Systems and methods to collect and augment decedent data

• US 20070156417A1
• Filed: 12/29/2005
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Forte LLC
• Original Assignee: Forte LLC
• Inventors: Balogh, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,801,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 Legal services

Abstract

Systems, methods, and software to collect, validate, and disseminate or otherwise use of data of decedents. Some embodiments include receiving and obtaining decedent data from various sources to augment decedent data and making the augmented decedent data available to others.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a decedent file identifying one or more decedents, wherein the file includes decedent identifying data;

identifying one or more courts in which to search for a probate estate for one or more of the decedent file decedents;

searching for a probate estate in an identified court for one or more of the decedent file decedents; and

populating an estate database with decedent file decedent data, wherein the data of a decedent is augmented with data representative of an identified court in which the decedent'"'"'s probate estate exists.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the decedent file is a Death Master File maintained by the United States Social Security Administration.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the Death Master File identifies decedents by one or more of:

a social security number,

a name,

a date of birth,

a date of death,

a state or country of residence,

a ZIP code of last residence, and

a ZIP code of a lump sum payment made at death.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

placing a decedent file decedent in a holding queue if a probate estate is not identified for the decedent, wherein the searching for a probate estate is performed on a recurring basis for each decedent in the holding queue.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the recurring basis is a weekly basis.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein a decedent remains in the holding queue for a period, after which if a probate estate is not identified for the decedent, the decedent is removed from the holding queue.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the period of time that a decedent remains in the holding queue is one year.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving decedent data from a probate court;

matching the probate court decedent data to one or more decedents in the estate database; and

storing the probate court decedent data with its matched estate database decedent data.

9. A machine-readable medium, with instructions thereon which when processed result in a machine:

receiving a decedent file identifying one or more decedents, wherein the file includes decedent identifying data;

identifying one or more courts in which to search for a probate estate for one or more of the decedent file decedents;

searching for a probate estate in an identified court for one or more of the decedent file decedents; and

populating an estate database with decedent file decedent data, wherein the data of a decedent is augmented with data representative of an identified court in which the decendent'"'"'s probate estate exists.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the decedent file is a Death Master File maintained by the United States Social Security Administration.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the Death Master File identifies decedents by one or more of:

a social security number,

a name,

a date of birth,

a date of death,

a state or country of residence,

a ZIP code of last residence, and

a ZIP code of a lump sum payment made at death.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, comprising:

placing a decedent file decedent in a holding queue if a probate estate is not identified for the decedent, wherein the searching for a probate estate is performed on a recurring basis for each decedent in the holding queue.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the recurring basis is a weekly basis.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 12, wherein a decedent remains in the holding queue for a period, after which if a probate estate is not identified for the decedent, the decedent is removed from the holding queue.

15. The machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the period of time that a decedent remains in the holding queue is one year.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions further result in the machine:

receiving decedent data from a probate court;

matching the probate court decedent data to one or more decedents in the estate database; and

storing the probate court decedent data with its matched estate database decedent data.

17. A system comprising:

a court database;

a estate database; and

software that executes on the system to cause the system to;

process decedent data from to match a decedent with a court in which a probate estate exists for one or more decedents; and

update estate database to identify one or more court-decedent matches.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein estate database is a database from which a file can be extracted and distributed.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the software further executes on the system to extract decedent data from a file into the decent database.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein file is a Death Master File.