives many of these individuals to strive for success.
“The Catch”
I kept a keen eye out looking for “the catch.” I’m still looking.
We were not given the opportunity to invest in any of DLP’s funds while we were there. There was no paperwork available to sign anyone up. Granted, most of the attendees were already invested with DLP in some fashion.
We did receive an update on each of the funds during the first dinner, and there was an optional session to learn more about a bank DLP will be acquiring. These were not hard sells by any means but rather an update on the current financials, past performance, and focus of the few investments they offer.
My wife did receive an email inviting her to get in touch with someone to discuss her investment options. I got a similar email as a follow-up. The DLP logo was everywhere, of course, including in edible form on some of the desserts we were served. If there is a catch, it’s that you’ll be subject to some advertising, kind of like when you visit this website.
DLP does pay to advertise with Physician on FIRE, also, but they did not ask me to write up this review. I genuinely believe it’s a fantastic and free alternative to some of the costly membership opportunities for high-income and high-net-worth individuals and families, and my wife and I are happy to be Prosperity members.
I would say that the weekends and Prosperity membership are primarily a value-add product for current investors and an introduction to DLP and their philosophies in terms of family, legacy, and wealth for those who are not familiar. We learned more about mindset than money that weekend, and I look forward to attending another one in the near future.
If you are willing and able to put in the time and effort to take advantage of this valuable membership, I encourage you to take the next step. If you’re unlikely to attend most in-person and virtual events and not interested in doing the work of the workshops, this may not be the membership for you. DLP invests a lot of resources into this, and they’d like you to take full advantage.
Taking the Next Step
If you are an accredited investor, click here to learn more about the DLP Prosperity membership. If you follow through with registration, choose the “Wealth Partner” option to receive a complimentary membership.
If you’d like to join me and attend the next long weekend event in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL (near St. Augustine), click here. I hear there will be an opportunity to golf at TPC Sawgrass.
Upcoming Webinars
If you have further questions for me or my friends at DLP, please leave them in the comments below.
16 thoughts on “DLP Prosperity: Free Membership Has Its Privileges”
I have to admit, it does sound too good to be true. But I’m willing to give it a try. It does make sense that the more wealth you build for your investors, the more they will invest with you and bring others to invest with you. The best companies create a strong positive relationship with their clients. I haven’t invested with DLP but if they really make this membership a good experience, then that would probably lead me to invest with them.
Hi Mukesh,
My apologies for any confusion or inconvenience. The memberships is indeed free for PoF and WCI, regardless of whether you invest in our funds or not. I will clarify the same internally with Mike and the other Investor Success Managers.
Michael Krawchuk. He was pretty clear—he said normally it would be $5000 but free for readers. Maybe he’s not clear on the deal you worked out?
Not sure this description is entirely accurate, or maybe I’m reading it wrong. But after talking with someone at DLP directly, it appears the deal is that membership is indeed free for WCI and POF readers, but only if you invest with DLP. So basically the reduced $5000 investor fee is waived. It’s not a blanket free membership to any WCI/POF reader that wants to join. At least that’s how it was spelled out for me in our conversation.
Thats’s interesting to hear, Mukesh. Do you recall with whom you spoke?
Best,
-PoF
Wow! Absolutely nothing about that weekend would be appealing to me. Some vaporware presentations about…something? Free food is nice but I can earn enough to cover dinner in the time in would take to get to the airport.
If you invest with DLP, I gather you pay for all these free entertainments for everyone else.
A long way from the Vanguard approach of doing what you need at the lowest cost possible.
If I wanted to join a club, the fact that others had similar income and networth would not be a reason to pick one.
Do you know of any real estate groups that just invest your money without putting on parties and shows with it? For those who would rather a higher return than enduring a mentalist performance?
You might want to change your name to notAfan.
I found a lot of value in the weekend, but some may not. As physicians, personal development is ignored. We take care of patients at the expense of ourselves and our families.
At this conference, I found the focus on an abundance and growth mindset to be refreshing. The talks were engaging, inspiring, and educational. I just booked flights for the Florida event in November, and we’ll be bringing our family, heading to Orlando for a week or so afterward.
Best,
-PoF
There is a membership form that its requiring us to fill out. There are 4 options.
Standard ($14995), Investor ($4995), Innercircle (Free), Wealth Partner (free).
Which option do we choose to get the free membership through your article link.
Thanks
Hi,
This is Shannon, the Marketing director from DLP. If you are part of Physician on Fire you are considered a wealth partner. Please choose that one and the membership will be free.
Thanks!
I was invited a few years ago to an long weekend “high net worth investment opportunities” the company flew me and my wife to NYC, paid for everything including Yankees game, fancy hotel, nice restaurants, etc. I did not invest anything with them as I thought they will use my money to fly others to NYC to do the same thing, however lots of other colleagues did invest with them. Fast forward few years they all regretted to invest with them, returns are way lower than anticipated and can’t even get their money out as this is private equity. American greed anybody?
Was it this same DLP Company that flew you to New York?
No, and I don’t believe he was trying to insinuate that they did. I think his point was that his friends had a bad experience with a private equity firm in New York City that spent money to court potential investors.
DLP’s main offices are in St. Augustine, FL and Bethlehem, PA.
Best,
-PoF
No, it was not with DLP, this was just my personal experience with another company.
Wow that does sound too good to be true. Is this free membership for the first year only or is it forever if you go through this link?
That’s a good conversation to have with them, but my understanding is that it will be indefinite.
The memberships are for a period of one (1) year. While the current free membership is intended to be ongoing, DLP reserves the right to change the fee structure in the future or to limit the number of free memberships.