Patent Issued for Insurance Application Process Providing Bound Online Coverage For Life Insurance Products (USPTO 10,460,392)

2019 NOV 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Etheridge, David Scott (Bloomington, IL); Wieduwilt, Andrew Patrick (Bloomington, IL); Eberle, Jill A. (Bloomington, IL); Streily, Jr., Carl R. (Normal, IL); Petersen, Randall P. (Normal, IL); Prestegaard, Amy R. (Waynesville, IL); Ingrum, Larry J. (Mahomet, IL); Kaufman, Lori J. (Bloomington, IL); Hendren, Alan R. (Le Roy, IL); Theile, David A. (Bloomington, IL); Sorensen, Douglas K. (Bloomington, IL), filed on April 29, 2015, was published online on November 11, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,460,392 is assigned to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Life insurance is commonly purchased by people to insure themselves or others in the event of a persons’ death. Other types of insurance provide protection in accordance with their respective policies, which may include property, such as a person’s house or car, for example. To obtain an insurance policy, a customer typically submits information to the insurer, who in turn decides whether to insure the customer, and if so, determines an appropriate premium for the issued insurance policy. The decision of whether to issue an insurance policy, as well as the premiums associated with an insurance policy, is generally based upon several risk factors determined from the submitted information. In the case of property insurance policies, these risk factors may be generally determined from the location of the insured property, people who will be operating the insured property, etc. In the case of life insurance policies, the risk factors may be typically determined from the customer’s lifestyle choices (e.g., tobacco and/or alcohol consumption) the customer’s age, present health conditions, family health history, occupation and/or recreational habits, driving history, credit history, and/or other suitable factors for determining a customer’s potential risk of death upon issuance of the life insurance policy.

“Traditionally, a customer seeking to purchase a life insurance policy visits a local agent’s office. A customer may then furnish relevant information to the agent, and the agent may collect the customer’s information. In some cases, an insurance provider may require a medical appointment and laboratory testing. Once all information is received, an insurance provider may utilize this information in conjunction with the originally collected customer information to further adjust the life insurance premiums (or decide to deny coverage).

“Since visiting an agent’s office may be time consuming and inconvenient, some insurers allow a customer to start an insurance application process using one or more alternate channels, such as through a telephone call center or a web-based online application process. But allowing customers to apply for insurance via these alternate channels has several drawbacks. First, although a customer may submit his information via any of these channels, a customer may need to wait for the results of the medical underwriting before being covered by the policy. In other words, a customer may need to remain uncovered, or unbound, by the contractual obligations of the insurance policy until the results of the medical underwriting process are finished.

“Second, because of the complications surrounding the life insurance application process, many customers may not understand the questions presented and/or the overall application process unless explained by an insurance agent. Because visiting an agent’s office may be inconvenient, this may act as a disincentive for customers to purchase life insurance policies.

“Third, and further due to the complicated nature of the life insurance application process, insurers typically only offer a subset of their life insurance policy suites available for purchase through an online application process. For example, many insurers only allow a customer to purchase term life insurance policies, policies directed only to children, and/or provide benefit ceilings less than $100,000. The present embodiments may overcome these deficiencies and/or other challenges.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may relate to providing binding receipts for insurance products, such as during an online interaction with a potential customer. If the potential customer answers a series of ‘knockout’ questions satisfactorily from an insurance provider’s perspective, temporary coverage or a ‘binding receipt’ for an insurance product may be provided via the internet or other communication network or channel. The binding receipt may provide immediate temporary insurance coverage for the customer up to a limit until the point when a policy is subsequently/ultimately issued or unissued by the insurance provider. On the other hand, if a knockout question is answered unsatisfactorily from the insurance provider’s perspective, a binding receipt may not be provided and further investigation and/or interview of the potential customer may be required before an insurance product is eventually sold. Although the preferred insurance product is a life insurance product, the present streamlined techniques for providing binding receipts associated with an insurance product may be used with other insurance products, such as auto, home, renters, etc.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for collecting information for issuance of a life insurance policy and/or binding life insurance online may be provided. The method may include: (1) receiving, by one or more processors, information entered via a web-based application; (2) automatically selecting, by one or more processors, a life insurance policy for the customer based upon the information; and/or (3) determining, by one or more processors, whether the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure. Determining whether a medical underwriting procedure is required is often determined by the age of the customer, the amount of coverage being applied for, and they type of product. Ultimately, the decision to issue a binding receipt may be dependent on the factors and may also involve presenting one or more online ‘knockout’ questions to the customer, and if the customer responds to each question in a negative or satisfactorily manner (such as in a manner indicating a lack of a health condition or health concern), medical underwriting may not be required and/or a temporary binding receipt may be issued or available to the customer. The method may further include (4) generating, by one or more processors, a notification of insurance coverage and corresponding instructions based upon whether the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure such that providing life insurance to customer is facilitated. The method may include determining, by one or more processors, if the customer is entitled to temporary or permanent life insurance coverage prior to completion of the medical underwriting procedure if required by the life insurance policy, and if so, automatically binding the life insurance policy via the web-based application. The act of generating the notification of insurance coverage and corresponding instructions may include notifying the customer of the temporary or permanent life insurance coverage via the web-based application. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for collecting information for issuance of a life insurance policy and/or binding a life insurance policy online may be provided. The method may include: (1) generating, by one or more processors, a first plurality of fields via a web-based application; (2) selecting, by one or more processors, a life insurance policy for the customer that may require the customer to undergo a medical underwriting procedure based upon information entered via the first plurality of fields; (3) generating, by one or more processors, a second plurality of fields via the web-based application based upon the selected life insurance policy; and/or (4) determining, by one or more processors, whether the customer is entitled to temporary or permanent life insurance coverage prior to completion of the medical underwriting procedure based upon information entered via the second plurality of fields, and if so, legally binding the life insurance policy online during a customer interaction session to facilitate an enhanced customer experience with respect to purchasing life insurance. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method for binding a life insurance policy online may be provided. The method may provide a customizable and/or user-specific life insurance online quote for a customer-selected life insurance product based upon the customer information entered (such as entered by the customer via a web-based application or website). The method may include providing user-specific and/or user-customizable life insurance quotes, and/or gathering, via a processor or web-based application, (1) personal information about a customer; (2) policy information and/or desired life insurance product information; (3) health and lifestyle information about the customer, and/or other customer and customer-related information. Gathering the health and lifestyle information about the customer may involve presenting one or more online ‘knockout’ questions to the customer, and if the customer responds to each question satisfactorily, a temporary binding receipt for the life insurance product may be issued or otherwise available to the customer. The life insurance online quote for the customer-selected life insurance product may be available for immediate purchase by the customer online, such as via the web-based application. The method may include providing a current underwriting status of the life insurance policy online; permit purchase of permanent or term life insurance products online; permit online purchase of (and/or payment for) the life insurance product online; and/or permit immediate online binding of the life insurance product. The web-based application may facilitate providing the online functionality (e.g., presenting underwriting status; allowing for online payment and binding; online selection of insurance products, etc.) The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments which have been shown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, the present embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments, and their details are capable of modification in various respects. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A computer-implemented method for generating a user interface for collecting customer information from a customer and binding insurance coverage to the customer, comprising: displaying, via a display of a client computing device, a web-based application including at least the following portions of a single screen: (i) an input portion including a plurality of interactive fields for receiving customer information and (ii) a summary portion including summary information regarding a life insurance policy; receiving, by one or more processors, information entered via the input portion of the web-based application; determining, by one or more processors, details associated with the life insurance policy for the customer based upon the information, wherein the details include a premium associated with the life insurance policy; displaying, to the customer via the display of the client computing device, the premium associated with the life insurance policy in the summary portion of the web-based application; determining, by one or more processors, whether the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure in accordance with a rule-based conditional analysis that analyzes responses to a series of knockout questions that are presented sequentially in the input portion of the web-based application in an adaptive manner based upon one or more of: (i) the customer information, (ii) a type of the life insurance policy, or (iii) the customer’s answers to previously-presented knockout questions; receiving, at one or more processors, user input entered sequentially, in response to each knockout question of the series of knockout questions presented in the input portion of the web-based application; in response to the user input received in response to each knockout question, (i) dynamically adjusting, by one or more processors, the premium associated with the life insurance policy based upon the user input and (ii) displaying, to the customer via the display of the client computing device, the dynamically adjusted premium in the summary portion of the web-based application; and displaying, at the summary portion of the web-based application, a notification of insurance coverage and corresponding instructions based upon whether the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure to facilitate providing life insurance to the customer, wherein the notification includes the premium as adjusted based upon the user input received in response to the series of knockout questions; and providing, at the summary portion of the web-based application, a notification of binding insurance coverage based upon the user input received in response to the series of knockout questions.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining, by one or more processors, whether the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure includes: evaluation of age, amount of insurance, and product.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information entered via the input portion of the web-based application includes one or more of: a desired type of life insurance policy; a desired life insurance coverage; risk assessment information; beneficiary information; and a customer signature, and wherein the life insurance policy includes one or more of: a term life insurance policy; a permanent life insurance policy; and a universal life policy.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the life insurance policy has a benefit exceeding $100,000 United States (US) dollars.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by one or more processors, if the customer is entitled to temporary or permanent life insurance coverage prior to completion of the medical underwriting procedure if required by the life insurance policy, and if so, automatically binding the life insurance policy via the web-based application.

“6. A non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium storing machine readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: display a web-based application including at least the following portions of a single screen: (i) an input portion including a plurality of interactive fields for receiving customer information and (ii) a summary portion including summary information regarding a life insurance policy; receive customer information entered via the input portion of the web-based application; determine details associated with the life insurance policy for a customer based upon the information, wherein the details include a premium associated with the life insurance policy; display the premium associated with the life insurance policy in the summary portion of the web-based application; determine whether the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure in accordance with a rule-based conditional analysis that analyzes responses to a series of knockout questions that are presented sequentially in the input portion of the web-based application in an adaptive manner based upon one or more of: (i) customer information, (ii) a type of the life insurance policy, or (iii) the customer’s answers to previously-presented knockout questions; receive user input entered sequentially in response to each knockout question of the series of knockout questions presented in the input portion of the web-based application; in response to the user input received in response to each knockout question, (i) dynamically adjust the premium associated with the life insurance policy based upon the user input and (ii) display the dynamically adjusted premium displayed in the summary portion of the web-based application; display, at the summary portion of the web-based application, a notification of insurance coverage and corresponding instructions if the life insurance policy requires a medical underwriting procedure, wherein the notification includes the premium as adjusted based upon the user input received in response to the series of knockout questions; and provide, at the summary portion of the web-based application, a notification of binding insurance coverage based upon the user input received in response to the series of knockout questions.

“7. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the information entered via the input portion of the web-based application includes one or more of: a desired type of life insurance policy; a desired life insurance coverage; risk assessment information; beneficiary information; and a customer signature.

“8. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the life insurance policy includes one or more of: a term life insurance policy; a permanent life insurance policy; and a universal life policy.

“9. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the life insurance policy has a benefit exceeding $100,000 United States (US) dollars.

“10. The non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium of claim 6, further including instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: determine if the customer is entitled to temporary life insurance coverage prior to completion of the medical underwriting procedure if required by the life insurance policy, and.

“11. A computer-implemented method for generating a user interface for collecting customer information from a customer and binding insurance coverage to the customer, comprising: displaying, via a display of a client computing device, a web-based application including at least the following portions of a single screen: (i) an input portion including a plurality of interactive fields for receiving customer information and (ii) a summary portion including summary information regarding a life insurance policy; generating, by one or more processors, a first plurality of interactive fields via the input portion of the web-based application; receiving, by one or more processors, information entered at the first plurality of interactive fields of the input portion of the web-based application; determining, by one or more processors, details associated with the life insurance policy for a customer, wherein the details include a premium associated with the life insurance policy; displaying, to the customer via the display of the client computing device, the premium associated with the life insurance policy in the summary portion of the web-based application; generating, by one or more processors, a second plurality of interactive fields in the input portion of the web-based application based upon the details associated with the life insurance policy; presenting, by one or more processors, the second plurality of interactive fields sequentially and in an adaptive manner based upon one or more of: (i) the customer information, (ii) a type of life insurance policy, or (iii) information entered within previously-presented fields from among the second plurality of fields; receiving, at one or more processors, user input entered sequentially in response to the second plurality of interactive fields; in response to the user input received, (i) dynamically adjusting, by one or more processors, the premium associated with the life insurance policy based upon the user input and (ii) displaying, the dynamically adjusted premium displayed in the summary portion of the web-based application; determining, by one or more processors, whether the customer is entitled to temporary life insurance coverage prior to completion of the medical underwriting procedure in accordance with a rule-based conditional analysis that analyzes information entered via the second plurality of interactive fields; and providing, at the summary portion of the web-based application, a notification of binding insurance coverage based upon the user input received in response to the second plurality of interactive fields.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving a premium payment from the customer for the selected life insurance policy, and wherein the act of providing the notification comprises: providing the notification after receiving the premium payment as a binding receipt of insurance coverage.

“13. The method of claim 11, wherein the information entered via the first plurality of interactive fields comprises: a body mass index of the customer, and further comprising: determining a risk class based upon the information; and associating the selected life insurance policy with the premium based upon the risk class.

“14. The method of claim 11, wherein the information entered via the first plurality of interactive fields includes an age of the customer and a life insurance benefit amount, and further comprising: displaying a rider based upon the information entered via the first plurality of fields.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the act of displaying the rider comprises: displaying a waiver of premium disability.

“16. The method of claim 11, further comprising: determining a risk class based upon the information entered via the first plurality of interactive fields; and displaying beneficiary information based upon the risk class.

“17. The method of claim 11, further comprising: determining the customer’s response to a first portion of the second plurality of interactive fields; determining whether additional answers are needed from the customer corresponding to a second portion of the second plurality of interactive fields based upon the customer’s answers to the first portion of the second plurality of interactive fields, and wherein the act of presenting the second plurality of interactive fields comprises: presenting the second portion of the second plurality of interactive fields only when it is determined that additional answers are needed.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Etheridge, David Scott; Wieduwilt, Andrew Patrick; Eberle, Jill A.; Streily, Jr., Carl R.; Petersen, Randall P.; Prestegaard, Amy R.; Ingrum, Larry J.; Kaufman, Lori J.; Hendren, Alan R.; Theile, David A.; Sorensen, Douglas K. Insurance Application Process Providing Bound Online Coverage For Life Insurance Products. U.S. Patent Number 10,460,392, filed April 29, 2015, and published online on November 11, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,460,392.PN.&OS=PN/10,460,392RS=PN/10,460,392

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