Insurance policy revisioning method and apparatus

• US 20070255601A1
• Filed: 04/27/2006
• Published: 11/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guidewire Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Guidewire Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Branson, Kenneth, Heydon, Clark
• Granted Patent: US 8,676,703 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

An insurance policy is stored (101) as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions. A legally binding revision for a first given date is then determined (102) by identifying all policy data revisions effective on the first given date and choosing a most temporally recent policy data revision temporally prior to a second given date. When a new policy data revision is (103) temporally subsequent as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, legally non-overlapping policy data revisions are created (104) for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revision and all temporally preceding revisions. Each newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revision comprises changes introduced by the new policy data revision and at least one temporally preceding policy data revision.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing an insurance policy as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions, wherein each revision incorporates information from temporally prior revisions covering an effective date range of the revision;

determining a legally binding revision for a first given date by identifying all policy data revisions effective on the first given date and choosing a most temporally recent policy data revision temporally prior to a second given date.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when a new policy data revision is temporally subsequent as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, creating legally non-overlapping policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revision and all temporally preceding policy data revisions, each newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revision comprising changes introduced by the new policy data revision and at least one temporally preceding policy data revision.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

determining differences introduced by the new policy data revision.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

identifying for a user at least one of the differences.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

automatically applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to create merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein automatically applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision further comprises determining if applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions creates conflicting insurance policy terms.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

identifying for a user at least one of the conflicting insurance policy terms.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

providing a user with an opportunity to resolve the conflicting insurance policy terms.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

automatically resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein automatically resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms comprises accepting terms introduced by the new data revision.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein automatically resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms comprises resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms according to a configurable method.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

identifying for a user a resolution of the conflicting insurance policy terms.

13. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

allowing the user to select a merge conflict resolution strategy to resolve the conflicting insurance policy terms; and

re-applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions and resolving the conflicting insurance policy terms according to the selected merge conflict resolution strategy to create new merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

14. The method of claim 5 further comprising providing a user with an opportunity to edit at least one of:

a primary superseding revision, wherein the primary superseding revision comprises the merged legally non-overlapping policy data revision having an earliest legally effective date;

secondary superseding revisions, wherein the secondary superseding revisions comprise the merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions subsequent to the primary revision.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

determining differences between the primary superseding revision and a most temporally recent prior policy data revision; and

determining differences between each secondary superseding revision and an immediately legally subsequent superseding revision.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

detecting any conflicts between each secondary superseding revision and the immediately legally subsequent superseding revision; and

detecting any conflict resolutions.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

displaying the differences and the conflict resolutions to the user.

18. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

determining edited differences introduced by an edited primary superseding revision;

applying the edited differences to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to create new merged legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

19. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

using the legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to calculate a revised policy premium.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein each policy data revision has a corresponding change date and a corresponding legally effective date stored therewith.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

using the change dates and the legally effective dates to facilitate determination of a present liability.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the present liability is determined with respect to a claim for coverage.

23. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

querying the policy data revisions in terms of a change date to determine a status of the insurance policy as of a queried-for change date.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

querying the policy data revisions in terms of a legally effective date to determine a status of the insurance policy as of a queried-for legally effective date.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when a new policy data revision is a temporally subsequent unbound version as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, creating legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revision and all temporally preceding policy data revisions.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

when a second new policy data revision is a temporally subsequent unbound version as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, creating second legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the second new policy data revision and all temporally preceding policy data revisions.

27. The method of claim 26 further comprising:

comparing the legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions corresponding to the new policy data revision and the second legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions corresponding to the second new policy data revision.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the legally non-overlapping unbound policy data revisions become bound as of a particular effective date.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein the insurance policy comprises supplemental policy-specific data.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising:

providing an insurance product model;

substantively interpreting the insurance product model to thereby facilitate obtaining the supplemental policy-specific data.

31. The method of claim 1 wherein the second given date is selected from the group consisting of:

the second given date is the same as the first given date; and

the second given date is different from the first given date.

32. A method comprising:

storing an insurance policy as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions, wherein each revision incorporates information from temporally prior revisions with legally effective date ranges overlapping at least in part a legally effective date range of the revision;

determining a legally binding revision for a first given date by identifying all policy data revisions effective on the given date and choosing a most temporally recent policy data revision temporally prior to a second given date.

33. An apparatus comprising:

a first computer memory having stored therein data that defines an insurance policy as a plurality of discrete temporally-sequential policy data revisions, wherein each revision incorporates information from temporally prior revisions covering an effective date range of the revision;

a second computer memory having stored therein a program that executes when a given one of the policy data revisions is temporally subsequent as compared to a first policy data revision and also comprises a legally effective date range preceding at least in part an effective date range of the first policy data revision, and creates legally non-overlapping policy data revisions for each legally overlapping effective date range as exists between the new policy data revisions and all temporally preceding policy data revisions.

34. The apparatus of claim 33 wherein the program determines differences introduced by the new policy data revision and automatically applies the differences to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions.

35. The apparatus of claim 34 wherein automatically applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision further comprises determining if applying the differences introduced by the new policy data revision to the newly-created legally non-overlapping policy data revisions creates conflicting insurance policy terms.

36. The apparatus of claim 35 wherein the program automatically resolves the conflicting insurance policy terms.

37. The apparatus of claim 33 wherein the program uses the legally non-overlapping policy data revisions to calculate a revised policy premium.

38. The apparatus of claim 33 wherein each policy data revision has a corresponding change date and a corresponding legally effective date also stored in the first computer memory.

39. The apparatus of claim 38 wherein the program uses the change dates and the legally effective dates to facilitate determination of a present liability.