Patent Issued for Systems And Methods For Quoting Multiple Homeowner Insurance Products (USPTO 10,650,465)

2020 MAY 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Bolden, Philip Christopher (Bloomington, IL); Corbin, Erin (Bloomington, IL); Sadasivan, Sajay (Normal, IL); Bracero, Bernardo (Bloomington, IL), filed on June 6, 2018, was published online on May 25, 2020.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 10,650,465 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Homeowner insurance provides financial protection against losses due to damage to one’s home and/or bodily injury within one’s home. Customers typically evaluate different homeowner’s insurance options before purchasing a policy. This evaluation often results in a ‘quote’ on the policy for the property. To receive an accurate quote, a customer must provide various information about the property and/or personal information. Quotes for different homeowner’s insurance products require different information or answering different types of questions to arrive at an accurate price for the product. However, because of differences between various homeowners’ insurance products, the quoting process may be different for each different insurance product. Thus, if a customer desires a quote for multiple or different homeowner insurance products, then the customer must complete the entire process for each product. The present embodiments may, inter alia, alleviate the foregoing and other complications.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A system and method may provide an integrated purchase process for two or more different homeowner’s insurance products online. The system and method may allow the customer to choose between two different forms of homeowners policies which may provide coverage. An online quote process may provide educational information and quoting capabilities which will allow the customer to make an informed decision when making a selection between a limited coverage policy and a full coverage policy. Customers may be able to select which policy best suits their needs and/or complete the purchase of either of the two or more homeowners polices online. The customer may also complete the quote and purchase process through a mobile computing device (e.g., a cellular phone, tablet, phablet, laptop, smart glasses, or other portable, mobile, or wearable electronics or computer). The systems and methods described herein may allow the customer to research, quote and purchase multiple coverage options online and through a mobile device, and/or to select the mix of coverage and price that best suits their personal needs.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of creating and presenting multiple insurance product offerings may be provided. The method may (1) receive, at a hardware server, a first data signal including customer demographic information and property information, wherein the first data signal may be received via a computer network and may originate from a client computing device. The method may (2) store the customer demographic information and property information in a data structure comprising a database that is communicatively coupled to the hardware server, and/or (3) determine two or more insurance product offerings based upon the stored customer demographic information and property information. Further, the method may (4) send, from the hardware server and via the computer network, a second data signal including data to enable the client computing device to display a graphic representation of the two or more insurance product offerings at the client computing device for customer review, approval, and/or modification. The method may also include (5) receiving, at the hardware sever via wired or wireless communication or data transmission, customer acceptance or modification of one of the insurance product offerings that is transmitted from the client customer device. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those described elsewhere herein.

“In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of visually presenting multiple home owners insurance quotes simultaneously on a user interface may be provided. The method may include (1) causing, via one or more remote processors (such as remote processors or servers associated with an insurance provider), a display screen capable of collecting home information associated with a home from a user to be presented on a user interface of a client computing device (e.g., mobile device); (2) receiving, at or by the one or more remote processors, a request for a homeowners insurance quote from the user for a homeowners insurance policy covering the home via wired or wireless communication, or data transmission, from the client computing device: (3) in response to the user requesting the homeowners insurance quote via the user interface, generating, at or by the one or more remote processors, (a) a first summary associated with a first quote for a first homeowners insurance product covering the home, and (b) a second summary associated with a second quote for a second homeowners insurance product covering the home; and/or (4) causing, by the one or more remote processors, (a) the first summary associated with the first quote for the first homeowners insurance product covering the home, and (b) the second summary associated with the second quote for the second homeowners insurance product covering the home to be presented on the user interface of the client computing device to facilitate side-by-side comparison, review, or approval of the first and second homeowners insurance products covering the home by the user. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed:

“1. A computer-implemented method for creating and presenting multiple insurance product offerings, the method comprising: receiving, at a hardware server, a first data signal including customer demographic information and property information, wherein the first data signal is received via wired or wireless communication and/or a computer network and originates from a client computing device, and the property information corresponds to a property; determining two or more alternative insurance product offerings for insuring the property based upon the stored customer demographic information and property information, wherein the two or more alternative insurance product offerings include a first insurance product offering and a second insurance product offering that share a set of coverage categories; for at least one coverage category of the shared set of coverage categories, determining, at the hardware server, one or more differences between the first insurance product offering and the second insurance product offering, the one or more differences corresponding to a subset of the set of coverage categories; and sending, from the hardware server and via wired or wireless communication and/or the computer network, a second data signal including data to enable the client computing device to display a graphic representation of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings, the graphic representation including (i) for each category of the set of coverage categories, a coverage amount for the category under the first insurance product offering and a coverage amount for the category under the second insurance product offering, and (ii) for each category of the subset of coverage categories, a difference indicator indicating that a difference exists between the first insurance product offering and the second insurance product offering with respect to that category.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the hardware server, a third data signal including data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind a customer to one of the two or more insurance product offerings.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind the customer to one of the two or more insurance product offerings includes payment information and data indicating a selection of one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein receiving, at the hardware server, the third data signal including data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind the customer to one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings includes associating both the customer demographic information and the property information with the data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind the customer to one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings.

“5. A computer system for creating and presenting multiple insurance product offerings comprising: one or more processors; one or more communication modules adapted to communicate data; and a program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the computer system to: receive, at a hardware server, a first data signal including customer demographic information and property information, wherein the first data signal is received via a computer network and originates from a client computing device, and the property information corresponds to a property; determine two or more alternative insurance product offerings for insuring the property based upon the stored customer demographic information and property information, wherein the two or more alternative insurance product offerings include a first insurance product offering and a second insurance product offering that share a set of coverage categories; for at least one coverage category of the shared set of coverage categories, determine one or more differences between the first insurance product offering and the second insurance product offering, the one or more differences corresponding to a subset of the set of coverage categories; and send, from the hardware server and via the computer network, a second data signal including data to enable the client computing device to display a graphic representation of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings, the graphic representation including (i) for each category of the set of coverage categories, a coverage amount for the category under the first insurance product offering and a coverage amount for the category under the second insurance product offering, and (ii) for each category of the subset of coverage categories, a difference indicator indicating that a difference exists between the first insurance product offering and the second insurance product offering with respect to that category.

“6. The computer system of claim 5, further comprising an instruction to cause the computer system to receive, at the hardware server, a third data signal including data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind a customer to one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings.

“7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind the customer to one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings includes payment information and data indicating a selection of one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings.

“8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the instruction to receive, at the hardware server, the third data signal including data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind the customer to one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings includes an instruction to associate both the stored customer demographic information and the property information with the data to enable the hardware server to execute one or more instructions to bind the customer to one of the two or more alternative insurance product offerings.

“9. A computer-implemented method of visually presenting multiple home owners insurance quotes simultaneously on a user interface, the method comprising: receiving, at or by the one or more remote processors, a request for a homeowners insurance quote from a user computing device for a homeowners insurance policy covering a home via wired or wireless communication, or data transmission, from a client computing device; in response to the user requesting the homeowners insurance quote via the user interface, generating, at or by the one or more remote processors, (1) a first summary associated with a first quote for a first homeowners insurance product covering the home, and (2) a second summary associated with a second quote for an alternative, second homeowners insurance product covering the home, wherein the first homeowners insurance product and the second homeowners insurance product share a set of coverage categories; for at least one coverage category of the shared set of coverage categories, determining, at or by the one or more remote processors, one or more differences between the first homeowners insurance product and the second homeowners insurance product, the one or more differences corresponding to a subset of the set of coverage categories; and causing, by the one or more remote processors, a graphic representation including (1) the first summary associated with the first quote for the first homeowners insurance product covering the home, and (2) the second summary associated with the second quote for the second homeowners insurance product covering the home, to be presented on the user interface of the client computing device to facilitate side-by-side comparison, review, or approval of the first and second homeowners insurance products covering the home by the user, wherein the graphic representation includes (i) for each category of the set of coverage categories, a coverage amount for the category under the first homeowners insurance product offering and a coverage amount for the category under the second homeowners insurance product offering, and (ii) for each category of the subset of coverage categories, a difference indicator indicating that a difference exists between the first homeowners insurance product offering and the second homeowners insurance product offering with respect to that category.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the first and second summaries include monthly pricing or premium amount information associated with the first and second homeowners insurance products; respectively.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the first and second summaries include (a) discount information, and (b) insurance coverage associated with the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the first and second summaries include discount information associated with the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the first and second summaries include insurance coverage associated with the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the first and second summaries include (a) discount information, and (b) insurance coverage associated with the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively, and (3) an icon that allows the user to modify the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the first and second summaries include an icon that allows the user to modify the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“16. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the user interface presenting a side-by-side comparison of coverages of the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“17. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, the user interface presenting a side-by-side comparison of characteristics of the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, the characteristics including information associated with personal liability, deductibles, and other home coverages of the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.

“19. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, the characteristics including information associated with personal belongings.

“20. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, the characteristics including information associated with additional coverage options of the first and second homeowners insurance products, respectively.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Bolden, Philip Christopher; Corbin, Erin; Sadasivan, Sajay; Bracero, Bernardo. Systems And Methods For Quoting Multiple Homeowner Insurance Products. U.S. Patent Number 10,650,465, filed June 6, 2018, and published online on May 25, 2020. 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=10,650,465.PN.&OS=PN/10,650,465RS=PN/10,650,465

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