Patent Issued for Processing an application for insurance coverage (USPTO 11341579): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 JUN 15 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Wilson, Thomas J. (Chicago, IL, US), Yager, Floyd M. (Park Ridge, IL, US), filed on November 26, 2018, was published online on May 24, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11341579, is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Today’s consumer is more pressed than ever for time. With increasing time demands placed, many consumers do not have much time to shop, and what time they do have seems to be consumed in reviewing the massive amount of information they encounter in shopping. The pressures attendant the time constraints and information can pervade a consumer’s shopping experience, including shopping for insurance.

“New technologies, however, now make possible aids to help consumers as they make insurance choices in much less time that they could years ago. The challenge is how to harness those technologies.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Methods and systems are provided for creating insurance packages and providing insurance services. Insurance packages may be created by performing research to identify a target population and a set of insurance features desired by the target population. The set of insurance features may be bundled into an insurance package. The packages may include standard components, combinations of optimized components, optimized combinations of standard components and various combinations. The insurance packages may provide automobile insurance, homeowner’s insurance and other types of insurance

“In certain embodiments of the invention, aspects of the present invention can be partially or wholly implemented with a computer-readable medium, for example, by storing computer-executable instructions or modules, or by utilizing computer-readable data structures.

“Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures.

“The details of these and other embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer server, comprising: a network interface that communicates over a communication network, wherein the network interface: receives an access request sent from a first terminal computing device; provides one or more website screens to the first terminal computing device in response to the access request; and receives selection information identifying one or more selections made by a user of the first terminal computing device via the one or more website screens, the one or more selections indicating one or more characteristics of the user; a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein the processor executes the instructions to perform the steps of: using a demand simulator to perform a multidimensional analysis of the characteristics and to predict one or more preferences of a population segment associated with the characteristics; customizing an automobile insurance policy to include one or more features selected based on the one or more predicted preferences, the one or more selected features including an optional accident waiver enhancement feature that allows the automobile insurance policy to be maintained when a first rate-affecting accident occurs during a policy period of the optional accident waiver enhancement feature and further allows the automobile insurance policy to be maintained when a second rate-affecting accident occurs during a subsequent policy period of the optional accident waiver enhancement feature based on a predetermined amount of time having elapsed since the first rate-affecting accident, wherein the optional accidence waiver enhancement feature allows the automobile insurance policy to be altered based on the predetermined amount of time not having elapsed between the first rate-affecting accident and the second rate-affecting accident; and updating the one or more website screens with a visual display of the customized automobile insurance policy that includes the one or more selected features.

“2. The computer server of claim 1, wherein the first terminal computing device is associated with a customer.

“3. The computer server of claim 1, wherein the first terminal computing device is associated with a customer service representative.

“4. The computer server of claim 1, further comprising sending, to the first terminal computing device, data indicating that the automobile insurance policy will be maintained without altering the automobile insurance policy based on the second rate-affecting accident.

“5. The computer server of claim 1, further comprising sending, to the first terminal computing device, data indicating that the automobile insurance policy will be altered based on the second rate-affecting accident.

“6. A method, comprising: receiving, via a communication interface that communicates over a communication network, an access request sent from a first terminal computing device providing one or more web site screens to the first terminal computing device in response to the access request; receiving selection information identifying one or more selections made by a user of the first terminal computing device via the one or more website screens, the one or more selections indicating one or more characteristics of the user; using a demand simulator to perform a multidimensional analysis of the characteristics and to predict one or more preferences of a population segment associated with the characteristics; customizing an automobile insurance policy to include one or more features selected based on the one or more predicted preferences, the one or more selected features including an optional accident waiver enhancement feature that allows the automobile insurance policy to be maintained when a first rate-affecting accident occurs during a policy period of the optional accident waiver enhancement feature and further allows the automobile insurance policy to be maintained when a second rate-affecting accident occurs during a subsequent policy period based on a predetermined amount of time having elapsed since the first rate-affecting accident, wherein the optional accidence waiver enhancement feature allows the automobile insurance policy to be altered based on the predetermined amount of time not having elapsed between the first rate-affecting accident and the second rate-affecting accident; and updating the one or more website screen with a visual display of the customized automobile insurance policy that includes the one or more selected features.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first terminal computing device is associated with a customer.

“8. The method of claim 6, wherein the first terminal computing device is associated with a customer service representative.

“9. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending, to the first terminal computing device, data indicating that the automobile insurance policy will be maintained without altering the automobile insurance policy based on the second rate-affecting accident.

“10. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending, to the first terminal computing device, data indicating that the automobile insurance policy will be altered based on the second rate-affecting accident.

“11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions that, when executed by a computer server comprising at least one processor and memory, cause the computer server to: receive, via a network interface the communicates over a communication network, an access request sent from a first terminal computing device; provide one or more website screens to the first terminal computing device in response to the access request; receive selection information identifying one or more selections made by a user of the first terminal computing device via the one or more website screens, the one or more selections indicating one or more characteristics of the user; use a demand simulator to perform a multidimensional analysis of the one or more characteristics and to predict one or more preferences of a population segment associated with the one or more characteristics; customize an automobile insurance policy to include one or more features selected based on the one or more predicted preferences, the one or more selected features including an optional accident waiver enhancement feature that allows the automobile insurance policy to be maintained when a first rate-affecting accident occurs during a policy period of the optional accident waiver enhancement feature and further allows the automobile insurance policy to be maintained when a second rate-affecting accident occurs during a subsequent policy period of the optional accident waiver enhancement feature based on a predetermined amount of time having elapsed since the first rate-affecting accident, wherein the optional accidence waiver enhancement allows the automobile insurance policy to be altered based on the predetermined amount of time not having elapsed between the first rate-affecting accident and the second rate-affecting accident; and update the one or more website screens with a visual display of the customized automobile insurance policy that includes the one or more selected features.

“12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the first terminal computing device is associated with a customer.

“13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the first terminal computing device is associated with a customer service representative.

“14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, further comprising sending, to the first terminal computing device, data indicating that the automobile insurance policy will be maintained without altering the automobile insurance policy based on the second rate-affecting accident.

“15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 11, further comprising sending, to the first terminal computing device, data indicating that the automobile insurance policy will be altered based on the second rate-affecting accident.”

For more information, see this patent: Wilson, Thomas J. Processing an application for insurance coverage. U.S. Patent Number 11341579, filed November 26, 2018, and published online on May 24, 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=11341579.PN.&OS=PN/11341579RS=PN/11341579

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