“Integrated Investment And Insurance Accounts” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20220092698): Patent Application

2022 APR 07 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventors Hintz, Scott Alexander (Bloomington, IL, US); Roll, Leif Agerholm (Bloomington, IL, US); Wieduwilt, Andrew Patrick (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on May 14, 2020, was made available online on March 24, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Customers may purchase investment vehicle products and insurance policies separately, as separate transactions for separate, unrelated products. Some products currently on the market, though, do associate investment vehicles and insurance policies. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,346,648 is directed to donating an annuity to a charitable organization, and further using the annuity to purchase a life insurance policy for the donor. Accordingly, the charitable organization receives any gains generated by the annuity while the donor is living. U.S. Pat. No. 6,950,805 is directed to using annuities that are purchased in part using borrowed money to fund life insurance policies via various business and trust structures to reduce tax consequences. U.S. Patent Application No. 20140195271 is directed to using the gains of an annuity to pay for life insurance premiums and avoid taxation of the gains generated by the annuity.

“Generally, the above examples and other similar products do not return the gains generated by an investment immediately to the investment account owner to do with as he or she wishes, as most of these types of products are directed to reducing or eliminating the tax consequences on said gains. Furthermore, typically most of these types of products require a full underwriting process to be used to approve the associated insurance policies.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “In an embodiment, a system for providing insurance by using an integrated investment vehicle and insurance policy account may comprise a computing device having a processor and a memory, and an integrated account provider. The integrated account provider may comprise a set of computer-executable instructions for providing integrated investment and insurance accounts. The set of computer-executable instructions may be stored on the memory of the computing device, thereby particularly configuring the computing device for providing the integrated investment vehicle and insurance policy account. The integrated investment vehicle and insurance policy account may be an integrated account, and the computer-executable instructions may be executable by the processor to cause the computing device to establish an investment vehicle portion of the integrated account, where the investment vehicle portion includes an indication of an amount of funds invested by an owner of the integrated account in one or more investment vehicles and an indication of an operating expense assessed on at least a part of the amount of funds. Further, the computer-executable instructions may be executable by the processor to cause the computing device to establish an insurance policy portion of the integrated account, where the insurance policy portion includes an indication of the account owner being designated as an insured party of at least one insurance policy, and an indication that an amount of a payout of the at least one insurance policy is to be based on a value of total assets under management (AUM) of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of the payout. Still further, the computer-executable instructions may be executable by the processor to cause the computing device to cause at least a portion of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds to be paid towards a premium of the at least one insurance policy, thereby providing insurance to the account owner.

“In an embodiment, a system for providing insurance by using an integrated investment vehicle and insurance policy account (e.g., an integrated account) may include a first memory configured to store an indication of an operating expense of an investment vehicle portion of the integrated account. The investment vehicle portion may correspond to funds invested by an owner of the integrated account in one or more investment vehicles, and may indicate the operating expense assessed on at least one of the one or more investment vehicles. The system may further include a computing device having a processor communicatively connected to the first memory, a second memory, and a set of computer-executable instructions for providing integrated investment and insurance accounts. The set of computer-executable instructions may be stored on the second memory of the computing device, thereby particularly configuring the computing device to provide the integrated account. The set of computer-executable instructions may executable by the processor to cause at least a portion of the assessed operating expense of the investment vehicle portion of the integrated account to be applied towards a premium of an insurance policy corresponding to an insurance policy portion of the integrated account, thereby providing insurance to the integrated account owner. Further, the integrated account owner may be an insured party of the insurance policy, and an amount of a payout of the insurance policy may be based on a value of total assets under management (AUM) of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of the payout.

“In an embodiment, a system for providing insurance via an integrated investment and insurance account may include a computing device having a processor, a memory, and a set of computer-executable instructions for providing integrated investment and insurance accounts. The set of computer-executable instructions may be stored on the memory of the computing device, thereby particularly configuring the computing device for providing the integrated investment and insurance account. Additionally the integrated investment and insurance account may be an integrated account, and the computer-executable instructions may be executable by the processor to cause the computing device to augment an established investment account with an application for an insurance policy to generate the integrated account, wherein the established investment account is opened by an account owner and has an operating expense, the account owner is designated as an insured party of the insurance policy, and an amount of a payout of the insurance policy is to be based on a value of total assets under management (AUM) of the established investment account at a time of the payout. Further, the computer-executable instructions may be executable by the processor to cause an underwriting process to be performed on the application for the insurance policy, where the underwriting process is a subset of an underwriting process designated to be performed for an application for a stand-alone insurance policy that does not augment any investment account of the account owner. Still further, the computer-executable instructions may be executable by the processor to receive an approval from the underwriting process performed on the application of the insurance policy and, based on the approval, include the approved insurance policy in the integrated account; and cause at least a portion of monies received in response to an assessment of the operating expense on the established investment account to be paid towards a premium of the insurance policy, thereby providing insurance to the account owner.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An integrated account provider system, the system comprising: a communication interface configured to communicatively couple the system to a communications network; one or more processors; and a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system one or more processors to: access, via a first link to the communications network, an entry on a data storage device, the entry corresponding to an integrated account, establish an investment vehicle portion of the integrated account on the data storage device via the first link by storing, in the entry, an indication of an amount of funds invested by an owner of the integrated account in one or more investment vehicles, the one or more investment vehicles structured to return gains to the one or more investment vehicles and to make the returned gains available for immediate withdrawal by the owner, and the one or more investment vehicles having one or more beneficiaries that receive total assets under management (AUM) of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of death of the owner, establish an insurance policy portion of the integrated account on the data storage device via the first link by storing, in the entry, an indication that the owner is designated as an insured party of one or more insurance policies, an indication of a premium of the insurance policy portion, and an indication that an amount of a payout of a particular insurance policy of the one or more insurance policies is determined based on a value of total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of the payout, receive, via a second link to the communications network from an investment vehicle computing system, a signal indicating that an operating expense has been assessed on at least a part of the amount of funds invested in the one or more investment vehicles, store an indication of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds in the entry, apply at least a portion of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds towards a premium of the particular insurance policy, thereby providing insurance for the owner, receive, at a user interface of the system via a third link to the communications network, one or more indications of at least one of a change to the one or more insurance policies from an insurance policy computing system, or receive via the second a third link to the communications network one or more indications of a change to the one or more investment vehicles from the investment vehicle computing system, and trigger, in response to the one or more indications, one or more changes to the entry stored in the data storage device via an application programming interface based on the received one or more indications.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein funds for a payout of at least one of the one or more insurance policies are provided from funds other than actual AUM of the one or more investment vehicles.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein particular insurance policy has been approved by an underwriting process that is a subset of an underwriting process for a stand-alone insurance policy that designates the owner as the insured party and that provides a same type of insurance as provided by the particular insurance policy.

“4. The system of claim 3, wherein the particular insurance policy includes a coverage delay preventing the payout for a duration following the underwriting process, and wherein the coverage delay does not prevent the payout when the owner suffers an accidental death within the duration.

“5. The system of claim 3, wherein the particular insurance policy is a group insurance policy, and the underwriting process designates each listed individual as the insured party.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more insurance policies is a life insurance policy, at least one of the one or more changes includes listing a beneficiary designated to receive the payout associated with the life insurance policy, and the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: trigger, upon a death of the owner, an automatic re-invest option for the beneficiary to re-invest the payout in a new integrated account.

“7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more investment vehicles exclude at least one of a tax-deferred investment vehicle or an annuity, and wherein at least one of the one or more insurance policies includes a maximum coverage limit indicating an entirety of the total AUM.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more investment vehicles receives periodic investments, the at least one of the one or more investment vehicles receiving the periodic investments includes a coverage delay corresponding to a coverage amount associated with the periodic investments.

“9. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the one or more processors to: receive, at a user interface of the system, a cancellation indication of at least one of the one or more insurance policies being cancelled or transferred by the owner; and trigger, in response to the cancellation indication, a coverage lapse corresponding to the at least one of the one or more insurance policies.

“10. The system of claim 1, wherein the owner provides the indication of the amount of funds invested by the owner over the communication network, and the communication network includes one or more of (i) a website, (ii) a telephone line, and (iii) a store location.

“11. A method to provide integrated insurance and investment accounts, the method comprising: access, by one or more processors, via a first link to a communications network, an entry on a data storage device, the entry corresponding to an integrated account, establishing, by the one or more processors, an investment vehicle portion of the integrated account on the data storage device via the first link by storing, in the entry, an indication of an amount of funds invested by an owner of the integrated account in one or more investment vehicles, the one or more investment vehicles structured to return gains to the one or more investment vehicles and to make the returned gains available for immediate withdrawal by the owner, and the one or more investment vehicles having one or more beneficiaries who are designated to receive total assets under management (AUM) of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of death of the owner, establishing, by the one or more processors, an insurance policy portion of the integrated account on the data storage device via the first link by storing, in the entry, an indication that the owner is designated as an insured party of one or more insurance policies, an indication of a premium of the insurance policy portion, and an indication that an amount of a payout of a particular insurance policy of the one or more insurance policies is determined based on a value of total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of the payout, receiving, by the one or more processors via a second link to the communications network from an investment vehicle computing system, a signal indicating that an operating expense has been assessed on at least a part of the amount of funds invested in the one or more investment vehicles, storing, by the one or more processors, an indication of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds in the entry, applying, by the one or more processors, at least a portion of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds towards a premium of the particular insurance policy, thereby providing insurance for the owner, receiving, by the one or more processors, at a user interface of the system via a third link to the communications network, one or more indications of at least one of a change to the one or more insurance policies from an insurance policy computing system, or receive via the second link to the communications network one or more indications of a change to the one or more investment vehicles from an investment vehicle computing system, and triggering, by the one or more processors, in response to the one or more indications, one or more changes to the entry stored in the data storage device via an application programming interface based on the received one or more indications.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein funds for a payout of at least one of the one or more insurance policies are provided from funds other than actual AUM of the one or more investment vehicles.

“13. The method of claim 11, wherein the particular insurance policy has been approved by an underwriting process that is a subset of an underwriting process for a stand-alone insurance policy that designates the owner as the insured party and that provides a same type of insurance as provided by the particular insurance policy.

“14. The method of claim 13, wherein the particular insurance policy includes a coverage delay preventing the payout for a duration following the underwriting process, and wherein the coverage delay does not prevent the payout when the owner suffers an accidental death within the duration.

“15. The method of claim 13, wherein particular insurance policy is a group insurance policy, and the underwriting process designates each listed individual as the insured party.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Hintz, Scott Alexander; Roll, Leif Agerholm; Wieduwilt, Andrew Patrick. Integrated Investment And Insurance Accounts. Filed May 14, 2020 and posted March 24, 2022. Patent URL: https://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220220092698%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20220092698&RS=DN/20220092698

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