Patent Issued for System and method for generating proactive underwriting offers using social media data (USPTO 11508012): Hartford Fire Insurance Company

2022 DEC 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Hartford, Connecticut, United States) has been issued patent number 11508012, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Denning, Ryan Owen (West Hartford, CT, US), Moin, Mushter Munib (Newlington, CT, US), Perschy, Deborah L. (Southington, CT, US).

This patent was filed on May 1, 2020 and was published online on November 22, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Advances in computing and data processing have led to the creation of large sets of data about consumers and businesses. The data includes information from a wide variety of sources, including postal data, census and demographic data, and increasingly, data accumulated via user interaction with social media and other Websites such as Facebook®, Twitter®, Internet forums, question and answer sites (such as StackExchange®), photo sharing sites, and the like.

“Frequently, this interaction data can be matched to a specific individual or business. Advertisers currently use some data to target advertising to individuals based on their interests. For example, Google® provides tools for advertisers to place keyword and demographically-targeted ads on Web pages which are considered to be relevant to consumers based on their search terms and based on their location and other demographic information.

“While these targeted advertisements can serve the purpose of providing a relevant and targeted ad or offer to an interested consumer or business, they are unable to provide proactive offers of insurance that are presented based on some form of underwriting or underwriting analysis. It would be desirable to provide systems and methods that allow the proactive underwriting and presentation of insurance offers to prospective insureds based on the use of social and other data sources.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Pursuant to some embodiments, systems, methods, apparatus and computer program code for proactive underwriting are provided. Pursuant to some embodiments, a computer implemented processing method is provided which includes identifying, by an insurance processing platform, an action by an entity that matches at least a first trigger rule. A proactive underwriting template is selected based on the at least first trigger rule, where the proactive underwriting template defines a number of data items required to complete the proactive underwriting template. The insurance processing platform is operated to automatically collect data associated with the plurality of required data items, and to perform a proactive underwriting analysis using the collected data. An underwriting determination is then rendered based on the proactive underwriting analysis.

“As used herein, the term “proactive underwriting” refers to the underwriting, evaluation, rating, offering, quoting and/or pricing of insurance for one or more entities without necessarily requiring a specific request or application from those entities. For example, as will be described further herein, a restaurant may be proactively presented with an offer of a small commercial insurance policy based on information obtained about the restaurant using techniques described herein. The offer may be unsolicited or requested by the restaurant. In some embodiments, the term “proactive underwriting” further encompasses the underwriting, evaluation, rating, offering, pricing or otherwise evaluating insurance for one or more entities in response to a request or inquiry such that some aspect or portion of the insurance is proactively provided using features of the present invention. For example, a restaurant may submit a request for a small commercial lines insurance policy, and the proactive underwriting system of the present invention may proactively obtain one or more items of information associated with the application (e.g., such that the restaurant need not provide all of the information needed to underwrite or price the policy-some of the information may be gathered or obtained using the system of the present invention).

“Pursuant to some embodiments, a “template” specifying the types of data needed for the proactive underwriting of a policy or offer of insurance may be defined by the insurance company. For example, each form of insurance implemented using the present invention may have one or more “templates” that define the specific items of data needed for the proactive underwriting process to occur (such as, for example, the name of the insured, an address of the insured, etc.).

“Prior to discussing features of some embodiments, an illustrative (but not limiting) example will be provided. This example will be referenced throughout the remainder of this specification to assist in describing features of some embodiments. In the illustrative example, an operator or administrator of a system pursuant to the present invention has identified (either automatically by operation of the system or otherwise) that certain types of information necessary for underwriting small commercial lines insurance policies may be reliably collected from certain types of data sources (including, for example, social media data sources). More particularly, the operator or administrator may have identified that certain types of restaurants may be accurately underwritten for small commercial lines insurance policies by proactively collecting information associated with the restaurant. The nature and type of the collected information may be identified based on a historical analysis of claims and loss data associated with similar restaurants.

“In the illustrative example, the operator or administrator has determined that proactive underwriting may be performed for restaurants for small commercial lines insurance policies. For example, a restaurant may be proactively offered a policy based on data collected and aggregated using the system of the present invention, and/or a restaurant that requests a policy may not need provide the full application data typically required of a restaurant (as some portion of the data needed for underwriting may be collected and aggregated using the system of the present invention).”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer implemented method, comprising: continually monitoring, by a proactive coverage generation platform processor implementing a plurality of application program interfaces via a network interface unit connected to the Internet, a plurality of data sources including: RSS data feeds, and two or more of social data sources, entity web sites, forum web sites, blog web sites, auction web sites, or data repositories, to receive, process, and extract data relating to entities with potential coverage needs, wherein additional data received includes one of: biometric data from wearable devices or navigation data from telematics devices, analyzing the extracted data and identifying, by the proactive coverage generation platform processor, whether the extracted data includes data indicative of an action by an entity that matches at least a first trigger rule indicative of a coverage need, the first trigger rule comprising one of a plurality of trigger rules stored in a trigger database; responsive to identification of the action that matches the at least first trigger rule, selecting, by the proactive coverage generation platform processor, one of a plurality of proactive coverage generation underwriting templates stored in a template database, said proactive coverage generation underwriting template being associated with said at least first trigger rule and defining a plurality of required data items for generating an underwriting determination; obtaining, via the network interface unit, from a plurality of data sources, the one or more of the plurality of required data items required in accordance with the template associated with the at least first trigger rule; performing, by the proactive coverage generation platform processor, a proactive underwriting analysis, said proactive underwriting analysis being performed without a request from said entity to perform said underwriting analysis; generating, by an underwriting module, a quoting module, and a rating schedule database coupled to the proactive coverage generation platform processor, an underwriting determination comprising a price quotation for a risk mitigation product for the entity based on said proactive underwriting analysis; generating, by a notification module coupled to the proactive coverage generation platform processor, an electronic communication including the price quotation for the risk mitigation product; and transmitting, by the network interface unit to a user device corresponding to the entity, the electronic communication including the price quotation for the risk mitigation product.

“2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the extracted data and identifying whether the extracted data includes data indicative of the action by the entity that matches at least the first trigger rule indicative of the coverage need comprises applying natural language processing to the extracted data by the proactive coverage generation platform processor.

“3. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of an action by an entity that matches at least a first trigger rule indicative of a coverage need is unrelated to any risk mitigation policy, application for risk mitigation coverage, or activity by an agent that sells risk mitigation coverage.

“4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining, from the plurality of data sources, the one or more of the plurality of required data items, is responsive to accessing, by the proactive coverage generation platform processor via the network interface unit implementing the plurality of application program interfaces and without interaction with the entity, the plurality of data sources to obtain one or more of the plurality of required data items required in accordance with the template associated with the at least first trigger rule.

“5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein performing the proactive underwriting analysis comprises applying, by the proactive coverage generation platform processor, a computerized predictive model trained to analyze relevant underwriting parameter variables in a multivariable system to said collected data.

“6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication comprises one of an electronic mail message and a social media network direct message.

“7. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the data indicative of the action by the entity that matches at least the first trigger rule is at least one of: (i) data indicative of an Internet comment, (ii) data indicative of an Internet status, (iii) data indicative of an Internet action by said entity, (iv) data indicative of a Webpage change, and (v) data indicative of an Internet communication.

“8. The computer implemented method of claim 7, wherein the data indicative of the action is associated with geographical data associated with a location of said entity, wherein said selecting a proactive coverage generation underwriting template further includes: selecting, by the proactive coverage generation platform processor, the proactive coverage generation underwriting template available for use in said location of said entity.

“9. A computer system comprising: a data storage device storing a plurality of proactive underwriting templates and a plurality of trigger rules, each of said plurality of proactive underwriting templates being associated with at least a first trigger rule of the plurality of trigger rules and defining a plurality of required data items for generating an underwriting determination; and a proactive underwriting platform processor configured to: continually monitor, by a network interface unit by a plurality of application program interfaces connected to the Internet, a plurality of data sources including RSS data feeds and two or more of social data sources, entity web sites, forum web sites, blog web sites, or auction web sites, and receive, process, and extract data relating to entities with potential coverage needs; analyze the extracted data and identify whether the extracted data includes data indicative of an action by an entity associated with at least one of said plurality of social data sources that matches the at least first trigger rule; responsive to identification of the action that matches the at least first trigger rule, select one of the plurality of proactive underwriting templates, said one of the plurality of proactive underwriting templates being associated with said at least first trigger rule and defining a plurality of required data items for generating an underwriting determination; obtain, by the plurality of application program interfaces via the network interface unit, from a plurality of data sources, the one or more of the plurality of required data items required in accordance with the template associated with the at least first trigger rule; perform a proactive underwriting analysis using said collected data, said proactive underwriting analysis being performed without a request from said entity to perform said underwriting analysis; generate, by an underwriting module, a quoting module, and a rating schedule database coupled to the proactive underwriting platform processor, an underwriting determination comprising a price quotation for a risk mitigation product for the entity based on said proactive underwriting analysis; generate, by a notification module coupled to the proactive coverage generation platform processor, an electronic communication including the price quotation for the risk mitigation product; and transmit, by the network interface unit to a user device corresponding to the entity, the electronic communication including the price quotation for the risk mitigation product.

“10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the proactive underwriting platform processor is configured to apply natural language processing to analyze the extracted data and identify whether the extracted data includes data indicative of the action by the entity that matches at least the first trigger rule indicative of the coverage need.

“11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the data indicative of an action by an entity that matches at least a first trigger rule indicative of a coverage need is unrelated to any risk mitigation policy, application for risk mitigation coverage, or activity by an agent that sells risk mitigation coverage.

“12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the proactive underwriting platform processor is further configured to access, before text mining the plurality of data sources, via the network interface unit implementing the plurality of application program interfaces and without interaction with the entity, the plurality of data sources to obtain one or more of the plurality of required data items required in accordance with the template associated with the at least first trigger rule.

“13. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the proactive underwriting platform processor is configured to apply a computerized predictive model trained to analyze relevant underwriting parameter variables in a multivariable system to said collected data to perform the proactive underwriting analysis.

“14. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the electronic communication comprises one of an electronic mail message, a social media network direct message, SMS messaging, or direct messaging.

“15. The computer system of claim 9, wherein said at least first trigger rule is a rule identifying an insurable activity, and said selected proactive coverage generation underwriting template is a template for collecting data to perform an underwriting process for said insurable activity.

“16. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the action is associated with geographical data associated with a location of said entity, wherein said proactive underwriting template is further selected based on said location of said entity.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Denning, Ryan Owen. System and method for generating proactive underwriting offers using social media data. U.S. Patent Number 11508012, filed May 1, 2020, and published online on November 22, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11508012)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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