‍Voila Insurance | 2026

Founded in 1946 on Brantley's historic Main Street, Brantley Bank and Trust has built its reputation on a straightforward promise: help neighbors prosper. With branches in Brantley, Ramer, Pike Road, and Luverne, the bank serves families and businesses across Crenshaw County, Montgomery County, and the surrounding communities of south-central Alabama -- and it has done so for generations by earning trust the slow, deliberate way.

That same deliberateness shapes how Brantley Bank evaluates any new program it brings to its customers. When the conversation turned to insurance, the question was not just whether an insurance program could generate revenue. It was whether the partner bringing it could be trusted to operate at the same standard the bank holds itself to.

Voila's answer to that question is built into the structure of the company -- starting with who built it and who advises it.

A Team Built for This Specific Work

Voila was not assembled from the technology world and then pointed at banking. The leadership team comes directly from the industries that matter here.

Chirag Pancholi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), spent years in strategy roles at Asurion, one of the world's largest insurance companies, and held banking positions at Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Cliff Karlin, Chief Operating Officer (COO), brings more than 40 years of insurance experience, including serving as Vice President and Global Operations Officer at AIG, and as Chief Operations Officer at Star Holdings -- where he helped grow the organization from a startup to $3.9 billion in six years. Melissa DeAngelo, Chief Insurance Officer, built a national insurance agency from the ground up and holds licenses across property and casualty (P&C), surplus lines, life and health, and as an adjuster.

The legal bench behind the program is equally serious. Brian Lauer, Voila's Chief Legal Officer, is a partner at Messick Lauer and Smith and one of the country's foremost authorities on Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) law -- and the author of a definitive guide on the subject. Zachary Lerner, Voila's Legal Advisor, is a partner at Troutman Pepper Locke and chairs the firm's Transactional and Regulatory Insurance Group, representing domestic and international insurance companies on licensing, regulatory compliance, surplus lines, and filing matters. He holds degrees from Brown University and Georgetown University Law.

For a community bank that takes compliance seriously, this is not a vendor relationship built on a handshake. It is a program backed by people who have spent their careers operating inside the regulatory frameworks that govern it.

Licensed, Compliant, and SOC II Certified

Voila holds insurance licenses in all 50 states. Its platform carries System and Organization Controls II (SOC II) certification -- the security and data handling standard that financial institutions increasingly require of their technology partners. Compliance is not managed by the bank. Voila handles licensing, regulatory requirements, and ongoing compliance monitoring as part of the program, so Brantley Bank's team can stay focused on banking.

That matters in the current environment. Insurance regulations vary by state and by product type, and the rules governing how banks can participate in insurance sales are specific. Voila was designed to operate within those rules cleanly, with legal counsel in place who helped shape the program from the ground up.

Transparency as an Operating Principle

Brantley Bank's own philosophy centers on transparent terms, no surprise fees, and clear language customers can trust. Voila approaches the insurance relationship the same way.

Customers are never required to purchase insurance through the program. The products are clearly disclosed as insurance offerings -- not bank products, and not represented as being backed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees. The carriers Voila works with are vetted, the coverage terms are plain, and the quoting process is designed to give customers real options across a network of more than 50 carriers rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it price.

That transparency extends to the bank partnership itself. There are no upfront costs and no ongoing fees to the bank. Voila earns from the insurance premiums it writes, and the bank earns a share of that revenue. The economics are straightforward and the incentives are aligned.

A Program That Fits a Bank Built on Relationships

Brantley Bank greets customers by name. Loan decisions happen locally. The bank's staff are neighbors, not call-center representatives. An insurance program attached to that kind of institution has to feel consistent with it -- not transactional, not impersonal, and not rushed.

Voila's model fits that culture. Rather than presenting customers with a generic carrier match, Voila actively shops more than 50 carriers on each customer's behalf, looking for coverage that fits the specific risk profile and budget of the individual. At renewal, the process repeats. The goal is not to place a policy once and move on -- it is to stay in the relationship and keep earning the customer's confidence the same way the bank does.

For a bank that has been doing exactly that since 1946, the alignment is not incidental. It is the point.

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