EP# 163 - From Heart Surgeon Dreams to Banking Realities with Harlan Parrish

What if a seemingly insignificant moment could reshape your entire career path? Join us as we welcome Harlan Parrish, Market President for South Lee County at FineMark National Bank and Trust, who shares his extraordinary journey from aspiring cardiologist to seasoned banking professional. Harlan's story begins with a competitive plunge into medical school admissions and takes an unexpected turn thanks to a chance encounter at a tennis shop. Over a 40-year career, Harlan has taken on roles from management trainee to commercial lending and retail banking expert, showing the immense value of adaptability and career flexibility. Future professionals, take note as Harlan debunks myths about "banker's hours" and offers valuable advice on navigating your career.

In this episode, we dive into how the banking industry has evolved, especially post-Great Recession with regulatory changes like the Dodd-Frank Act, and the significant role of technology in shaping modern banking. Yet, despite all these advancements, Harlan underscores the undying importance of customer service and community engagement. Listen in as Harlan recounts personal anecdotes about his family's international background, which deeply influences his approach to banking and customer relations. This episode isn’t just about financial insights; it’s a celebration of the human element in banking, highlighting FineMark’s culture of transparency, financial prudence, and community involvement. Don't miss this enriching discussion with a true industry veteran.

FineMark National Bank & Trust
Harlan Parrish
Coconut Point
10010 Coconut Road
Estero, FL 34135
(239) 405-6700
WEBSITE

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.

Speaker 2: 0:11

Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 163 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Harlan Parrish from Fine Mark National Bank and Trust Harlan welcome.

Speaker 3: 0:22

Thank you, jim, pleasure to be with you.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Yeah, pleasure to get to learn a little bit more about you and FineMark. So let's jump right in. And why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at FineMark?

Speaker 3: 0:35

Sure, so I'm the market president for South Lee County for FineMark National Bank and Trust, so basically oversee our banking trust lending and investment fiduciary services here for South Lee County, for the three locations that we have down in this part of the market.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Very nice. So let's back up your story a little bit. How did you get involved in the bank industry?

Speaker 3: 1:00

So well, a very interesting story. I was actually a pre-med major in college. So well, a very interesting story. I was actually a pre-med major in college. I went to auburn university uh, I was baby. I'm a baby boomer. Been doing this now 40 years.

Speaker 3: 1:10

Hard to believe last month was 40 years when I got into the industry. But I was a pre-med major, wanted to be a cardiologist, had my sights on that from high school, actually did some shadow work with a couple of on that from high school. I actually did some shadow work with a couple of local cardiologists in Alabama where I was living at the time and being a baby boomer. The downfall there is there are a lot of people graduating from college and all of them have really good grades. So I think the universities I applied for out of college when I graduated would have been 1980 at the time. All of them took about 62 students a year new medical students and you had over 1500 to 2000 applying A lot of people applying to medical school, and so I had really good grades involved in the community but just not top tier enough. So I had to go back to school full time, uh, before I uh reapplied again the next year and I did that for three successive years, made the alternates list, uh, one year, but not enough people were in that top 80 that went somewhere else that allowed me to get in. So I was kind of thinking what am I going to do here? And one of my jobs pay my way through school. My mom teased me I had more degrees in a thermometer when I graduated because I kept going back for three more years, and so as a result of that I did get a lot of minors. But that was great, great, great educational experience.

Speaker 3: 2:34

But I did have a lot of jobs to pay my way through school. My parents could not afford to send me to college and so a little scholarship money but ate that up quickly. So I had three or four jobs when I went through school which was beneficial to me and that I really enjoyed my education and treasured my degree for doing that and not having someone else pay for it. But one of my jobs was teaching, running a tennis shop at a country club in Montgomery Alabama, teaching kids lessons tennis.

Speaker 3: 3:01

And a lady came in every day and she took an interest in my plight to get a medical school and really, really liked my personality and, uh, customer service skills. So she told her husband about me. He was a trustee on the board of trustees at auburn university at the time. He also happened to be very successful in his late 30s in the real estate industry and had started a bank two years prior to that. And so he came in one day, said look, my wife loves you. You string her racket every week. You schedule her course for her. She really thinks of the world, of you and your personal skills, your soft skills. How'd you like to come work for?

Speaker 1: 3:32

me.

Speaker 3: 3:33

He said you're not going to get a medical school. You got great grades, but there's just too many. It's too much competition. So you know, if you can get A's in physics and biochemistry you got a great personality I think I can teach you how to do banking. I said, well, the guy was successful and I thought I'll try it. If I don't like it, I'll do something else. I ended up working for him for 26 years. So I became his first management trainee and basically went and worked in every department in the bank for about 18 months and then decided to be a commercial lender, did that for a couple of years and I really wanted to go on the retail side working in the branch system. And I was a branch manager and then moved up pretty quickly and we were buying a lot of banks and before I knew it I was moving up the chain and that's kind of how I got into banking.

Speaker 2: 4:14

Wow, life has its own way of guiding you along your journey.

Speaker 3: 4:29

And you know, sometimes it's not what you envision, but sometimes it puts you in a better place, right? Well, I tell I teach, I talk to a lot of students at FGCU and some other places in the public education system. I tell them, usually 70% of people are not in their chosen field of study within 10 years of graduation. So you just need to be prepared and look for those new doors that open up. You just take those skills that you learned and apply them to a different industry.

Speaker 2: 4:47

Absolutely, absolutely. So, talking about the industry, are there any maybe myths or misconceptions surrounding what you do that we could clear up for our listeners?

Speaker 3: 4:59

Gosh misconceptions. I think, first and foremost, a lot of my college graduates people I graduated in my fraternity, and friends that I have have always over the years said you know banker's hours, man, you must have it made. You got banker's hours. And true, we do have a lot of the federal holiday. When the Federal Reserve's closed, the bank has to be closed. So there are a number of holidays. But aside from that, I think this really emanated, jim, from years ago. Back in the 60s and 70s, there was an old adage when I got into banking. People said it was the 363 rule in banking you paid 3% on deposits, you charged 6% on loans. You were on the golf course at 3 pm. That's not the case anymore. I can assure you of that. It is a very competitive business. You work hard. It's a misconception. I mean I do joke with people.

Speaker 1: 5:49

I tell them yeah, I only work half a day, every day.

Speaker 3: 5:51

I said really. I said, yeah, 12 hours. I mean, that's not what it takes.

Speaker 1: 5:55

I'm working half a day, it's 12 hours it's.

Speaker 3: 5:57

you know my dad told me years ago. He said the only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. So I've always remembered that, tried to instill that in my kids, that if you work hard, good things happen. And for the most part in the banking industry people they work hard, they really do. So that's probably the biggest misnomer or misconception that I could share with you is the hours worked in a banking system.

Speaker 2: 6:21

Absolutely, and banking has changed over the years as well too. My mother grew up in the banking industry and it's just you know, it's a lot of these big corporations have lost that customer service side of things. You know that absolutely with them. Yeah, so are there any things that are maybe trending in the industry or recently changed?

Speaker 3: 6:44

Well, regulatory wise is probably the biggest thing and some of the obviously regulations are important for safety security. But unfortunately, in our industry the pendulum swings way too far to one side after an event and I'll use the Great Recession 2007 to 2009 as an example it has really harmed the banking industry in general in that the Dodd-Frank Act it was gosh, almost a foot two feet thick. All the regulations that came about as a result of that thick. All the regulations that came about as a result of that when, unfortunately, a lot of the issues in the mortgage business back then were mainly done by the shadow banking industry. When you had collateral debt, declatterized debt obligations, all these instruments on Wall Street that were all pooled together to sell these mortgages. Mainstream banks, for the most part, not many of them really made a lot of problem type loans. We didn't do income stated loans. You had to show income at debt to income ratio, debt service coverage ratio, those like the collateral. You had to put some skin in the game. But unfortunately, the hammer came out by Congress and it really has affected the bank industry. A lot of banks across the country since 2009 have actually got out of the banking or the mortgage business. They don't do mortgage loans anymore. That's a shame, really. So I think access to consumers has changed tremendously. I mean one one example I can share with you just when I got into banking, there were over 18000 commercial banks across the United States. Today we have less than 4,500. It's the consolidation. It's very hard for a bank to start up today DeNovo Banks because you can't get a return on the capital, because you have to hire so many people in the back room for compliance and checking the boxes. And again, all that's good and well. It's important the safety and soundness of the industry. However, it's just gone a little too far. So, from a regulatory standpoint, that's one thing I would share. I mean, certainly, technology is a good thing. A lot of great advances with technology, with banking, that continue today, I think, a misnomer. A lot of people think well, people don't write many checks today. There are more checks written today than were 20 years ago. It's just. There's all these other avenues and delivery systems where people can go online, pay their bills online or use their phone and pay with their debit card or credit card, just with their, their iPhone or Android. However, there's still a lot of checks because there are more people and so yeah, but the technology certainly has been an enhancer, I think think for access for clients Some of the things we talk about here all the time.

Speaker 3: 9:24

We're real big on client service. Here at our bank. We're basically locally owned, privately held, and we hire really good people and customer service white glove service is important to us. But we tell our clients all the time look, you may want to access us remotely, but we'll never treat you remotely. So if you call, someone's going to answer the phone, you're not going to get voice jail. If you want to leave a message, we'll let you leave a voicemail message but you're not going to get. That's not going to be your first prompt. Or you're not going to get a 1-800 number automated, someone just with all the prompts telling you what to do. You get a live person and that's people like they need to talk to someone, they want to have access, they want to come in and speak to someone, but they want to call you on the phone and get a hold of you.

Speaker 2: 10:07

And that's the way I remember customer service. You mentioned you spent some time in Alabama.

Speaker 1: 10:14

Were you from originally.

Speaker 2: 10:15

Because I'm guessing, it's probably not Southwest Florida.

Speaker 3: 10:18

No, it's probably not southwest florida. No, it's not. No, my father's in the air force. He uh, went over to the uk after world war ii. This was probably around the early to mid 50s. When he was over there met my mom, who was born and raised in london. He would, on the weekends, would go down with some of his buddies from laken heath or alconberry air force base and he was in radar. He maintained all the radar systems throughout Europe. He actually inspected them. But he worked in the UK and he met my mom at a movie theater when he was going into town to London on the train One weekend. They dated, got married and I was actually born in Cambridge, england, just off base there. So I actually have a British passport and a lot of relatives in England, which is kind of nice. I go back there quite often and so, yeah, I lived in the UK on and off for about nine years.

Speaker 3: 11:07

Jim did come back over to Panama City Tyndall Air Force Base for about a year. Then my dad was stationed in Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento, california, for about two years, but back and forth to England and then we went to Germany and lived there six years in Wiesbaden. He was there at Lindsay Air Station and then from there he got stationed in Montgomery, alabama, and so we moved to Montgomery. That's when I finished out high school, junior senior year and then went to Auburn after that. So then my banking career. I basically worked in Alabama for the first 15 years of my career, moving all around from Montgomery down to Mobile, baldwin County, up to Huntsville. Met my wife up there, had our first child there. Then we transferred to Southwest Florida and I came down here in January of 1999 with that same bank.

Speaker 3: 11:53

I actually ended up reporting to the gentleman that hired me that owned that bank, uh, back in 1999 it was a a while after I started there, but that was my first uh president ceo role for a region here in southwest florida and did that to about 2009 and we were taken over by a very large bank, uh, on the east coast that stepped in to take over us with a great recession and just a really, really big bank.

Speaker 3: 12:19

I won't say any names all banks are good, but just the leadership of that bank that they parachuted in here, uh, I have a philosophy that aids don't work for seas, so I just wasn't very impressed with some of the local people that came in and so I actually left and went back to alabama and worked as the president ce, CEO of a bank that started in 1900 called Alliant Bank in Alexander City. I was based in Birmingham. We were trying to grow our presence there. It was a statewide bank about 15 offices, and the third generation owner wanted to sell it in a few years. So I was involved in getting that bank profitable with a group of other people and we ended up selling it.

Speaker 3: 13:00

And once I sold it I knew the present CEO of fine Mark down here and had been staying in touch with him for a few years, and he asked me to come back down here and I said you know I'd love to, so ended up coming back. So I've on and off been here since 1999, with that four year hiatus where I went up to Alabama, ran it back 1999, with that four year hiatus where I went up to Alabama, ran a bank there and sold it and then came back here. It's been well. September will be nine years since I've been back.

Speaker 2: 13:24

Wow, and we love it. We love it down there for sure.

Speaker 3: 13:27

Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 13:28

So is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about Findmark that maybe they're not aware of or don't know?

Speaker 3: 13:35

Sure, I'll just give you a thumbnail sketch of the history of the company. I won't take long. You cut me off if I'm speaking too much, but Joe Caddy is the chairman and CEO of our company. He was very successful with running as the president of Northern Trust, great organization based out of Chicago. He really built their presence here in Lee County.

Speaker 3: 13:55

Very well known, he and I served on a couple of nonprofit boards United Way and several others over the years when I was the present CEO of Colonial Bank and basically in 2005, 2006, he was flying up north to New England to visit with a very wealthy client and while he was on the airplane he told me he was reading an article on the difference between a jet ski and a battleship and he said you know, he had an epiphany. He said I'm working for a battleship. He said Northern's been a great company. He's treated me very well, but anytime there's a little anything outside the box on a decision, I got to call Chicago to get permission and I want to be able to take care of the client. I want the client to know he's dealing with a decision maker. He left Northern. They flew him up to Chicago, he told me. He said hey, we'll send you anywhere in the world. You're one of our superstars. He said I don't want to go anywhere else. I want to stay here and raise my family in the Fort Myers area. But no offense to you, it's been a great company to work for, but I just want to do things my own way. And so he left and started.

Speaker 3: 14:51

Finemark opened in February of 2007, february 16th and from that day to this day, culture is critically important to him. So is client service. So he's done a masterful job of hiring really good people that are talented, that have the customer service gene in their DNA, and today we have 280 full-time equivalent employees. We're mainly here in Southwest Florida, lee and Collier County, but we have two offices in Scottsdale, arizona, one in Charlestonon, south carolina, and one over in jupiter, florida wow. And so today we're about a 4.1 billion dollar bank in assets. We're not small, but we're not huge either, and we manage about 7.2 billion other people's money, so really big on the investment in the portfolio managers that we have the trust, administration, fiduciary responsibilities and helping people create and grow their wealth and then protect and preserve it when they reach retirement. So that's a big part of what we do Very similar to what Northern did, but on a much smaller scale, and jet ski versus battleship.

Speaker 2: 15:55

So that's probably the most important thing. Yeah, more personal, absolutely battleship. So yeah, more personal, absolutely so. How would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted?

Speaker 3: 16:05

to learn a little bit more about fine mark. Sure, absolutely. You can go out to our website, wwwfindmarkbankcom. We've got several culture videos out there that tell you a little bit about the company. Investment newsletters we are. Chief investment officer puts out a newsletter every quarter. We have a lot of information. We actually have our digital annual report out there for 2003. That's out there now and even though we're privately held, jim, we are very transparent. It's one of our culture attributes to be transparent with our associates and with the public. We have all our financial data out there as well. We're a very safe and secure bank People we do business with. Lending portfolio asset quality is pristine, really, really clean, very conservative organization. So we have all that out there. So you can do that, or you can stop in any one of our nine locations in Lear Collier County.

Speaker 2: 16:55

Very nice, I love it. Harlan, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for being such a good neighbor and I hope to see you out in the community soon sounds great, jim, thanks so much thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast Astero.

Speaker 1: 17:09

to nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpastero. com. That's gnpastero. com, or call 239-296-2621.