Charlie Conron, Chief Technology Officer, Life Design Analysis Inc., London, Ont.
CHARLIE CONRON
“Forward-thinking solutions to help Life Insurance Advisors
increase sales, save time and automate compliance.”
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER and LIFE DESIGN ANALYSIS FOUNDER Charlie Conron is on a mission to make life simpler for Life Insurance Advisors. Life Design Analysis (LDA) is one of Canada’s “fastest growing insur-tech companies.” LDA helps Advisors, MGA’s and insurance carriers to analyze life insurance options to better present and share them with their clients. LDA also helps to manage and mine “in-force” policy data and opportunities.
A forward-thinking approach is at the core of LDA’s business mantra. Innovation has laid the company’s foundation and innovation continues its evolution. LDA has always been focused on connecting Advisors to clients, making it easier to purchase insurance and streamlining the Advisor sales process.
“Recently we’ve incorporated a couple of really exciting technological advancements,” says Charlie. “We’ve added a product that Advisors can use to embed our software onto their website to capture leads. It’s a client education tool that can be used by site visitors on an Advisor’s website to review their insurance needs and it provides solutions relevant to the customer’s purpose for buying insurance – the process is completely consumer driven. The goal is to help Advisors engage and capture new prospects in an increasingly digital world.”
Charlie says that LDA also has many exciting integrations in development “with several carriers around electronic applications.” Advisors will present insurance solutions using LDA and then move on to the next step – to connect advisors to an electronic application so they can complete the sale. Charlie explains that all of this happens without the need to “re-key information” or meet with the client.
“Our first instance of this has just gone live with Empire Life,” says Charlie “It's our goal to streamline the sales process for Advisors and make life insurance more transparent, easier to purchase for consumers and easier to facilitate for Advisors.”
Acting on Policy Milestones
Charlie says it’s in LDA’s future to continue to expand services within the “insurance space” by connecting with other data sources and complimentary technology in the insurance industry.
“A big area of our focus going forward is around our policy management automation,” says Charlie. “At the carrier level we help identify opportunities, automate cases and distribute them to Advisors increasing revenue and retention for the insurance carrier but also for the advisor. Really, the future is about being able to scale and automate key service points inside the life cycle of different policy types. For example, a “Term 10” policy has a dedicated premium for 10 years. As of the tenth year the price of that premium increases astronomically. One of the big challenges for advisors is managing opportunities like this in a policy’s life cycle – because they sold this policy 10 years ago or even 20 years ago in the case of a “Term 20” policy.”
Charlie adds that policy milestones like this are “service points” that an Advisor doesn’t want to miss. However, without a process to collect and identify these opportunities they can easily be overlooked by an Advisor and lead to a negative customer experience.
“We have a unique knowledge of policy milestones,” explains Charlie. “We have the capability to examine very large blocks of business and automate key sales opportunities. We know this works at the Advisor level, so we’ve continued scaling up the technology for a larger audience across the entire distribution network (carrier, MGA, agent). All levels of distribution currently use our technology to help increase sales and strengthen their compliance position.”
According to Mike Stocks, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Retail, of Empire Life; LDA has become a “key partner” in helping them to achieve new digital milestones.
“Our mission at Empire Life is to make Insurance and Investments simple, fast and easy,” explains Mike. “Life Design Analysis has been a key partner in helping us execute on that vision through innovative technology solutions. Whether generating revenue from in-force opportunities or implementing digital process improvements that allow Advisors to go from a LDA presentation to our Fast & Full Life application in a fully digital sale, LDA has helped us achieve new digital milestones for life insurance. “
The History and the Team Behind the Tech
Surprisingly, Charlie didn’t start out working in the life insurance industry. A student of Mechanical Engineering at Fanshawe College, his career began in the engineering office of a magnesium die casting factory. With more than 8 years invested in the life insurance industry Charlie is now a widely recognized “thought-leader” in the insur-tech space.
“I think the Life Design Analysis story is interesting because I came from a world outside of insurance,” explains Charlie. “We’re a software as a service business, dedicated to Insurance Advisors, MGA’s, wealth management firms and insurance carriers. I was introduced to the business on the consumer side of things. My stepfather Larry Kinlin was an veteran insurance advisor who worked in the business for more than 50 years. He considered me “tech-savvy” and asked me to investigate how technology could help improve his practice.”
To start, improvement meant finding an easier way to “mine policies” in order to search, analyze and create custom life insurance option presentations to Larry’s many clients. Charlie learned the challenges Advisors face firsthand and found an opportunity to leverage data to make it easier to compare and present insurance options and opportunities to clients. He was so successful in this task that it led to the formation of LDA and the recruitment of a development team to build an enterprise software as a service.
In 2013 LDA was incorporated, in demand, and had started to work with key MGA partners such as IDC Worldsource Insurance Network and Financial Horizons Group. Today, a busy father of two girls aged 7 and 11, Charlie relies on a solid team of developers, sales and support people.
In 2016 LDA completed its first “investment raise” with investors from both Canada and the United States. The investment was led by Barry Crowther who joined Charlie at LDA to help drive the company’s growth strategy.
NIKOLAS FERGUSSON
LDA’s key team members include Jonathan Jarvie and Nikolas Fergusson, who joined the company in 2017 with a core focus on enterprise clients such as bank-owned and private wealth management firms. Both Jonathan and Nik continue to support LDA’s MGA and independent Advisors with a focus on sales, training, and customer satisfaction. Nik identifies “increasing revenue, efficiency, deal close velocity and compliance automation” as key benefits to LDA customers.
JONATHAN JARVIE
“In recent years, my day-to-day work revolves around growing our enterprise credit union account as well as other national wealth management firms,” says Jonathon. “Every day presents new challenges that force you to learn and adapt and this is what I enjoy most about working with LDA.”
The Future of LDA – For Advisors, By Advisors
While Charlie is focused on the future of LDA he notes that his roots working with an industry leader is what makes LDA’s software “for Advisors, built by Advisors.” Advisors have endorsed this sentiment over the years.
Larry Kinlin passed away a few years ago, but his valuable input into the LDA model, paired with Charlie’s forward-thinking approach – means that customers can continue to expect industry-specific expertise and high-level innovation from LDA.
“We’re here to increase productivity, sales and compliance,” says Charlie. “We offer a
30-day free trial where interested Advisors can go and see if this is right for their
business needs. Working with Larry nearly two decades ago taught me that an Advisor’s
best opportunity for a presentation or a new sale often comes from an existing client
who has purchased something that needs servicing. Since LDA’s automation technology
leverages these opportunities – it’s an incredibly valuable tool at the advisor or at
enterprise level for an organization. I suppose that spotting opportunities is twofold for
us – there’s spotting opportunities for advisors to explore with their clients, and then
there’s presenting the opportunities to the client. We assist with both to make Advisors
more productive – and more successful.”
To connect with a member of the Life Design Analysis team, or to check out a free 30-
day trial of their software, please visit their website https://lifedesignanalysis.com/.
April Potter is a veteran writer with expertise in financial services including nearly 15 years in debt restructuring. April has written for multiple online publications on a variety of subjects and offers a range of social media. Also a painter, her background in finance is balanced by her artistic endeavors.
Charlie Conron | Chief Technology Office
Life Design Analysis Inc. https://lifedesignanalysis.com/ 519-619-1677
charlie@lifedesignanalysis.com