Insights into leadership at the Spring Leadership Conference.
How United Community’s dedication to core principles led to prestigious recognition. Embracing
Why “community” defines this bank’s identity.
206 BANKING OFFICES
6 STATES
3,151 TOTAL EMPLOYEES
$26.9 BILLION IN ASSETS
the third issue of In Good Company, a magazine that tells the stories of the people and customers of United Community.
As we continue to grow, we find this magazine is a way to help us stay small and stay connected to each other and the communities we serve. By sharing the stories of United, we hope to show how we carry out our mission of building communities.
Inside this edition, you’ll learn about our roadmap to receiving our tenth JD Power award. We looked at why our customers choose us again
and again as #1 in Customer Satisfaction in the Southeast and the most trusted bank, and we talked about the steps we’re taking to make sure we continue the trend.
You’ll read about one of our great technology partners, Greenlight, and how we work together to help our younger bankers get a jump start on learning to spend and save wisely. You’ll also find ways to protect your own business from the daily fraud battles that we all now constantly fight and the continued story of our brand refresh and how “community” defines our identity.
Finally, next year, we will celebrate the bank’s 75th anniversary. As we look forward to that, we look back at our roots and a beloved tradition—I hope you enjoy the story of ‘Tomato Day’ and how this event helped shape the United culture we’re so proud of.
United Community continues to have a great story to tell—and we’re so glad you’re with us on this journey. We are grateful to be In Good Company.
Lynn Harton, Chairman and CEO, United Community
581
Magazine
Publisher Mark B. Johnston
Editor Claire Billingsley
Design Director Kristy M. Adair
Copy Editors
Pete Martin
John Stevenson
Kids can learn about money management through Greenlight Financial Technology’s app.
EXECUTIVE PRESENCE
Insights into leadership at the Spring Leadership Conference.
29 CUSTOMER PROGRAM
A PATH to homeownership with United Community’s loan program.
18 EMBRACING COMMUNITY
Why “community” defines this bank’s identity.
22 AWARD-WINNING SERVICE
How United Community’s dedication to core principles led to prestigious recognition.
28 COMMUNITY
A tasty tradition that brings a community together.
30 CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS
Business owners share how United Community meets their unique needs.
By Rick Spruill
The numbers are staggering.
Payments fraud topped $102 billion in the Americas in 2023, according to Nasdaq’s 2024 Global Financial Crimes report. Check fraud topped $21 billion.
The losses are so large that Nasdaq Chair and CEO Adena Friedman called financial crime an epidemic that feeds some of society’s most insidious criminal enterprises, from human trafficking to the global drug trade to international terrorism.
It’s why Alison Townsend, United Community’s Director of Treasury Management, says fraud prevention is not optional.
“Business customers can never just ignore the possibility of fraud,” she says. “It’s not an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when.’ Most of the data suggests anywhere from 65% to 80% of American businesses were affected by fraud in 2023. So, the risk is real no matter who you are.”
It’s where Townsend’s team comes in, helping businesses, both large and small, protect themselves from what can be an existential threat.
“From microbusinesses all the way up to publicly traded companies, we find that they’re all equally affected by fraud,” she says. “And for small businesses that probably don’t carry the insurance of larger businesses, fraud can take them down much, much faster.”
Townsend says United Community’s formula includes education, system controls, and offering services and tools such as Positive Pay.
Positive Pay is a fraud-prevention tool designed to ensure physical checks are not counterfeited. Through a process of comparison, discrepancies in checks are noted and put on
hold until the business can review them.
But United does not stop there, Townsend says.
“So much fraud prevention is rooted in a business’s internal controls that it can make serving them a challenge if those controls are not there,” she says. “One customer is having to issue 20 to 50 stop payments each month because checks are not making it to their vendors. So, we’re working with them to validate the process, to ensure that the checks that are being written, are being cashed by the intended vendor.”
Another customer is battling a phishing scam that infiltrated its accounting software, changed routing and accounting information, and got away with more than $1 million in a two-month period.
“That was a huge loss for that business,” Townsend says. “And that business even had a series of internal checks and balances in place. But, by the time they notified us, the money was gone.”
It’s why Townsend and her team spend more and more time educating their customers on the front end, teaching them how to spot the fraudsters who are growing more sophisticated by the day.
“We’ve taken on a much stronger advisory role in treasury management than we ever have,” she says. “Everything we do in our department is customer-centric. We are United Community — a community of banks — everything we do is to deliver on our promise to be the bank that service built, leading conversations with fraud prevention with every single customer.
“It used to be talking to new customers about ACH and payroll services,” she says. “Now the conversation is more centered around the vulnerabilities.”
Next year, United Community will mark its
th
We are proud of our story that began in 1950 in rural Northeast Georgia and over the years has grown into a company with the best customer service and most trusted bankers in the industry.
We have been providing our customers with a safe and secure place to bank since our origin, and we look forward to continuing to build on this legacy.
We are excited to share our story as we celebrate all year long in 2025! United Community, building communities for 75 years.
MARCH: Celebrate the official opening of the bank, which first opened for business on March 1, 1950.
APRIL: Financial Literacy Month
MAY 2: Customer Appreciation Day
There’s an app for that, courtesy of Greenlight and United Community
By Jerry Salley
Teaching financial literacy to kids and teens can be challenging in the age of debit cards and digital payments, as Keri Wise, head of retail sales for United Community, understands firsthand.
“Back when I was growing up, it was a little bit easier,” she said. “Mom gave you a $5 bill for your allowance, and you better have change. You had to manage that, because that’s all you had until next week.”
But instead of keeping track of the bills and coins flowing out of a piggy bank, Wise’s own children, ages 12 and 14, were used to services like PayByPhone and Apple Pay.
“I realized I was probably failing when they said, ‘Mom, just give us your card,’” she said.
So, when United Community partnered with Greenlight last year to offer its financial-education services and debit card to families, Wise was eager to
try it out at home. With the Greenlight app on a phone or tablet, parents can instantly send money, set up chores and allowances, and create savings goals. They can also monitor their child’s spending with real-time notifications, approve certain transactions, and set limits on where and how much they can spend.
The app has helped her kids think hard about where their money is going, said Wise — for instance, when her son used the Greenlight card to buy ice cream at a ballpark.
“He came back and said, ‘That was $6.50 for a serving of ice cream!’” Wise said. “He hadn’t cared about that before, but now he was thinking, ‘I only have $32; is it really worth it?’”
Level Up ™, an in-app game, presents a series of small challenges made up of videos, minigames and quizzes to help instill real-life moneymanagement skills.
“It’s a key part of Greenlight’s financial
education strategy,” said Brandon Horne, general manager of partnerships for Greenlight.
“When we asked families where they were getting their financial-literacy information from, almost unanimously they said, ‘social media,’” Horne said. “Not necessarily the most vetted, trusted resource for things like that. But they liked it because it was bite-sized, digestible, engaging content.”
With that in mind, Greenlight built Level Up ™ to be a highly engaging, immersive experience, mapping the content to national financial literacy standards. It has helped Greenlight reach more than 6 million parents and kids nationwide, said Horne, adding that the Greenlight for Banks service has partnered with more than 75 financial institutions across the U.S., including United Community. The Wall Street Journal and PCMag have both praised Greenlight, and the app consistently gets four-star ratings from end users.
The Greenlight for Banks program allows Greenlight to further its financial education mission without the usual subscription cost for the user, said Horne, “which is why we partner with folks like United Community that are mission-driven and deep in their community that can offer this as a value-added benefit for their customer base.”
“I love the tools,” said Wise. “My kids got to see for themselves how money works and start being able to make individual choices themselves. And for United Community to absorb the cost shows that we think it’s important for people in the community to learn that at a young age.”
For more information, visit ucbi.com/greenlight.
“ ” My kids got to see for themselves how money works and start being able to make individual choices themselves.
– Keri Wise KERI WISE
By Jerry Salley
Ward Ragland always knew what his life’s work would be. After all, groceries had been the family business since 1935, when his grandfather and great-uncles launched a wholesale supply business servicing stores throughout the Southeast, eventually diversifying into retail sales.
Now employing more than 200 people and running nine groceries throughout the Tennessee Valley and northern Alabama, Ragland leads Ragland Bros. Retail Cos. from its Huntsville, Alabama, headquarters. His path to the top started at ground level at age 16, bagging groceries in one of his family’s stores in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.
“I eventually worked in all the departments— produce, meat, cashier, front office, store management,” Ragland said. “I was really drawn to retail at that time. I enjoyed the customer interaction and then the marketing and operation of the grocery business.”
Ragland has continued a tradition of innovation passed down from his grandfather and father. Ragland Bros. was the first wholesaler in the Southeast to use computers for ordering and invoicing. Their M&J Supermarkets were some of the first in the Southeast to introduce scanners. And more recently, the company opened an Ace Hardware store within one of its two Piggly Wiggly stores in north Alabama. Based on the store’s success, the company also opened a stand-alone Ace Hardware.
“I thought it would be a great combination,” Ragland said. “In locations outside of major metropolitan areas, we were several miles away from the large hardware
operations. It just made sense that Ace Hardware would serve that population well, from a convenience standpoint.”
When Ragland was seeking a new bank in 2018, he didn’t have to look far. One of his golfing companions was JEP Buchanan, an executive at Huntsville’s Progress Bank and Trust, which would join the United Community family in 2022.
“We reviewed everything and acted quickly to move all his loans and deposits,” said Buchanan, now the Huntsville market president for United. “I know people question if you can actually do business on the golf course, and I say you can!”
Ragland found that the attention he received from Buchanan, as well as Progress founder and CEO David Nast—now United’s Alabama/Florida panhandle president— and Scott Seeley, SVP and commercial relationship manager, was unprecedented in his 40-plus years of dealing with banks.
“They were very anxious to support us and work with us, and that’s not something you consistently see,” Ragland said. “Large banks tend not to be as interested in small, independent businesses. United is a substantial bank, but they don’t act like the larger chains, and that’s a real asset to small businesses and our community.”
For its part, United is glad to help Ragland Bros. provide crucial services to smaller communities throughout the region, said Buchanan.
“They primarily operate in smaller markets where there is not a large chain supermarket,” he said. “I think it sends a great message to the community that United supports these types of family-owned businesses in great communities. It is a great partnership.”
United Community’s Spring Leadership Conference offers insight into leadership at every level
No one could take their eyes off of her.
She was just one more person in the bustling crowd that filled the halls of the Munich airport that day, and yet there was something about the way she walked, the way she carried herself. Total strangers found themselves pausing, turning, to watch as she sashayed by, parting through the busy crowds. The girl wore a backpack, and she was well-dressed, but it was more than that. She held her head high, confidently looking ahead, focused on where she was going. She was self-aware enough to notice the eyes that were upon her, and she embraced her audience.
Indeed, the girl relished it.
Remembering this day as she stood onstage at the United Community Spring Leadership Conference,
250 MILLISECONDS: The time it takes colleagues to size up your likeability, trustworthiness and competence based on your appearance.
keynote speaker Elizabeth Chevalier said, “And that person in the airport, that young lady, happened to be my 5-year-old daughter.”
As laughter rippled through the crowd of United Community executives and leaders gathered inside the Peace Center’s Gunter Theatre in downtown Greenville, Chevalier took the moment to point out the lesson behind the story.
“What is it about presence that at the age of 5, we can command passers-by and strangers to notice us?” Chevalier asked.
The answer to that question drove the conversation during the conference, an annual retreat that brings together leaders from United Community’s footprint across the Southeast. This year was notable for the growing financial institution, which is celebrating not only a brand refresh but also the opening of its new $65 million, 200,000-square-foot headquarters at 200 E. Camperdown Way in downtown Greenville.
The conference began with a presentation from Holly Berry, chief human resources officer with United Community, who spoke about what she called “the tools and resources that enhance leadership capability.”
Key among these, Berry said, is The Predictive Index, an assessment tool that dates back to the 1950s, which uses a simple six-minute assessment of prospective or current employees to categorize them into one of 17 different reference profiles.
“And by the way, all profiles are good,” Berry was quick to note. “There are no bad reference profiles —just different ones.”
Some profiles are more social, others more analytical. Some are more persistent and desiring of transformation, while others are focused more on stabilizing current operations.
The Predictive Index allows organizations like United Community to optimize talent, hire and onboard the bestfitting people, build teams effectively, improve communication and collaboration, and mitigate risk of interpersonal conflicts, according to Berry.
“The reason we use this tool, and we have been for several years now, is to really understand the behaviors of candidates for our jobs and of our current employees,” she said. “It’s one of the small handful of assessments that are scientifically validated, and that’s key — we don’t just want to throw anything out to our employees.”
The overlaps between science and a more instinctually driven leadership style were also at the heart of Chevalier’s keynote address.
As United Community continues to adapt to meet the challenges of the decades to come, Chevalier used her keynote address to home in on the elements that define what she called “executive presence” — that is, the combination of confidence, poise and authenticity that makes a great leader and drives a team toward success.
Backed by more than 20 years of experience in talentmanagement strategy, Chevalier said she wanted to dispel some of the more common myths she has encountered during her decades of coaching and training leaders, especially C-suite executives.
“Leadership influence hinges heavily on how people feel when they are in your presence. One of the hallmarks of a great leader is that people are doing what you want them to do when you’re not there.
”
– Elizabeth Chevalier
The combined effect of one’s grooming, clothing, hair, height, posture and health.
One’s ability to command a room with clear, concise speaking, forcefulness, sense of humor, and ability to read a room and adapt accordingly.
The ability to take a stance and make confident, forceful decisions under pressure for the greater good.
The ability to accurately understand one’s current brand, identify the brand one wants, and identify the means by which one can align one’s communication and actions to realize that brand identity.
“Executive Presence” — that is, the combination of confidence, poise and authenticity that makes a great leader and drives a team toward success.
“Who said you have to look grumpy to be powerful?” she said. “Who came up with that? Forget it.”
She pointed to leaders like President Barack Obama, South African President Nelson Mandela, and former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg as examples, all of whom, Chevalier noted, exuded warmth and attentiveness when engaging with their teams, rather than anger or malevolence.
“Leadership influence hinges heavily on how people feel when they are in your presence,”
Chevalier said. “One of the hallmarks of a great
“Emotional intelligence drives executive presence.
”
– Elizabeth Chevalier
leader is that people are doing what you want them to do when you’re not there.”
What may sound simple is actually one of the most foundational elements of great leadership, according to Chevalier, and it’s all guided by an understanding of the emotions and needs of the people with whom a leader works.
“Emotional intelligence drives executive presence,” she said.
The goal of the conference was to leverage that emotional intelligence to spur teams and communities beyond their own expectations of themselves, one of the key missions driving United Community in the years to come.
Executive presence, despite its name, can be found not only at the executive level, Chevalier said. There is a place for such emotional intelligence at every level of an organization, because the smallest of interactions, with the smallest of customers, can set the tone and change a life.
To demonstrate her point, Chevalier asked the crowd to think back to a great teacher from their childhood, someone who changed their lives for the better. In her case, growing up in an abusive household, the only person in her life who looked after her, who told her she was worth something, was a teacher she had when she was 10 years old named Mrs. Rypstraw.
“I remember everything about her: the color of her hair, the way she smiled at me, even the way she smelled,” Chevalier said. “I remember what I would feel like in her presence. I get teary-eyed even thinking about it. I get goosebumps. Because that woman was the foundation for me to start believing in myself.”
“This,” Chevalier said, “is the power of executive presence.”
The surprising story behind United Community’s brand refresh
When United Community Bank was looking to update its branding by adjusting its name to the more simplified “United Community,” it hardly seemed like a massive change.
All they were doing was lopping off the word “bank,” after all, and for a brand as well-established as United Community, removing that one word seemed not so much a rebrand as it was a refresh.
But that simple change—coupled with a new logo—has signaled a new era for the bank, whose reputation had already been well-earned over more than 70 years, having grown to become one of the largest and most trusted full-service financial institutions in the Southeast.
Countless families in the region have been able to buy homes, start businesses, send their children to college and create generational wealth thanks to partnerships with United Community’s team. The bank’s philanthropic efforts, led by the United Community Bank Foundation, have supported the region in ways big and small, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in direct donations, as well as supporting programs and organizations that empower youth development, provide economic uplift to communities and help families find stable housing.
“To us, that’s really what the ‘community’ is about in our name,” said Abraham Cox, chief marketing officer with United Community.
But there was a challenge.
“In certain markets, people knew us as ‘United Community Bank,’ and in others it was more prevalent as the acronym ‘UCB,’ and there were also a fair amount of ‘Uniteds’ out there, so it created customer confusion and branding confusion,” Cox said.
That’s what led the bank to refresh under the “United Community” brand—a fresh name that also coincided with a new era for the bank, which just this year celebrated the opening of its new $65 million, 200,000-square-foot headquarters at 200 E. Camperdown Way in downtown Greenville.
“It is open and it’s very welcoming,” said Michelle Seaver, president of United Community for Greenville, Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, as she walked through the new headquarters building during its grand opening last March. Sunlight poured through the expansive glass windows, illuminating the open halls and communal work areas, which had all been designed with a focus on air quality, light, comfort and mindfulness.
The headquarters and the refreshed brand are part of a pair, an effort to usher the bank ahead for the coming decades. Cox said the flexibility of the new office — with its adaptable work spaces, diverse styles of working environments and openness for collaboration — mirror the flexibility afforded by the updated branding and name.
“We felt like it provided additional versatility in a number of ways,” Cox said.
From a practical standpoint, shortening the name to “United Community” allowed for a cleaner look in the bank’s logo and signage, according to Cox. But it also expanded the
umbrella of what the institution could do in the minds of its customers. Cox pointed to United Community’s wealth-management business, for instance, as well as its investment and insurance businesses, as examples of aspects of United Community that may not immediately come to mind when people consider services a bank offers.
The refresh was not without challenges, however. First and foremost was ensuring the bank’s employees were on board.
“For us it was important that we connected what we were doing to our employees,” Cox said, “so our employees had an opportunity to give feedback from senior management on down.”
Then there was the due diligence on the side of the marketing team — months of research, garnering feedback and speaking with customers to ensure the refresh was on solid footing.
Lastly was the practical challenge of updating the branding in physical and digital spaces — putting up new signs on buildings, changing logos inside the offices, updating e-forms and online web pages,
buying new stationary, updating e-notifications, changing marketing materials, and on and on — work that is still ongoing and expected to be complete this autumn.
Ultimately, though, Cox sees the refresh as a necessary investment to ensure United Community’s branding remains relevant for its customer, its employees and its mission.
“At the end of the day why are we here? It’s because we’re helping individuals and businesses thrive and get started and become successful, which contributes to the overarching health and growth of the communities we’re a part of,” Cox said. “I think that’s really what the ‘community’ is about in terms of our name, and even though we’re a regional bank that has gotten larger, we always try to operate with a community approach to banking and a focus on people.”
He added, “That, more than anything else, is really what’s going to carry us into the future.”
We are for serving others.
We are for building businesses.
We are for improving our communities.
We are for inviting others who share our values to be a part of our community. We are for being legendary in all that we do.
Because the customer has a need, we have an opportunity to serve.
• Because the customer has a choice, we must earn their trust.
• Because the customer is unique, we must listen well.
• Because the customer has urgency, we must be responsive.
• Because the customer has high expectations, we must excel.
• Because the customer has influence, we have the potential of more customers.
• Because of the customer, we exist.
United Community
BY THE NUMBERS
3,151 total employees
6 states
207 banking offices
$26.9 billion in assets
How staying true to its mission has made United Community the highest-ranked in service 10 times over
By J. Morgan McCallum
There are many measures of success for a business — and most are measured internally, by the business itself. What makes an external, objective measure of success — like the awards given by J.D. Power — so remarkable is that it validates the vision and hard work a team prides itself on, telegraphing their integrity to the world.
For United Community, that validation is affirmation of its unwavering commitment to the people it serves — and no team is more proud to once again top the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study, ranking highest in Customer Satisfaction with Consumer Banking in the Southeast. This is the 10th time United Community has won the prestigious award. Additionally, United also was recognized by customers as the most trusted bank in the Southeast.
“What I love about J.D. Power is that it really is a measure of our mission and culture. It helps us remember why the customer is hiring us,” says Lynn Harton, chairman and chief executive officer. “Sure, we can look at metrics, new accounts opened, our balances. But we were founded to provide exceptional customer service first. People want you to understand them as a person. They want to be treated like individuals, treated quickly and treated with respect.”
The longest-running and most in-depth study of the retail banking industry, The J.D. Power U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study is far from a surface-level survey. As Americans’ banking needs have evolved in regard to technology and service, J.D. Power has evolved its metrics to reflect realworld demands and insights into why a brand wins both hearts and minds.
“J.D. Power tells us, do customers trust us? Do they recommend us? If we focus on what we need to do to win this award, what we’re really doing is reminding ourselves of why customers come in the door every day, rather than being overly focused on financial outcomes. If we do the right thing for our customers, the financial results will follow,” adds Harton.
That trust is built on a breadth of things: From financial advisers offering straight talk and personalized wealth management; to expanding technology such as all-electronic loan processes that emphasize speed and convenience; to giving back to causes and groups that employees are involved in through the United Community Bank Foundation.
“We work really hard to develop that trust, and it means caring for and investing in the community,” says Rich Bradshaw, president and chief banking officer.
Having 400% growth in 10 years is certainly a good thing, but so is retaining the mission clarity that guides it. “This is a big part of what we’re doing every day: Even as we’ve grown bigger, we’re always trying to stay smaller,” adds Bradshaw. That means still making personal phone calls to customers to thank them for their business, whether it’s $600 or $6,000. “If you want a loan, you’re going to actually meet your loan officer. We’re in a new era of technology, but this is still a ‘people business.’ We want to hear your story and
“ ” What I love about J.D. Power is that it really is a measure of our mission and culture. It helps us remember why the customer is hiring us.
– Lynn Harton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
make your future part of our future. We want you and your family to be successful.”
Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, the Southern hospitality you feel when you walk through the doors also stems from United Community’s origins. “We were founded in Blairsville, Georgia, which is a really tight-knit community where everybody knows each other,”
“Sure, we can look at metrics, new accounts opened, our balances. But we were founded to provide exceptional customer service first. People want you to understand them as a person. They want to be treated like individuals, treated quickly, and treated with respect.
”
– Lynn Harton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
reveals Harton. “We celebrate that, because we want to infuse that culture throughout all of our customer service,” he says. “It’s hard to be rude to someone if their kids are playing with your kids, or you’re going to have to sit beside them in church on a Sunday. There’s a community feel here that you won’t find in a more impersonal bank.”
You can’t win an award of this caliber 10 times without those great employees, either. “The first of our four measures of success is to be a great place to work. Our second is to provide the best customer service we can—we intentionally start with our goal of bringing in great people and giving them a reason to stay, because it is our people that deliver for our customers,” adds Harton. “That means having the right culture, having the right strength and stability, having the right strategy and vision. People want to work in a place where they feel like they’re known, where they feel like their contributions are recognized and they make a difference.”
Think of the biggest national banks you know, down to the smallest community credit unions and every institution in between. What makes the J.D. Power award so remarkable is that it is awarded to the No. 1 service bank in the Southeast—and that is a lot of competition to beat. “We asked J.D. Power: How many do you have to win to become legendary? They said 10—and we just won the 10th. So that’s very exciting,” says Bradshaw with a smile. “When we get the J.D. Power results, we celebrate for a day and then ask, ‘OK, what do we do to be better next time?’”
As United Community approaches its 75th birthday in 2025, the award-winning team looks forward to another year of legendary service for their customers, neighbors and friends.
“
” People want to work in a place where they feel like they’re known, where they feel like their contributions are recognized and they make a difference.
– Lynn Harton
By Jerry Salley
Its official title is United Community Customer Appreciation Day. But most folks in the town of Blairsville in northern Georgia know it as Tomato Day.
The annual event, held the first Friday in May, was the brainchild of former United Community CEO Jimmy C. Tallent, during the expansion from a single location in Blairsville (then known as Union County Bank) to a network of institutions across the Southeast. Prompted by the bank’s slogan, “Come Grow With Us,” Tallent launched the tradition of giving free tomato plants, sourced from nurseries in the Blairsville area, as tokens of appreciation.
Customers always show up early for the celebration at the Blairsville branch on state Highway 515, anticipating not just the plants but also the hot dogs, popcorn, cake, music and other entertainment the bank provides, says Tonya Kimsey, senior vice president and senior director of community banks support at United Community.
“It’s an event the employees looked forward to as much as the customers,” says Kimsey, who came to work in Blairsville in 1996. “It’s a big party. It looks like a family cookout. There are people eating absolutely everywhere.”
For a small town (population 616, according to the latest U.S. Census), Blairsville has a big appetite, says Lucas Phillips, United Community vice president and director of operations improvement and support.
“I remember one year the bank ordered 6,000 hot dogs to be cooked on that day,” says Phillips, who, like Kimsey, now works in United Community’s operations center in Blairsville. “Getting there early to cook and get prepared is always a good memory. We would always make bets as to who would show up at what time to receive the first hot dog.”
United Community has always tended to its roots in Blairsville, nestled in the Chattahoochee National Forest at the southern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains near the Appalachian Trail, says Kimsey, beginning with the founding of Union County Bank in 1950.
“We’ve always been extremely supportive of customers starting up new businesses and involved in the community in general,” she says. “When I first came to work here, you just had to say, ‘I work at the bank’—you wouldn’t have to preface it with the name. Our bank was considered as the only bank.”
Sure enough, in keeping with the motto that inspired Tallent, as the bank grew, so did the town and the plants.
“We had a lot of customers saying, ‘Oh, my gosh, you wouldn’t believe the tomatoes we grew from those plants,’” Kimsey says. “And so we went from that to having a contest for the largest tomatoes.”
But even after all the tomato plants are handed out, the hot dogs are gone and the music has faded, what remains is a deep connection between United Community and the community where it was planted, says Phillips.
“Customer Appreciation Day is a time that you’re able to connect with your customers, because it seems like you get to see all of them in one day,” he says. “It’s just good interaction with the people you don’t always get to see.”
Buying a home has never been harder for a lot of Americans, particularly in America’s largest metro areas.
Barriers to homeownership are not only higher interest rates, low inventories and record-breaking prices, but borrower habits, says Jennine Hunter, an assistant vice president with United Community who has closed dozens of loans under the bank’s PATH program.
PATH (Possibilities Achieved Through Homeownership) does exactly what the acronym suggests — providing low- to moderate-income borrowers a way to own a home.
“Real estate is always the main vehicle to wealth generation in the United States,” Hunter says. “And as a community lender, I am always educating, always counseling, always finding ways to help owners not only obtain, but keep, their homes.”
Now that she’s closed more than 50 PATH loans, Hunter says the biggest challenge is in making sure borrowers come to the table with realistic expectations, and good financial habits.
United Community’s PATH loan program makes the dream of owning a home a reality
By Rick Spruill
to borrow through the PATH program to take responsibility for their financial future.
“I call them my three dirty words,” she jokes. “Budget. Accountability. Responsibility.”
“Everyone wants to step into a five-bedroom, three-bathroom home but that’s not realistic, not in this market,” she says. “And, based on their spending habits, they’ll never save the money to get where they want to be.”
“The PATH product is actually an affordable housing product,” Hunter says. “But the issue is that the people PATH was designed to serve often have debt-to-income situations that make it a challenge.”
Hunter says she measures a potential borrower’s lifestyle by their bank statements.
“Car notes that average between $700 and $900 a month, student loans payments between $75 and $100 a month, anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 in credit card debt,” she says.
In other words, Hunter is a realist who expects those who want
But it is worth the effort.
“It’s my mission,” she says. “It’s what I was put on earth to do. I helped a mother who was in Section 8 housing, who’d grown up in Section 8 housing, whose whole family was in Section 8 housing. We got her a loan through the PATH program, and it changed her life.”
And statistics support the transformational effect of homeownership.
According to a 2019 Federal Reserve study, homeowners have an average net worth of $255,000 versus $6,300 for renters.
And with every PATH loan closed, communities gain equity, and that equity provides underserved communities with a foundation of building wealth, and income.
But, again, expectations must be grounded in a strong sense of reality.
“People are wanting what their friends and family got 30 years ago, but that’s not the case,” she says. “And it does not matter whether it’s Greenville, Atlanta, Charleston, Charlotte, a lot of lower-priced housing has been gobbled up by investors who are now liquidating them, leaving buyers to bear the higher costs.”
These business owners share how United Community meets their needs
Owner of Howell Orthodontics in Jefferson, Georgia
Dr. Emily Howell is passionate about helping her patients improve their smiles, but more importantly, she says, is seeing how a new smile can transform their self-esteem and confidence.
Howell believes the best way to serve her patients is by getting to know each one personally. So, when she set out to open Howell Orthodontics in 2007, Howell wanted to find a bank that valued relationships like she did.
“You’re going to find those banks that are more of a corporate kind of thing, where they’re all just about the numbers, but United Community truly is about the customer and about that community, built on building relationships, built on service,” Howell shared during a panel at United’s Spring Leadership Conference in May. “That’s what I believed in, and they believed in me.”
Howell’s core beliefs of hard work, service and relationship-building can be traced back to when she entered the Miss Georgia pageant to help pay for dental school. She won Miss Georgia and went on to compete in the Miss America Pageant. Howell spent a year traveling across the state to promote “Connecting Character to Careers,” a program that inspires leaders to foster positive character traits in children. Today, Howell continues connecting with her community of Jefferson, Georgia, by speaking to local youth and to business gatherings.
“Seventeen years ago, (United Community) had no stock in giving me a loan for my home and for my practice and the things I was asking for, but they believed in me,” Howell said. “United Community figured out what my needs were and all the people there have been just incredible.”
“ ” United Community figured out what my needs were and all the people there have been just incredible.
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” To have a place where I can have a relationship with the bank, that’s made it so much easier for us.
To say Rylan Miller is a busy man is an understatement. Miller owns and operates more than 40 Tropical Smoothie Cafés across five states, an 810 Billiards and Bowling location in Greenville, South Carolina, and he’s partnering with a boutique barber shop for franchise opportunities.
Miller — a U.S. Navy veteran — honed his business acumen as a tactical surveillance element operator and pilot for the Department of Defense. He oversaw programs and platforms valued at over $100 million and was deployed nearly a dozen times overseas.
As the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina-based entrepreneur continued to acquire new cafés, he realized he needed one financial institution to manage all of his needs. “I wanted to find one place where I could be at home and say, ‘Hey, set up a line of credit; we’re going to build up,’ Miller said. “Where it would be easy to do that without a bunch of prep work.”
For Miller, that place was United Community. “To have a place where I can have a relationship with the bank, that’s made it so much easier for us,” he said.
Miller’s success has been recognized through accolades like being named the “Tropical Smoothie Café Multi-Unit Franchisee of the Year” and nominations to boards including the International Association Franchisee Forum.
Even with the scale of his success, Miller remains connected to his local community. He’s currently the treasurer of his neighborhood homeowner’s association.
