Methods and apparatus for selecting an insurance carrier for an online insurance policy purchase

• US 20060206362A1
• Filed: 05/15/2006
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: InsuranceNoodle, Inc. (Willis Towers Watson plc)
• Original Assignee: InsuranceNoodle, Inc. (Willis Towers Watson plc)
• Inventors: Watson, James, Eisenhart, Robert, Rudy, Robert, Weiner, Bruce
• Granted Patent: US 7,904,532 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for selecting an insurance carrier for an online insurance policy purchase are disclosed. A user at a client device, such as a personal computer connected to the Internet, receives a plurality of business insurance quotes with minimal data input requirements. A plurality of insurance carriers are narrowed down to a few relevant insurance carriers based on geographic location, type of business, desired insurance products, responses to a small number of “kill” questions, and a customized insurance application which is dynamically generated in response to previous answers.

Claims

1. An apparatus structured to select a business insurance carrier from a plurality of insurance carriers, the apparatus comprising:

an Internet receiver;

an Internet transmitter;

a memory device storing information for the plurality of insurance carriers and a plurality of kill questions, wherein each kill question is associated with at least one of the insurance carriers;

a web page generator operatively coupled to the Internet receiver, the Internet transmitter, and the memory device, the web page generator being structured to transmit a first web page to a client device via the Internet transmitter, the first web page including a business type information prompt and a geographic location information prompt, the web page generator being further structured to transmit a second web page to the client device via Internet transmitter, the second web page including at least one of the kill questions;

an insurance carrier determination module operatively coupled to the Internet receiver and the memory device, the insurance carrier determination module being structured to select a subset of the plurality of insurance carriers from the memory device based on business type information and geographic location information input in the first web page at the client device and received via the Internet receiver the insurance carrier determination module being further structured to select at least one candidate insurance carrier from the subset of insurance carriers based on responses to the at least one kill question input in the second web page at the client device and received via the Internet receiver; and

a kill question selector operatively coupled to the memory device, the kill question selector being structured to retrieve kill questions from the memory device that are associated with the insurance carriers in the subset of insurance carriers for use by the web page generator in generating the second web page.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the web page generator is further structured to determine a plurality of available insurance products based on the received business type information and transmit a third web page to the client device via the Internet transmitter, the third web page including the plurality of available insurance products.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the web page generator is further structured to receive at least one insurance product selection for the insurance products on the third web page from the client device via the Internet receiver and the insurance carrier determination module is further structured to select the subset of insurance carriers from the plurality of insurance carriers based on the information input in the first and third web pages.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the web page generator is further structured to receive application data from the client device via the Internet receiver and to transmit at least a portion of the application data to the candidate insurance carrier via Internet transmitter.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein the web page generator is further structured to receive a quote response from the candidate insurance carrier via the Internet receiver and transmit a third web page to the client device via the Internet transmitter, the third web page including at least a portion of the quote response.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, further comprising a translation unit, the translation unit being structured to convert the portion of the quote response from a first data format to a second data format, the first data format being different than the second data format.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the business type information comprises a standard industrial code (SIC).

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the geographic location information comprises a zip code.

9. A method of selling business insurance, the method comprising:

transmitting a business type information prompt and a geographic location information prompt to a client device via a network;

receiving business type information and geographic location information from the client device via the network;

selecting a subset of a plurality of available insurance carriers based on the business type information and the geographic location information;

retrieving kill questions associated with the insurance carriers in the subset of insurance carriers from a memory device;

transmitting the retrieved kill questions to the client device via the network;

receiving responses to the kill questions from the client device via the network; and

selecting at least one candidate insurance carrier from the subset of insurance carriers based on the responses to the kill questions.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

generating a customized insurance application based on the at least one candidate insurance carrier; and

transmitting the customized insurance application to the client device via the network.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving an answer to the customized insurance application from the client device via the network; and

generating a further customized insurance application based on the received answer.

12. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

selecting a plurality of available insurance products based on the received business type information;

transmitting a product selection page to the client device via the network, the product selection page including the selected insurance products; and

receiving at least one insurance product selection from the client device via the network, wherein the step of selecting a subset of available insurance carriers further comprises eliminating insurance carriers from the plurality of available insurance carriers based on the received insurance product selections.

13. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising:

receiving application data from the client device via the network;

transmitting at least a portion of the application data to the at least one candidate insurance carrier via the network;

receiving a quote response from the at least one candidate insurance carrier, the quote response being transmitted in a first data format;

generating a customer quote page by converting the quote response from the first data format to a second data format; and

transmitting the customer quote page to the client device via the network.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising transmitting a notification e-mail message to the client device via the network, the notification e-mail message including a hyperlink to the customer quote page.

15. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the business type information comprises a standard industrial code (SIC).

16. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the geographic location information comprises a zip code.

17. An apparatus structured to sell an insurance policy, the apparatus comprising:

an Internet receiver;

an Internet transmitter;

a processing unit operatively coupled to the Internet receiver and the Internet transmitter; and

a memory device operatively coupled to the processing unit, the memory device storing a software program structured to cause the processing unit to;

transmit a business type information prompt and a geographic location information prompt via the Internet transmitter;

select a subset of a plurality of available insurance carriers in response to receiving business type information and geographic location information via the Internet receiver;

retrieve kill questions associated with the insurance carriers in the subset of available insurance carriers from the memory device;

transmit the retrieved kill questions via the Internet transmitter; and

select at least one candidate insurance carrier from the subset of available insurance carriers based on responses to the kill questions received via the Internet receiver.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the software program is further structured to cause the processing unit to:

generate a customized insurance application based on the at least one candidate insurance carrier; and

transmit the customized insurance application via the Internet transmitter.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the software program is further structured to cause the processing unit to:

select a plurality of available insurance products based on the received business type information; and

transmit a product selection page via the Internet transmitter, the product selection page including the selected insurance products.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein the software program is further structured to cause the processing unit to:

receive application data from via the Internet receiver;

transmitting at least a portion of the application data to the at least one candidate insurance carrier via the via the Internet transceiver;

receive a quote response from the at least one candidate insurance carrier via the Internet receiver, the quote response being transmitted in a first data format;

generate a customer quote page by converting the quote response from the first data format to a second data format; and

transmit the customer quote page via the Internet transmitter.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the business type information comprises a standard industrial code (SIC).

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein the geographic location information comprises a zip code.

23. A computer readable medium storing a software program structured to cause an Internet server to:

transmit a business type information prompt and a geographic location information prompt;

select a subset of a plurality of available insurance carriers in response to receiving business type information and geographic location information;

retrieve kill questions associated with the insurance carriers in the subset of insurance carriers;

transmit the retrieved kill questions; and

select at least one candidate insurance carrier from the subset of insurance carriers based on responses to the kill questions.

24. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 23, wherein the wherein the software program is further structured to cause an Internet server to:

generate a customized insurance application based on the at least one candidate insurance carrier; and

transmit the customized insurance application.

25. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 23, wherein the business type information comprises a standard industrial code (SIC).

26. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 23, wherein the geographic location information comprises a zip code.

27. A method of selling business insurance, the method comprising:

transmitting a prompt for preliminary insurance carrier selection information to a client device via a network;

receiving preliminary carrier selection information from the client device via the network;

selecting a subset of a plurality of available insurance carriers based on the preliminary carrier selection information;

retrieving kill questions associated with the insurance carriers in the subset of insurance carriers from a memory device;

transmitting the retrieved kill questions to the client device via the network;

receiving responses to the kill questions from the client device via the network; and

selecting at least one candidate insurance carrier from the subset of insurance carriers based on the responses to the kill questions.

28. A method as defined in claim 27, further comprising:

generating a customized insurance application based on the at least one candidate insurance carrier; and

transmitting the customized insurance application to the client device via the network.

29. A method as defined in claim 28, further comprising:

receiving an answer to the customized insurance application from the client device via the network; and

generating a further customized insurance application based on the received answer.

30. A method as defined in claim 27, further comprising:

selecting a plurality of available insurance products based on the received preliminary carrier selection information;

transmitting a product selection page to the client device via the network, the product selection page including the selected insurance products; and

receiving at least one insurance product selection from the client device via the network, wherein the step of selecting a subset of available insurance carriers further comprises eliminating insurance carriers from the plurality of available insurance carriers based on the received insurance product selections.

31. A method as defined in claim 27, further comprising:

receiving application data from the client device via the network;

transmitting at least a portion of the application data to the at least one candidate insurance carrier via the network;

receiving a quote response from the at least one candidate insurance carrier, the quote response being transmitted in a first data format;

generating a customer quote page by converting the quote response from the first data format to a second data format; and

transmitting the customer quote page to the client device via the network.

32. A method as defined in claim 27, wherein the preliminary carrier selection information comprises a standard industrial code (SIC) and a zip code.