A Trusted Advisor Across Generations

Long before the Mahalak family’s dealership portfolio reached its current scale, before the second and then third generation of Mahalaks entered and expanded the family business, Ralph Mahalak Sr., then owner of a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge dealership in Monroe, Michigan, engaged Michael E. Desmon, a local CPA, for some accounting support. 

What began as a fairly typical business relationship in 1978, over the next several decades evolved into something much deeper: a trusted advisory partnership with Rehmann, one grounded in loyalty, continuity, and a shared commitment to long-term success — not only of the family’s dealerships but also of three generations of Mahalaks … and counting.

That breadth and depth matter to the Mahalak family because, like Rehmann, they’ve never seen their business as merely transactional. For the last 60 years, their focus has remained on stewardship: of opportunity, of community, and of family. 

Opportunities Knocking

From the September day in 1966 that 26-year-old Ralph Sr. opened his first dealership with two buddies and 10 new and used Dodge vehicles, it was evident he had both the brain and backbone needed to survive and succeed in the car business. 

Ralph Sr. — or “Senior,” as he would come to be known — didn’t rely on a grand strategy or corporate playbook. Instead, he had a real passion for cars and customers, a relentless work ethic, and a knack for recognizing opportunities and, just as importantly, moving quickly to capitalize on them.  

The late 1960s and early ’70s were a brutal time to be in the auto industry. The era was marked by fuel shortages, gas rationing, skyrocketing interest rates, and a massive market shift away from powerful American gas guzzlers to smaller, fuel-efficient imports. It was a tough landscape for any dealer, but especially for a trio of 20-somethings selling Dodges, a Detroit brand famous for its high-octane V8 muscle cars. 

It wasn’t long before Senior’s partners decided they wanted out of the dealership. Family legend has it they each traded their shares to Senior for a used car, a case of beer, and a box of doughnuts from the bakery up the street. Despite having a wife and four kids at home, Senior opted to hang in there. Against all odds, he kept the dealership afloat. 

Chrysler corporate took notice.

Across town, a factory-owned Chrysler-Plymouth store was floundering. Recognizing Senior’s grit, a corporate executive called him with a proposition: Would he be willing to take over the store’s rent, move his Dodge inventory in, and absorb the entire operation?

He would, and he did. Monroe Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth was born. 

A few years later, opportunity knocked again, courtesy of a struggling Jeep franchise down the road. Like a lot of small business owners of the day, the guy was doing everything he could to keep the wheels turning, Ralph recalls: “He would miss payroll, close down for two or three days, then he’d find somebody that would loan him some money, and he’d get back in business.”  

When the Jeep dealer eventually ran out of lifelines, Senior got the call: Could he come pick up a dozen or so Jeeps, some specialized tools, and the repair manuals?

Once again, he could. So he did.

The timing was auspicious. Only months later, at the North American International Auto Show in early January 1992, Chrysler President Bob Lutz would announce the debut of Jeep’s new mid-sized luxury SUV with far more than a bang: He drove a 1993 Grand Cherokee directly from the factory, up the steps of Detroit’s Cobo Hall, and right through the hall’s plate-glass windows. 

That glass-shattering Grand Cherokee marked a turning point for Chrysler and dealers like Senior, sparking a luxury SUV boom and a surge in profits for the automaker and its dealers. 

Senior’s demonstrations of the virtues of readiness weren’t lost on his children, Ralph Jr., Mike, JP, Monica, and Alex. Just as impactful as witnessing Senior’s ability to act quickly was recognizing the self-discipline that allowed him to do so.  

As Ralph Jr., the eldest son, recalls: “My dad always said, ‘Save your money because when the $#!t hits the fan, you’re going to need cash.’ And thank the Lord, we’ve always had cash reserves to help us grow out of all these different chaotic situations … and sometimes not a lot of cash, but enough to be able to do something [to survive], or to move forward and  take advantage of these opportunities.”

The Second Generation

That disciplined mindset helped shape the way the Mahalak kids have approached work and growth throughout their lives. Long before any of them took on leadership roles, they were learning the dealership business from the ground up — emphasis on the ground. 

“Mike and I were emptying waste baskets and plowing snow and shoveling snow from the time we could push a broom,” says Ralph. “We were always in it.” 

“We’d work most of our Saturdays and summers down there,” adds Mike, “doing all the nastiest jobs that he could find for us. And I got to tell you, we did some nasty stuff, too — jobs that would make a billy goat puke.” 

There was no expectation from Senior, however, that any of the kids would take over the business as adults. 

“It was just our way of helping out, helping the family get to where we — they — were wanting to go,” says Mike. 

But those formative years were about more than chores. Their father made it clear as the kids got older: If they wanted in the business, he’d give ’em a shot. But he’d expect them to make the most of it.  

Says Mike: “He said to us, ‘Listen, I’m going to give you nothing more than an opportunity. But,’ he told us, ‘the opportunity is going to be more than most people are going to get.’”

In other words, support was there — but so were expectations, accountability, and pressure to deliver real results. “… Dad saw it as an investment,” explains Mike. “And he expected a solid return.”

Building on the foundation they’d learned at their dad’s store, his kids set out to learn the business beyond it. After college, Ralph, Mike, and JP each took jobs at other dealerships, in other states. 

(Says Ralph, “I think he wanted to disown [us]. But in the end, he figured out, ‘Wait a second, maybe this is a good idea.’”)

No doubt, their determination and outside experience impressed Senior. One by one, each of the brothers joined the family business, and the family set its sights on growth, launching a major expansion into Central Florida in 1991. Operating under the catchy “Low Payment Kings” banner, based on a wildly successful deal Ralph had concocted at the Monroe store — a one-year, one-pay lease on brand new Dodge Dakotas — Senior and Mike founded Dodge Chrysler Jeep RAM FIAT of Winter Haven, which would become the group’s Sunshine State flagship.

Over the next two decades, the Mahalak brothers proved they had inherited Senior’s knack for spotting opportunity. They expanded back into the Midwest in 2006 by establishing the Buckeye Superstore in Shelby, Ohio, then a few years later, rapidly deepened its southern footprint, opening Posner Park Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM FIAT in Davenport, FL and acquiring Lake Wales Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM in Lake Wales, FL.

The momentum didn’t stop there; in 2021, the Mahalak family further strengthened their regional Midwest presence by bringing LPK Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM of Defiance, Ohio, into the fold, cementing their evolution from a single, gritty hometown lot into a multi-state automotive powerhouse. 

That’s not to say the going was easy. Like any multigenerational business owners, the Mahalaks had to navigate periods that were anything but predictable. But, Mike and Ralph are quick to point out, they’ve never had to do it alone. 

Through the challenges their father faced — gas rationing and skyrocketing inflation of the ’70s, Chrysler’s near-bankruptcy in 1979 — and those the family has faced together —  the financial crisis of 2008, the global pandemic, and other volatile times in and outside their dealerships — each generation of Mahalaks has relied on Rehmann not only for tax, accounting, and financial guidance but also for practical help, expertise, and an informed perspective.

Ralph recalled how valuable that support was during the COVID-19 years in particular. “You guys were a huge help with all the webinars and seminars and HR issues, helping us navigate through that chaos. It was really remarkable,” he says. “We were able to navigate through another crisis successfully and get to the other side and keep growing our business. Every time we’ve entered one of these $#!t shows, it’s been tough. But every time, we come out on the other side and seem to be better.”

What stands out, they say, is that the family’s relationship with Rehmann has never felt transactional. Whether opportunities or crises appeared, any time the path forward looked murky, their advisors have helped the family sort through complexity, fully understand their options, and move ahead with confidence.  

“They’ve been great,” says Ralph. “I’ve never really made any decisions, big decisions, without talking to your team first.” 

Confidence & Continuity

Trust isn’t just a byproduct of years spent together; it’s forged by the repeated moments of reliability and integrity that prove a relationship’s value. Few partnerships embody this dual foundation better than the one between the Mahalak family and their three generations of advisors at Rehmann. 

Rehmann’s Brian Luallen has worked with the family since the mid-1980s, when he began his accounting career under Senior’s original advisor, Mike Desmon.  

Brian worked side-by-side with the second generation of Mahalaks during their transformative move into Florida in the early ’90s and has proven to be a cornerstone of their tax and business strategies ever since. Today, with seven members of the third generation working in the family’s six dealerships, Brian is proactively ensuring continuity by integrating his next-gen counterpart at Rehmann, Ryan Wichmann, into the family’s tax and business plans. 

To the Mahalaks, Brian isn’t “just” an accountant; he’s a vital advisor who aligns his expertise and guidance with the family’s goals, values, and long-term vision. 

“I almost think of Brian like a brother. I mean, he’s not ‘technically’ invested in us, in our businesses, but he is invested as our mentor and guide,” Mike says. “And I think Ryan will be that for our third generation, as Brian has been for us, and Mike [Desmon] was for my dad.” 

Perhaps not surprisingly then, when Brian recommended that the family look to Rehmann to orchestrate their wealth and estate planning, his word carried immense weight. The benefit of having that specialized guidance from the same firm that had walked hand in hand with the family’s business became profoundly clear in Senior’s later years and legacy. 

Senior and Jane, elementary-school sweethearts whose families had survived the Great Depression, chose to live modestly throughout their lives. For them, money wasn’t a scorecard for personal luxury; it was a tool for security and stewardship. They steadfastly practiced the precise discipline Senior had preached to his kids about keeping healthy cash reserves on hand in preparation for crises and opportunities.

But there was another, deeper reason for the pair’s respect for the dollar: Both believed that financial discipline was what granted them the freedom to give back. Throughout their lives, Senior and Jane quietly and generously poured resources into the Monroe community, backing local cornerstones like St. John’s Parish and working through the Community Foundation of Monroe County to support countless local causes, a philanthropic legacy that the family eventually formalized by establishing the Ralph E. Mahalak Memorial Scholarship to fund local students pursuing automotive technology careers.  

Despite the success of the family’s dealerships and Senior’s generous legacy, after he passed away in 2017, Jane remained fearful of money running out. She would hesitate over writing a simple $700 check, says Mike, worried that it might somehow bounce.

To help ease her anxiety, Ralph and Mike brought her to Rehmann’s offices in Troy. Ralph says what happened next was one of the most memorable moments of his life — and one of the reasons he values Rehmann so much. 

Sitting around the conference table, the advisors didn’t just present lines on a ledger; they spoke Jane’s language. They gently explained that her wealth wasn’t a fragile glass structure, but a solid foundation.  

As Ralph tells it, “They looked at her and said, ‘Jane, you can go out right now and buy a diamond necklace if you want to. All you’d be doing is swapping a dollar of cash for a dollar of necklace. Your financial statement isn’t going to break. You aren’t going to go bankrupt, and you aren’t going to starve.’”

Hearing those words backed by clear, understandable numbers and equally understandable explanations, says Ralph, changed everything for their mother. The heavy shroud of worry vanished. Right after the meeting, the family headed down the street to a local restaurant for a celebratory lunch, and Ralph says you could practically feel the weight lift off her shoulders.

“I’m telling you, it was like a resurrection,” Ralph says. “Once she knew she could replace cash with diamonds, it was like, green light, baby, let’s go!”

Ultimately, says Mike, Jane didn’t change her lifestyle at all. She certainly didn’t go out and buy any diamonds. But the knowing she could, the understanding of her total financial picture changed her. The paralyzing fear was replaced by absolute peace of mind.

That commitment to clarity would prove just as transformative for the siblings when it came time to settle their parents’ estate after Jane passed away in 2021. 

For years, a fog of confusion hung over the inheritance that had passed to Ralph, Mike, JP, Alex, and their sister, Monica. The brothers knew a massive amount of estate tax had been paid, but they couldn’t wrap their heads around how those tax numbers connected to the actual amounts landing in the irrevocable trusts established for their benefit. The math felt like an impenetrable maze.

Recognizing that this lingering confusion could breed anxiety and friction, Brian decided to break the pattern. He looped in Rehmann wealth advisors Dave Ladomer and Mark Meyers, who went to work mapping out the entire financial ecosystem.

Instead of handing the siblings a stack of dense legal documents, Dave and Mark laid out a single, comprehensive flowchart. Visually, step-by-step, they walked the family through exactly how the assets flowed through the estate, where the taxes were applied, and how the final balances landed in each sibling’s account.

Seeing the entire picture drawn out blew the fog away. Finally, the brothers and their sister didn’t just see the numbers — they understood the why behind them. That visual map turned a historically stressful, complex, clinical process into a deeply human moment of clarity, giving the siblings the confidence they needed to make sound decisions for their own financial present and future.

Protecting Wealth, Preserving Values

For the Mahalak family and Rehmann, business, tax, wealth, estate, and trust planning are not abstract financial exercises or siloed transactions. They are tightly interconnected parts of a larger, deliberate effort to grow and protect what the previous generation built while preparing the next generation to carry it responsibly. 

This is where the true power of Rehmann’s unified advisory services comes to life. Because the Mahalak family — and the families within the larger family —  doesn’t have to piece together guidance from disconnected vendors, they gain a holistic, 360-degree view of their entire ecosystem. 

No matter what crossroads the Mahalaks have encountered over the last half-century —whether they needed foundational corporate accounting, a complex corporate tax strategy, an intricate estate design, HR support during economic shifts, or a specialized cost segregation study to maximize a dealership real estate investment — they’ve had a deeply rooted, unified team of specialized advisors they could turn to.  

Crucially, this comprehensive approach extends beyond business balance sheets and tax mitigation. It directly serves the family’s philosophy on wealth itself. Mike and Ralph are candid about the danger of unearned wealth transfer for the next generation of Mahalaks, viewing the preservation of assets as a tool for character building rather than entitlement. 

Ralph puts it bluntly: “The estate planning has been really great, I think. Really great.

Mike interjects: “The big spreadsheet. I love it.” 

“Your team is saving us money in taxes, protecting our assets, and certainly not flooding these kids with cash right now and ruining them,” finishes Ralph.

In that sense, the work Rehmann’s multidisciplinary team does is deeply aligned with the family’s values. 

Just like Senior, the second generation of Mahalaks has woven deep community giving into the very fabric of the “Low Payment Kings” brand. In Michigan, the siblings established the annual “18 Aces to Conquer Cancer” charity golf outing, a high-impact regional event that channels critical funds directly to the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute for pancreatic cancer research.

Down in Florida, their flagship operations heavily anchor major community pillars. Although the Winter Haven dealership is about 15 blocks from downtown, the Mahalaks were one of the very first investors in the Main Street Winter Haven revitalization efforts. Mike and his wife, Janine, also founded Fore the Love, an annual golf and tennis charity event to benefit the Winter Haven Women’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

The group regularly partners with regional radiothons to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, while Mike serves as a vital champion for local healthcare infrastructure through his dedicated board leadership with the Winter Haven Hospital Foundation. 

It is a sweeping, multi-state legacy of local impact that recently earned Mike a nomination for the prestigious national TIME magazine Dealer of the Year award, an honor reserved strictly for dealers who pair exceptional business success with an unwavering, hands-on commitment to community service.

In the end, the Mahalak family’s story is one of hard work, disciplined growth, strong family bonds, and a determination to think far beyond the next fiscal quarter or vehicle transaction. It is also a beautiful testament to the profound impact of having a single, unified advisory firm that can adapt and grow alongside a family across generations. 

For nearly 50 years, Rehmann has helped the Mahalak family navigate complex crossroads with greater confidence. Just as important, the firm has offered something less tangible but infinitely more valuable.  

“You know what I like, what I really get from Rehmann? I don’t want to say calmness — that kind of sounds cheesy — but you know, regardless of how crazy the day or the week was, I can have a conversation with those guys and walk away going, ‘OK, we’re not as bad off as I think we are. I mean, I always think we’re worse off than we are, right?” says Mike with a laugh. “But they give me a lot of sense of perspective as to where we’re at, and what we’re doing, and what the next moves are. That’s invaluable.”