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Webcast to begin at 10:00 a.m. CDT
April 9, 2007
Presentation and streaming audio: www.pnfp.com/knoxville
Audio only: 1-800-322-9079 (passcode - 8622608)

Local Banking Veterans to Lead Pinnacle in Knoxville

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., April 9, 2007 - Long-term Knoxville financial professionals Nathan Hunter and Mike DiStefano have joined forces to lead Nashville-based Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc.'s (Nasdaq/NGS: PNFP) expansion to Knoxville.

Hunter will be Pinnacle's Knoxville president. DiStefano will be executive vice president and will lead Pinnacle's client advisory group, which will serve Knoxville's owner-managed businesses and affluent consumers. Pinnacle's target markets are small and mid-sized businesses and consumers interested in a comprehensive relationship with their financial institution.

"The time is right for Pinnacle to open here," Hunter said. "Many Knoxville clients are growing increasingly dissatisfied with their large regional banks. I chose to join Pinnacle because of the firm's unique and highly successful model of delivering distinctive service and effective advice. Pinnacle combines delivery of all the sophisticated financial services typically only available from large out-of-market regionals with hands-on service and local decision making autonomy only available through smaller community banks. That combination is exactly what Knoxville clients are seeking."

Pinnacle Knoxville plans to grow to 26 associates by the end of the year, according to Hunter.

"Since we started Pinnacle, a key growth objective has been to enter the Knoxville market with a seasoned group of local professionals," said M. Terry Turner, Pinnacle's president and chief executive officer who founded the firm in 2000 with several other former executives of First American Corp. "We believe the team of Knoxville professionals we have begun to assemble will be the catalyst to build a $500 million to $750 million institution in Knoxville within five years.

"Nathan and I have worked together and competed against one another over the last three decades in the Knoxville market, and it's exciting to be on the same team with him again," Turner said. "In every sense - from lending authority to decisions on recruiting and hiring associates - Nathan and his team will be in charge of Pinnacle Knoxville."

Pinnacle Knoxville has already begun commercial lending operations. Pending regulatory approval, full-service operations, including deposit gathering, treasury management, investments, mortgage, trust and insurance services, courier deposit pickup and ATM services, will launch this summer. The firm is negotiating for office space in the Bearden/West Knoxville areas and anticipates opening a full-service office in May or June.

Pinnacle plans to open a loan production office in north Knoxville by late summer and plans to later convert that office to a full-service location. The firm expects to have a total of five full-service offices in Knoxville by the end of 2010.

Hunter, with 32 years of financial services experience in Knoxville, was most recently an executive vice president at SunTrust, managing the Knoxville retail line of business. Prior to that, he led SunTrust's middle market commercial group.

DiStefano has 22 of years of financial services experience and was most recently responsible for commercial banking programs with SunTrust in Knoxville.

KNOXVILLE BANKING MARKET

"Terry and I and others on our team have significant experience in Knoxville, having served in various leadership capacities at Park National Bank and First American National Bank in Knoxville prior to our association with Pinnacle," said Robert A. McCabe Jr., chairman of Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc., and a long-time Knoxville financial services executive.

Pinnacle's model of identifying and recruiting well-known, successful bankers and brokers with significant experience and relationships in the local market will continue at Pinnacle Knoxville. This approach has resulted in a very high level of associate retention and client satisfaction.

"Our Knoxville team will provide a much different financial services experience than the very large regional banks that currently dominate the Knoxville market," McCabe said. "Pinnacle's clients don't have to worry about inexperienced people and turnover, and they know they can count on local decision making."

According to FDIC data, the Knoxville MSA deposit base was approximately $10.1 billion at June 30, 2006 and grew by nearly 7.9 percent between 2006 and 2005. The 2006-2011 growth rate for the Knoxville MSA population is projected at 6.7 percent. The market is dominated by four institutions that controlled 70.11 percent of the market's deposits as of June 30, 2006. Only one of those gained share from 2005 to 2006.

"The attractiveness of the Knoxville market has brought a number of new entrants in recent years. However, few have Pinnacle's sophistication and capacity to make the investment necessary to capitalize on the significant vulnerability of the large regional banks here," DiStefano said.

INVESTMENT OUTLOOK

Pinnacle's management has developed several financial forecast scenarios related to the new Knoxville expansion.

Based on anticipated growth trends and future investments in the franchise, Pinnacle estimates that the Knoxville expansion will reduce Pinnacle's 2007 earnings per diluted share by approximately $0.08.

Additionally, based on anticipated growth trends and future investments in the Knoxville market, Pinnacle estimates that the Knoxville operations should approach breakeven in the third quarter of 2008, such that accretion should approximate $0.01 per fully diluted share for 2008 and $0.10 per fully diluted share in 2009.

Pinnacle's management has also estimated that, at least for the initial launch into Knoxville, Pinnacle has sufficient regulatory capital to support its current growth plans both for its aggressive organic growth in the Nashville MSA as well as the additional growth planned for Knoxville.

As noted previously, management has developed several scenarios under which these estimates can be achieved and believes these estimates to be reasonable based on these scenarios. However, unanticipated events or developments including any merger or acquisition, the opportunity to hire more seasoned professionals than anticipated, the ability to grow loans significantly in excess of the levels contemplated may cause the actual results of Pinnacle to differ materially from these estimates or a failure to grow loans at anticipated levels in the Knoxville market.

ABOUT PINNACLE

Pinnacle Financial Partners, with $2.142 billion in assets, provides a full range of banking, investment and insurance products and services designed for small- to mid-sized businesses and their owners, real estate professionals and individuals interested in a deep relationship with their financial institution. Pinnacle offers a very sophisticated suite of treasury management services to enable commercial clients to better manage their cash. Pinnacle also provides financial planning services and comprehensive wealth management services to help clients increase, protect and distribute their assets. The firm also has a well-established expertise in commercial real estate.

Pinnacle opened its first office in October 2000. Since then the firm has added eight other offices on a denovo basis and acquired Cavalry Bancorp with its nine offices, bringing the total number of offices to 18 in the most attractive trade areas in the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro MSA. Of the roughly 186 commercial banks chartered in the United States during 2000, Pinnacle is by far the largest and fastest growing, an indication of clients' preference for Pinnacle's distinctive service and effective advice as opposed to the financial services experience generally offered by the large, unwieldy regional banks.

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Certain of the statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The words "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "estimate" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but other statements not based on historical information may also be considered forward-looking. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other facts that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Pinnacle to differ materially from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, without limitation, (i) unanticipated deterioration in the financial condition of borrowers resulting in significant increases in loan losses and provisions for those losses, (ii) the inability of Pinnacle to continue to grow its loan portfolio at historic rates in the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro MSA or at planned rates in the Knoxville MSA, (iii) increased competition with other financial institutions, (iv) lack of sustained growth in the economy in the Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro MSA and the Knoxville MSA, (v) rapid fluctuations or unanticipated changes in interest rates, (vi) the inability of Pinnacle to satisfy regulatory requirements for its expansion plans, (vii) the inability of Pinnacle to execute its expansion plans and (viii) changes in the legislative and regulatory environment. A more detailed description of these and other risks is contained in Pinnacle's most recent annual report on Form 10-K. Many of such factors are beyond Pinnacle's ability to control or predict, and readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Pinnacle disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.