Bloomfield Hills Merrill Advisors Earn Forbes Best-in-State honors

Four Merrill financial advisors in Bloomfield Hills have been named to Forbes magazine's "Best-in-State Advisors 2022" list. Each advisor—selected by SHOOK Research—is chosen based on an algorithm of qualitative and quantitative criteria, including: in-person interviews; industry experience; compliance records; revenue produced; and assets under management.

Honorees included: Melissa Spickler, Joe Carter, Michael Tyranski, and Dan Totonchi.

Melissa Spickler — founder of the Spickler Wealth Management Group — joined Merrill in 1980, and holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor designation. She is also a qualified Portfolio Manager who, in addition to providing traditional advice and guidance, can help clients pursue their objectives by building and managing her own personalized or defined strategies. Melissa built her team with the aim of providing individuals and businesses with the same high-quality wealth management she would expect to receive as a client. She believes that this commitment to excellence, together with her integrity, collaborative approach and dedicated work ethic, are among the reasons that some clients have chosen to remain with her for more than three decades and that a number of her relationships span four generations. She earned her bachelor's degree from Michigan State University.

Dan Totonchi began his career with Merrill in 1997. His focus is on comprehensive wealth and portfolio management for high-net-worth individuals, corporations and endowments.

Dan is a qualified Portfolio Manager who, in addition to providing traditional advice and guidance, can help clients pursue their objectives by managing on a discretionary basis his own personalized or defined strategies, which may incorporate individual stocks and bonds, model portfolios, and third-party investment strategies.

Dan lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan with his wife Amy and sons Brian and Jack. He enjoys spending time with family and friends, golfing, boating, snowmobiling, hunting, and shooting sporting clays. When not in the Detroit area, you can find him in the Eastern Upper Peninsula in the Les Cheneaux Islands. He also enjoys serving on the Finance Council at his church, the board of the Great Lakes Boat Building School, and on various committees at Detroit Golf Club. He attended Central Michigan University.

Michael P. Tyranski works for Merrill in Bloomfield Hills and has been with Merrill for over 25 years. He has completed a financial advisor leadership alumni program at the Wharton School of Business and an Advanced Portfolio Management course at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business. Michael earned his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification in 2002

Michael grew up in Royal Oak, and attended Michigan State University, graduating from the School of Business with a bachelor's degree in finance.

He lives with his wife, Kari, in Birmingham, and has three children: Mitchell, Kevin and Ryan. Michael is president of the Brother Rice Endowment Fund. Past board experience includes treasurer of the Torch Lake Protection Alliance from 2006 to 2007 and service on the board of directors and as treasurer of Gift of Life of Michigan from 2012 to 2015. Hobbies include running, skiing and coaching his children's baseball teams.

Joe Carter takes pride in his detail-oriented approach in understanding client goals and designing strategies to fulfill them. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a degree in Finance and emphasis on Securities Analysis. In addition to his financial education, Joe holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor designation awarded by the College for Financial Planning Institutes Corp. Joe is a qualified Portfolio Manager, and is a resident of Birmingham. This is his second consecutive year being named to the Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” list.