- March 14, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
Editor’s Note: The Culture Club series is a behind-the-scenes look at a company or organization in the region with top-tier culture and how they built it and sustain it.
After Al Hanser retired and moved to Sanibel, he found he couldn’t quite slow down. His wife nudged him to find something to do besides repeatedly cleaning their garage.
The couple had been living on Sanibel for about a year, and Hanser had noticed two things the island was missing. One was a car wash, but he had nothing to bring to the table in that realm.
But he could do something about the need for wealth management services for high-net-worth investors on the island. He’d spent his career in that field, serving as chairman and CEO of Resource Bank and Trust Co. in Minneapolis; a senior executive at Dain Rauscher; chairman, CEO, and board member of Merchant Bank; and chairman of Hanrow Financial Group, Ltd.
In 2000, he began the process of starting a trust company in Florida, opening the doors to The Sanibel Captiva Trust Co. in 2001. What started out as a single office with around $4 million in assets under management in its first year has now grown to seven locations on the west coast of Florida between Tampa and Marco Island with more than $5 billion in assets under management and 62 employees. SanCap Group Inc. is the holding company of The Sanibel Captiva Trust Co. and its divisions: The Naples Trust Co. and The Tampa Bay Trust Co.
Terry Igo has been with the company since almost the beginning, becoming CEO in 2013. He and Hanser both attribute The Sanibel Captiva Trust Company’s growth and longevity to its commitment to service and a strong corporate culture.
It starts by assembling a talented team and then taking care of them. “The thing I’m most proud of is our culture, the esprit de corps,” says Hanser, 87. “If you take care of the employees, the employees take care of the clients.”
Employees are part of an ESOP plan, and the company provides a 401(k), pays all health benefits and gives bonuses twice a year. “I hope it’s the last job they’ll ever have,” says Hanser. “I may be Pollyanna about that, but that’s my intent, to make sure they are well taken care of.”
It seems to be working, as the company has very little turnover. “People want to work here; they come from other companies,” says Igo, 64. “We can hire the best of the best.”
And that’s important. “You need A players,” says Hanser. “As soon as you hire a B player, they’ll hire a C player and they’ll water down your talent.”
The company is as focused on its clients as it is on its staff. “We are so client driven,” says Hanser. “The sign on my desk says rule number one: the clients come first, rule number two is don’t forget rule number one. It’s kind of that simple. … There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for a client.”
Clients tend to stick around as long as the company’s staff. “They don’t want to leave us either,” says Igo. “We’re providing a service they’re not getting somewhere else.”
Igo has led the company’s growth in the Tampa area, while Hanser remains entrenched in the Southwest Florida market and shows no signs of slowing down. “I absolutely love it,” he says. “I love helping people. I love doing the right thing for everybody. I love our employees.”
A newer way the company is helping people is through its family office services for business owners and complex multigenerational families, which it added to its list of services about seven years ago. “We see ourselves growing our family office services,” says Hanser. “That, for us, is becoming quite important.”
There have been challenges along the way, most recently the devastation 2022’s Hurricane Ian brought to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. But challenges can also lead to opportunity, like the firm’s expansion to Fort Myers after the storm. “We really needed a foothold in Fort Myers,” says Hanser. “It’s not necessarily a whole new market for us, but it’s a whole new opportunity for us.”
The company also sees opportunities as a new version of Sanibel and Captiva takes shape. Because of challenges obtaining insurance, many new residents of the islands have made all-cash home purchases. “The demographics are a lot wealthier than it was before,” says Hanser. “This is a really interesting and positive development.”
The Sanibel Captiva Trust Co, holds regular domicile information sessions for new Florida residents. “It brings us a lot of prospects,” says Hanser. “And I think our reputation is such that people want to do business here.”
The firm has also developed a reputation for giving back. From the beginning, Hanser prioritized community involvement from both the company and its employees. “When I came here, I didn’t really know anyone and no one knew us,” says Hanser. “I made a commitment to the community that we’d be part of the fabric of the community.”
Most employees serve on one or more local nonprofit boards or committees. The company has a dedicated annual budget solely for providing support to some 100 charities throughout Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida.
Growth itself can also be a challenge, and one way the company manages that is by exploring where it can be more efficient and potentially automate processes. “We don’t want to overload our employees,” says Igo.
That kind of conscientiousness is what’s helped the company get to where it is today and will be a guiding force as it looks to the future. “Our motto is, do the right thing,” says Igo. “Always do the right thing. So it’s people over profit. Whether it’s a client, whether it’s an employee, we just do the right thing. If you follow that advice, it’s hard to screw up.”
