The story of how we got here:

In 1984 Bob Toal graduated with a combined JD/MBA from University of Detroit. He worked for Plante & Moran in the tax department and as a stockbroker with Roney & Co. in Detroit. In 1985, after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School and passing the bar exam, Ron Yolles started his career as a financial analyst and wealth manager at a Detroit-based financial planning firm.

Ron was one of the leaders in the local “fee-only” planning & investing movement, and in 1987, Ron founded Yolles Investment Management (“YIM”) as one of the first fee-only planning firms in southeastern Michigan. One of YIM’s core principles was to ‘go the extra mile for our clients and their families’, and that remains a core principle of the Diversified Portfolios today.

In 1989, Bob moved from Roney & Co. to Advance Capital Management which provided retirement planning and investment management. Bob was primarily involved with stock and bond analysis and investment management.

Meanwhile, In 1993, Tom Post left his wife’s family real estate business and went to work for Merrill Lynch. He quickly realized that Merrill was not a good fit for how he wanted to work with clients and left to go to work for Independence Advisors, a fee-only registered investment advisor.

Then, In 1993, Bob concluded, based on his own experience, and mounting academic research, that trying to predict which stocks and bonds would outperform the market was counterproductive and not adding value for clients. He left Advance Capital and established Diversified Portfolios, Inc. to offer clients fee-only investment management using primarily passively managed, low-cost, tax-efficient mutual funds.

By good fortune, Tom is introduced to Bob through a mutual friend and they begin to compare notes on how they are helping clients meet their goals. In 1998 and 2000, Ron wrote two books about “fee-only no-load” planning, including the retirement bestseller You’re Retired, Now What? (John Wiley, New York, 1998) & Getting Started in Retirement Planning (Wiley, 2000). The books and going the extra mile helped fuel growth and “YIM” became one of the larger fee-only wealth management firms in Oakland County at the time.

During the 2000s, Bob, Ron, and Tom ran into each other in the community and were aware that they had the same investment philosophy and approach to doing the right thing for clients.

In 2009, Ron and Tom both miraculously call Bob the same month in the late summer and say they are ready to make a change in their careers. The next week, Bob, Ron, and Tom met in Bob’s backyard and created a business plan on the back of a napkin.

Ron and Tom merged into Diversified Portfolios, Inc. in 2010. 100% of their existing clients signed up to be clients of the new firm. Since then, Diversified Portfolios has grown tremendously, thanks mostly to our amazing clients’ referrals, and tripled in staff. Click here to meet our amazing team, and please stop in and see us anytime!