Patent Issued for Life insurance clearinghouse (USPTO 11348185): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 JUN 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Rugel, John (Hawthorn Woods, IL, US), filed on October 22, 2020, was published online on May 31, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11348185 is assigned to Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Life insurance is not only an important financial tool and investment strategy for many customers, but also provides customers with the security and peace of mind of knowing that they are protecting the financial futures of their families and loved-ones. Many different types of life insurance policies may exist between insurance providers (or insurers) and customers (or insureds), such as term life insurance (providing life insurance protection over a specific period of time), whole life insurance (providing permanent insurance for the lifetime of the insured, generally with fixed terms), or universal life insurance (similar to whole life insurance, with additional flexibility to allow customers to raise or lower premiums and coverage amounts during the lifetime of their policies). Different insurance providers may offer various different types of life insurance products, including different insurance types, terms, premiums, and coverage amounts, to meet the needs and investment goals of different customers.

“Insurance providers may determine eligibility of different customers for different life insurance policies and terms (e.g., types, premiums, coverage amounts, term durations, investment flexibility, tax status, etc.), and may offer different policies and terms to different customers, based on various customer information, such as age, gender, income, health, and risk factors. In order to select appropriate life insurance policies and terms for customers, and to determine what policies and terms that different customers may be eligible for, insurance providers may ask customers to complete insurance applications, and to verify certain information such as income information and medical status.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the description below.

“Aspects of the disclosure relate to apparatuses, computer-implemented methods, and computer-readable media for storing and maintaining life insurance data in a life insurance clearinghouse comprising one or more life insurance databases. A life insurance clearinghouse may store, for example, customer information, policy types and terms, and coverage amounts for life insurance policies associated with multiple different life insurance providers. In certain examples, one or more databases in the life insurance clearinghouse may be updated when a new life insurance policy is obtained by a customer from an insurance provider, when the terms of an existing life insurance policy change, or when an existing life insurance policy is canceled or is no longer in-force.

“In accordance with additional aspects of the disclosure, various devices and systems, such as insurance provider computer hardware memory and processor systems, insurance clearinghouse computer memory and processor devices, and customer terminals, may retrieve life insurance customer data and/or policy data associated with multiple different life insurance providers, from one or more databases of a life insurance clearinghouse. The retrieved life insurance customer data and/or policy data may be analyzed and used in various life insurance determinations and functions. In some examples, a life insurance provider may retrieve a customer’s life insurance data from a life insurance clearinghouse to process a life insurance application, a requested change to the coverage amount or terms of an existing policy, or to determine a maximum combined coverage amount for a customer. In additional examples, a life insurance provider may analyze a customer’s life insurance data to determine life insurance products for which the customer is eligible, such as life insurance policy types, terms, and coverage amounts for the customer.

“Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent from the additional description provided herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method, comprising: at a life insurance clearinghouse computer server comprising at least one processor, memory, and a network interface: receiving, in a plurality of data formats, by the at least one processor, via the network interface, and from a plurality of life insurance providers, life insurance data associated with the plurality of life insurance providers; converting the life insurance data from the plurality of data formats to a uniform data format; receiving, from a life insurance provider computer server associated with a first life insurance provider and by the at least one processor, policy data associated with a request to authorize a transaction by an existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make at least one change to a first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider; determining, by the at least one processor, based on the life insurance data in the uniform data format associated with the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, a current amount of in-force life insurance coverage for the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, wherein the life insurance data associated with the existing customer of the first life insurance provider indicates that the existing customer of the first life insurance provider has a second life insurance policy provided by a second life insurance provider; and causing, based the current amount of in-force life insurance coverage and by the at least one processor, the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to be accepted or denied.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: maintaining a life insurance clearinghouse database; storing the life insurance data in the uniform data format in the life insurance clearinghouse database; and communicating with one or more remote devices via a security and integration layer configured to control access to the life insurance clearinghouse database.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the at least one processor, based on demographics of the existing customer, a maximum combined life insurance policy amount for a group comprising the existing customer of the first life insurance provider; and causing, based the current amount of in-force life insurance coverage and the maximum combined life insurance policy amount for the group and by the at least one processor, the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer to be accepted or denied.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the current amount of in-force life insurance coverage for the group comprising the existing customer of the first life insurance provider is a sum of a first amount of coverage associated with the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider, and a second amount of coverage associated with the second life insurance policy provided by the second life insurance provider.

“5. The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining, by the at least one processor, based on the policy data associated with the request by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, an additional amount of life insurance coverage requested by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider associated with the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider; and causing, by the at least one processor, based the current amount of in-force life insurance coverage, the maximum combined life insurance policy amount for the group, and the additional amount of life insurance coverage requested by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer to be accepted or denied.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein causing the request to authorize the transaction further comprises: if the current amount of in-force life insurance coverage for the group comprising the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, combined with the additional amount of life insurance coverage requested by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, exceeds the maximum combined life insurance policy amount for the group comprising the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, causing, by the at least one processor, the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to be rejected.

“7. The method of claim 5, wherein causing the request to authorize the transaction further comprises: if the current amount of in-force life insurance coverage for the group comprising the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, combined with the additional amount of life insurance coverage requested by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, does not exceed the maximum combined life insurance policy amount for the group comprising the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, causing, by the at least one processor, the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to be accepted.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy data associated with the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider comprises one or more of a name of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, an address of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, a phone number of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, an email address of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, a driver’s license number of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, a social security number of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, or a policy number of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein the policy data associated with the request to authorize the transaction by the existing customer of the first life insurance provider to make the at least one change to the first life insurance policy provided by the first life insurance provider to the existing customer of the first life insurance provider is received via a web-based insurance application associated with the first life insurance provider.

“10. The method of claim 1, wherein the life insurance data associated with the existing customer of the first life insurance provider comprises a number of currently in-force life insurance policies associated with the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, a number of previous life insurance policies associated with the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, a combined total policy value of the currently in-force life insurance policies associated with the existing customer of the first life insurance provider, and a listing of life insurance providers associated with the currently in-force life insurance policies of the existing customer of the first life insurance provider.

“11. The method of claim 1, wherein the life insurance clearinghouse computer server further comprises a security and integration layer comprising one or more dedicated web servers and network hardware operating at a physical location at which the life insurance clearinghouse computer server operates.

“12. The method of claim 11, wherein the security and integration layer implements a file-based integration scheme in which one or more data files are transmitted to and from the life insurance clearinghouse computer server through the security and integration layer using one or more network communication protocols.

“13. The method of claim 11, wherein the security and integration layer implements a service based integration scheme in which one or more web services are accessed by authorized external devices to support input, extraction, and manipulation of data maintained by the life insurance clearinghouse computer server.

“14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the life insurance provider computer server, data indicating that an existing life insurance policy has been changed or canceled; identifying one or more customers corresponding to the existing life insurance policy that has been changed or canceled; and updating one or more life insurance policy records maintained by the life insurance clearinghouse computer server in a life insurance clearinghouse database based on the data indicating that the existing life insurance policy has been changed or canceled.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Rugel, John. Life insurance clearinghouse. U.S. Patent Number 11348185, filed October 22, 2020, and published online on May 31, 2022. 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=11348185.PN.&OS=PN/11348185RS=PN/11348185

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