Patent Issued for Recommendation of insurance products based on an inventory analysis (USPTO 11461849): Allstate Insurance Company

2022 OCT 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Brandmaier, Jennifer A. (Chicago, IL, US), Gillespie, James (Belfast, GB), Hughes, Stephen (Belfast, GB), Koza, Daniel (Hinsdale, IL, US), Loo, William (Arlington Heights, IL, US), filed on October 24, 2019, was published online on October 4, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11461849 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: “Conventional software applications for generating an inventory of items associated with property such as a home, office, business, etc. are little more than non-intelligent databases for storing each item input by a user. In addition, conventional inventory applications are stand-alone systems that are not configured to interact with external systems to better leverage the information included in the inventory.

“Therefore, there is a need for optimized systems and methods for generating an inventory and leveraging the information included within the inventory.”

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 of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or 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 more detailed description provided below.

“Aspects of the disclosure involve optimized systems and methods for generating, maintaining, and using documentation of an inventory of items associated with an entity such as a home, office, vehicle, and other types of property.

“In another aspect of the disclosure, an optimized inventory analysis server may interface with external systems and may generate an inventory configured for various purposes, including insurance analysis. In particular, the optimized inventory analysis server may identify users associated with an entity such as an insurance company and may generate a profile associated with the users. In addition, the optimized inventory analysis server may store information related to ownership of various inventory items. Using the inventory information associated with each user profile, the optimized inventory analysis server may also recommend items that each user may want to own or may already own but has forgotten to add to the inventory. In another aspect, the optimized inventory analysis server may determine a depreciated price for items within an inventory.

“In another aspect, an optimized inventory analysis server may calculate loss associated with an insurance claim by interfacing with a database storing items within an inventory. The server may also allow users to provide more information to recalculate the loss and generate a finalized settlement.

“In another aspect, an optimized inventory analysis server may manage the storage of information related to what a user owns, insurance coverage for items owned by the user, and the value of items owned and insured by the user. Based on an analysis of this information, the optimized inventory analysis server may determine if each item owned/stored is insured at all (e.g., via an item-by-item insurance policy) and/or adequately insured. In another aspect, the optimized inventory analysis server may determine if there are any additional and/or alternative insurance products from which users may benefit.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. An apparatus comprising: a processor; and a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to: generate, in a database, a home inventory comprising an identification of each item of a plurality of items covered under an existing insurance policy associated with a user, wherein the home inventory is generated by: receiving one or more images of each item of the plurality of items from a user device; and analyzing, using one or more image processing techniques comprising a blur filter, grey-scaling, optical recognition, or edge detection, the one or more images to obtain the identification of each item of the plurality of items; identify, based on an analysis of the home inventory, one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory; determine, based on an information associated with the each item obtained from an external system, an adequate insurance coverage level for the each item of: the plurality of items identified in the home inventory, and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory; determine, based on the plurality of items identified in the home inventory and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory and based on the determined adequate insurance coverage level for each item of the plurality of items identified in the home inventory and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory, at least one insurance product having an active incentive; and transmit, to the user device associated with the user, a recommendation to obtain the at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to determine the adequate insurance coverage level for each item by determining a depreciated price of each item.

“3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to determine the depreciated price of each item based on at least one of an age and damage associated with that item.

“4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to receive, from the user device, a user response regarding the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to transmit, to the user device, one or more reminders regarding one or more upcoming renewal dates associated with the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the apparatus to receive, from the user device, a response to one of the one or more reminders.

“7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to identify the one or more candidate items to recommend to the user for inclusion in the home inventory further based on: determining one or more demographic classifications associated with the user; and determining, as the one or more candidate items and based on accessing a database, one or more items owned by a threshold percentage of other users having at least one of the one or more demographic classifications associated with the user.

“8. A method comprising: generating, by a computing device and in a database, a home inventory comprising an identification of each item of a plurality of items covered under an existing insurance policy associated with a user, wherein the home inventory is generated by: receiving, by the computing device, one or more images of each item of the plurality of items from a user device; and analyzing, by the computing device and using one or more image processing techniques comprising a blur filter, grey-scaling, optical recognition, or edge detection, the one or more images to obtain the identification of each item of the plurality of items; identifying, by the computing device and based on an analysis of the home inventory, one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory; determining, by the computing device, based on an information associated with the each item obtained from an external system, an adequate insurance coverage level for the each item of: the plurality of items identified in the home inventory, and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory; determining, by the computing device and based on the plurality of items identified in the home inventory and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory and based on the determined adequate insurance coverage level for the each item of the plurality of items identified in the home inventory and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory, at least one insurance product having an active incentive; and transmitting, by the computing device and to the user device associated with the user, a recommendation to obtain the at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“9. The method of claim 8, wherein the determining the adequate insurance coverage level for each item comprises determining a depreciated price of each item.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the depreciated price of each item is based on at least one of an age and damage associated with that item.

“11. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving, from the user device, a user response regarding the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“12. The method of claim 11, further comprising, in response to determining that the user response indicates that the user accepts at least one of the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive, selling the at least one of the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive to the user.

“13. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting, to the user device, one or more reminders regarding one or more upcoming renewal dates associated with the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“14. The method of claim 13, further comprising receiving, from the user device, a response to one of the one or more reminders.

“15. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to: generate, in a database, a home inventory comprising an identification of each item of a plurality of items covered under an existing insurance policy associated with user, wherein the home inventory is generated by: receiving one or more images of each item of the plurality of items from a user device; and analyzing, using one or more image processing techniques comprising a blur filter, grey-scaling, optical recognition, or edge detection, the one or more images to obtain the identification of each item of the plurality of items; identify, based on an analysis of the home inventory, one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory; determine, based on an information associated with the each item obtained from an external system, an adequate insurance coverage level for the each item of: the plurality of items identified in the home inventory, and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory; determine, based on the plurality of items identified in the home inventory and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory and based on the determined adequate insurance coverage level for the each item of the plurality of items identified in the home inventory and the one or more candidate items recommended for inclusion in the home inventory, at least one insurance product having an active incentive; and transmit, to the user device associated with the user, a recommendation to obtain the at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to determine the adequate insurance coverage level for each item by determining a depreciated price of each item based on at least one of an age and damage associated with that item.

“17. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computing device, further cause the computing device to receive, from the user device, a user response regarding the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive.

“18. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computing device, further cause the computing device to, in response to determining that the user response indicates that the user accepts at least one of the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive, sell the at least one of the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive to the user.

“19. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed by the computing device, further cause the computing device to transmit, to the user device, one or more reminders regarding one or more upcoming renewal dates associated with the recommended at least one insurance product having the active incentive.”

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

URL and more information on this patent, see: Brandmaier, Jennifer A. Recommendation of insurance products based on an inventory analysis. U.S. Patent Number 11461849, filed October 24, 2019, and published online on October 4, 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=11461849.PN.&OS=PN/11461849RS=PN/11461849

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