James M. Fail (March 28, 1926 – February 26, 2010) was an American financial executive, the chairman of and . A native of Mobile, Alabama, he attended Murphy High Schooland served for three years in the U.S. Navy.After graduating from the University of Alabama in 1949, he began his career as a securities salesman for Merrill Lynch. In the following decades, Fail and his holding companies have owned and operated a variety of investment, mortgage, banking, savings and loan, and insurance businesses throughout the U.S.