Fidx : Empowering Financial Advisors
Architecting a high-performance comparison platform that empowers financial advisors to navigate complex annuity data with speed, clarity, and confidence.
Industry Vertical:
Finance & Insurance
Role & Expertise:
Design Systems
B2B Portals
Insurance Products
Prototyping
UX/UI Design
Web Design
Company Profile
FIDx is a leading fintech platform that integrates insurance solutions into the wealth management ecosystem. By bridging the gap between major carriers and financial advisors, FIDx transforms annuities into liquid, manageable assets within a unified digital workflow. The platform currently manages over $50B in assets and has processed $3B+ in new transactions.
CLient
Brief
Redesign the Fidx Insurance Exchange and advisor portal to transform a manual, fragmented annuity comparison process into a seamless digital experience. Consolidate data from 17+ carriers, eliminate operational friction through automation, and provide "Annuity Insights" that allow for real-time valuations alongside traditional asset classes.
Solving for Certainty in a Fragmented Market
The annuity market is notoriously fragmented, leaving financial advisors to navigate a maze of dense data and opaque product structures. The Ask was to reimagine this manual, slow-moving comparative process into a high-performance digital tool.
By leveraging deep stakeholder insights and persona interviews, we moved beyond mere data display to create an intuitive comparison engine. The goal was to synthesize complex financial metrics into a single, actionable view—empowering advisors to make informed, confident recommendations while ensuring the tool integrated flawlessly with the existing platform’s enterprise architecture.
Strategic Roadmap: Aligning Vision with Execution
A phased approach was essential to align 17+ carriers and multiple stakeholders. This roadmap ensured we moved from raw data to a validated user experience without losing sight of the core business goals.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Facilitated collaborative workshops using Figma and FigJam to map the existing sitemap and identify critical friction points.
- Comparative Logic: Developed a robust design system to handle side-by-side product comparisons, turning disparate data points into scannable modules.
- Rapid Prototyping: Iterated on high-fidelity prototypes to pressure-test the information architecture before moving into formal production.
Roadmap: 8 Week Project Duration
Discovery: Agents & Stakeholder Learning
Advisor/Agent
"Carrier contracts lack a unified standard, making side-by-side comparison an manual, error-prone task."
Consistency Gap
Advisor/Agent
"I need a single view for re-contracting opportunities to ensure no assets under management slip through the cracks."
Opportunity Gap
Advisor/Agent
“I wish there was an a way to track all my re-contract opportunities in one view”
Workflow Gap
Advisor/Agent
"Existing tools feel clunky and outdated; I need a modern interface that matches the speed of my client conversations."
Interface Gap
Advisor/Agent
"I’m often on the phone while researching; I need to compare multiple complex products without losing my place."
Multitasking Gap
Advisor/Agent
"Our biggest hurdle is the data silos between insurance companies—we need a unified source of truth."
Fragmentation Gap
The Core Solution:
A 6-Step Lifecycle
The redesigned platform supports the entire annuity lifecycle, ensuring a seamless digital thread from initial planning to long-term management:
- Plan: Integrated with financial planning tools to simplify income conversations.
- Research: Always up-to-date carrier data for quick feature comparisons.
- Propose: Real-time licensing checks and automated carrier illustrations to reduce errors.
- Open: End-to-end electronic applications with integrated e-signatures.
- Manage: Streamlined fund allocations and premium distributions.
- Report: Deep "Annuity Insights" providing daily valuations and conversation opportunities.
Simplified Happy Path
Ideate: Architecting the Comparison Engine
Before moving to high-fidelity, we pressure-tested the information architecture. The challenge was displaying the massive carrier data points without overwhelming the advisor.
- Information Hierarchy: Mapping complex annuity attributes into a standardized schema.
- Low-Fidelity Iteration: Using wireframes to validate user flows for the "Research" and "Propose" phases.
- Data Density: Balancing white space with the deep technical data advisors require for fiduciary due diligence.
New Feedback & Clarity Components
(Wireframe Samples)
Dashboard view with contextual navigation
Annuity Comparison Bar
Interactive Annuity Comparison Data Visualization
Merge with Design System & Prototype
Merge with Design System & Test
The Outcome: Confident Advice
The resulting portal transforms how advisors interact with insurance products. By prioritizing B2B UX best practices, we delivered:
- Increased Speed-to-Proposal: Streamlined the journey from product discovery to client recommendation.
- Operational Efficiency: Virtually eliminated NIGO (Not In Good Order) submissions through automated compliance and suitability checks.
- Scalable Architecture: A design system built for Finance & Wealth that can easily accommodate future product expansions.
Testing & Feedback
Contact
Good work starts with the right conversation. I'm open to senior in-house roles and select consulting partnerships. If the problem is interesting, let's talk.
Send a message or call:
p: 404 333-4171
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