Process for case-based insurance underwriting suitable for use by an automated system

• US 7,844,476 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2002
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pacific Life Insurance Company (Pacific Mutual Holding Company)
• Original Assignee: Genworth Financial Incorporated
• Inventors: Mogro-Campero, Antonio, Bonissone, Piero Patrone, Yang, Dan, Subbu, Rajesh Venkat, Patterson, Angela Neff, Pavese, Marc, Messmer, Richard Paul, Varma, Anil, Durham, William Michael, Russell, Diane Marie
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, LINH GIANG
• Application Number:
  US10/171,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20030187697A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,091 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 4, 705/26, 705/35
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A process for at least a partial underwriting of insurance policies is described. Based on the similarity to previous insurance applications, a decision on the current request for underwriting may be made. This decision-making process represents an analogical approach to the placement of an insurance application to an underwriting category, whereby a given insurance application request is compared to previous requests.

Claims

1. A process for underwriting a pending insurance application based on a comparison with at least one of a plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions, the process implemented by a computer processor, the process comprising:

receiving, by the computer processor, a request to underwrite the pending insurance application, where the request includes information about at least one application component;

retrieving, by the computer processor, a plurality of relevant insurance applications from the plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions based on a similarity between the at least one application component and at least one corresponding application component in the retrieved relevant insurance application;

ranking, by the computer processor, the plurality of retrieved insurance applications according to a level of similarity between the at least one application component and at least one corresponding application component in the retrieved insurance applications;

selecting, by the computer processor, at least one best insurance application from the plurality of retrieved insurance applications, such selecting being performed based on the ranking;

adapting, by the computer processor, a solution to the pending insurance application based on the at least one best insurance application; and

evaluating, by the computer processor, the solution using a confidence factor, where the confidence factor is based on the reliability of the solution.

2. The process according claim 1, further comprising the step of storing the solution for the pending insurance application in a case memory, wherein the case memory also stores the plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions.

3. The process according to claim 1, further comprising the step of transmitting the results of the underwriting decision.

4. The process according to claim 1, wherein the step of retrieving employs at least one fuzzy logic rule to retrieve plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions.

5. The process according to claim 4, wherein the at least one fuzzy logic rule is a membership function that interprets the degree to which a value is around a specified parameter.

6. The process according to claim 4, wherein the at least one fuzzy logic rule is a membership function that interprets the degree to which a value is within a core of a specified parameter.

7. The process according to claim 1, wherein the step of ranking the plurality of retrieved insurance applications includes deriving a distribution of the plurality of retrieved insurance applications based on predetermined criteria.

8. The process according to claim 1, wherein the reliability indicated by confidence factor is based on the number of the plurality of retrieved insurance applications.

9. The process according to claim 1, wherein selection of the at least one best insurance application is based on the ranking of the plurality of retrieved insurance applications having a similarity greater than a minimum similarity threshold.

10. A computer program stored on a computer readable medium, wherein the computer program causes a computer to perform the steps of:

receiving, by the computer, a request to underwrite the pending insurance application, where the request includes information about at least one application component;

retrieving, by the computer, a plurality of relevant insurance applications from the plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions based on a similarity between the at least one application component and at least one corresponding application component in the retrieved relevant insurance application;

ranking, by the computer, the plurality of retrieved insurance applications according to a level of similarity between the at least one application component and at least one corresponding application component in the retrieved insurance applications;

selecting, by the computer, at least one best insurance application from the plurality of retrieved insurance applications, such selecting being performed based on the ranking;

adapting, by the computer, a solution to the pending insurance application based on the at least one best insurance application; and

evaluating, by the computer, the solution using a confidence factor, where the confidence factor is based on the reliability of time solution.

11. The computer readable medium according to claim 10, further comprising the step of storing the solution for the pending insurance application in a case memory, wherein the case memory also stores the plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions.

12. The computer readable medium according to claim 10, further comprising the step of transmitting the results of the underwriting decision.

13. The computer readable medium according to claim 10, wherein the step of retrieving employs at least one fuzzy logic rule to retrieve plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions.

14. The computer readable medium according to claim 13, wherein the at least one fuzzy logic rule is a membership function that interprets the degree to which a value is around a specified parameter.

15. The computer readable medium according to claim 13, wherein the at least one fuzzy logic rule is a membership function that interprets the degree to which a value is within a core of a specified parameter.

16. The computer readable medium according to claim 10, wherein the step of ranking the plurality of retrieved insurance applications includes deriving a distribution of the plurality of retrieved insurance applications based on predetermined criteria.

17. A process for underwriting a transaction oriented process based on a comparison with at least one of a plurality of previous transaction underwriting decisions, the process performed by a computer processor, the process comprising:

receiving, by the computer processor, a request to underwrite the transaction on behalf of an applicant, where the request includes information about at least one transaction component;

retrieving, by the computer processor, a plurality of relevant transactions from the plurality of previous transaction underwriting decisions based on a similarity between the at least one transaction component and at least one corresponding transaction component in the retrieved relevant transaction, wherein the at least one transaction component relates to the health of the applicant and wherein the step of retrieving employs at least one fuzzy logic rule to retrieve plurality of previous transaction underwriting decisions;

ranking, by the computer processor, the plurality of retrieved transactions according to a level of similarity between the at least one transaction component and at least one corresponding transaction component in the retrieved transactions;

selecting, by the computer processor, at least one best transaction from the plurality of retrieved transactions, such selecting being performed based on the ranking;

adapting, by the computer processor, a solution to the pending transaction based on the at least one best insurance transaction;

evaluating, by the computer processor, the solution using a confidence factor, where the confidence factor is based on the reliability of the solution;

storing, by the computer processor, the solution for the transactions in a case memory, wherein the ease memory also stores the plurality of previous transactions underwriting decisions; and

transmitting, by the computer processor, the results of the underwriting decision.

18. The process according to claim 17, wherein the at least one fuzzy logic rule is a membership function that interprets the degree to which a value is around a specified parameter.

19. The process according to claim 17, wherein the at least one fuzzy logic rule is a membership function that interprets the degree to which a value is within a core of a specified parameter.

20. The process according to claim 17, wherein the step of ranking the plurality of retrieved transactions includes deriving a distribution of the plurality of retrieved transactions based on predetermined criteria.

21. A computer-implemented process comprising:

receiving, by the computer, a request to underwrite an insurance application, where the request includes information about at least one application component, the at least one application component being based on at least one of a cholesterol level, a blood pressure level, a pulse, an age, a weight, a height, a weight to height ratio, a systolic blood pressure level, a diastolic blood pressure level, a cancer history, a liver function, a driving history, a nicotine use history, a cholesterol ratio, a medical condition history, and a family cardiovascular history;

retrieving, by the computer, a plurality of relevant insurance applications from the plurality of previous insurance application underwriting decisions based on a similarity between the at least one application component and at least one corresponding application component in the retrieved relevant insurance application;

ranking, by the computer, the plurality of retrieved insurance applications according to a level of similarity between the at least one application component and at least one corresponding application component in the retrieved insurance applications;

selecting, by the computer, at least one best insurance application from the plurality of retrieved insurance application, such selecting being performed based on the ranking;

adapting, by the computer, a solution to the pending insurance application based on the at least one best insurance application; and

evaluating, by the computer, the solution using a confidence factor, where the confidence factor is based on the reliability of the solution and on the number of insurance applications retrieved from the plurality previous insurance application underwriting decisions.