Methods for digital management of underwriting insurance contracts

• US 8,073,716 B2
• Filed: 07/03/2008
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Guidewire Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: FirstBest Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Pelenur, Julian E., Cummings, Paul Thomas, Pilkerton, Joseph, Belizaire, John, Lynch, Kelly Ann, Glass, Jeffrey Jerome, Chen, Hao, Muldoon, Thomas Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): Kyle, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): NIQUETTE, ROBERT R
• Application Number:
  US12/167,589
• Publication Number:
  US 20100004953A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0635 Risk analysis of enterprise or organisation activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Disclosed are methods of underwriting insurance contracts. In one embodiment a method comprises receiving from a registered user a request for approval of the insurance contract, the request for approval of the insurance contract including underwriting parameters of the insurance contract; reading, from a user database underwriting criteria corresponding to the user; determining whether the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract satisfy the underwriting criteria of the user; and providing an interface including a status message indicating that at least one underwriting criterion is not satisfied, if at least one underwriting criterion is not satisfied. The interface can include a graphical element linking a part of the status message with a displayed parameter of the contract. In another embodiment the method further comprises determining whether the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract satisfy underwriting criteria corresponding to a managing user with a greater scope of authority than the registered user.

Claims

1. A method of processing and managing the underwriting of an insurance contract, the method comprising:

receiving, from a terminal operated by an underwriter registered in a user database comprising a plurality of user entries, a request for approval of the insurance contract, the request for approval of the insurance contract including a plurality of underwriting parameters of the insurance contract;

reading, from a user entry in the user database corresponding to the registered underwriter, a plurality of underwriting criteria corresponding to the registered underwriter;

determining, using a computer program, whether the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract satisfy the underwriting criteria corresponding to the registered underwriter;

providing, to the terminal, an interface including a status message indicating that at least one underwriting criterion is not satisfied, if at least one underwriting criterion is not satisfied;

providing an underwriting failure message to a managing underwriter identified in the user entry corresponding to the registered underwriter, if at least one parameter of the insurance contract does not satisfy the underwriting criteria in the user entry corresponding to the one of the plurality of registered underwriters;

reading, from a user entry in the user database corresponding to the managing underwriter, a plurality of underwriting criteria corresponding to the managing underwriter;

determining whether the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract satisfy the underwriting criteria corresponding to the managing underwriter; and

providing a status message to the managing underwriter indicating that at least one underwriting criterion corresponding to the managing underwriter is not satisfied, if at least one underwriting criterion corresponding to the managing underwriter is not satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interface comprises a parameter display area for displaying the parameters of the insurance contract and a status display area for displaying the status message.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the status display area includes an element corresponding to the at least one parameter of the insurance contract that does not satisfy the underwriting criteria in the user entry corresponding to the one of the plurality of registered underwriters.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the interface further comprises a graphical element linking the element of the status display area with an element of the parameter display area corresponding to the at least one parameter of the insurance contract.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the graphical element is created in response to input from the one of the plurality of registered underwriters.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the input includes a selection of the element of the status display area.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the input includes a selection of the element of the parameter display area.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the input includes hovering a cursor over the element of the status display area.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the input includes hovering a cursor over the element of the parameter display area.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the graphical element includes an indicia of a reason for which the at least one parameter of the insurance contract does not satisfy the underwriting criteria in the user entry corresponding to the one of the plurality of registered underwriters.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicia includes a color.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicia includes a texture.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the graphical element includes a shape which is computed based upon a size and location of the element of the status display area and a size and location of the element of the parameter display area.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the underwriting failure message identifies the at least one parameter of the insurance contract that does not satisfy the underwriting criteria.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the underwriting failure message comprises providing the underwriting failure message to an interface operated by the managing underwriter.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the interface operated by the managing underwriter comprises a parameter display area for displaying the parameters of the insurance contract and a status display area for displaying the underwriting failure message.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the status display area includes an element corresponding to the at least one parameter of the insurance contract that does not satisfy the underwriting criteria in the user entry corresponding to the one of the plurality of registered underwriters.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the interface operated by the managing underwriter further comprises a graphical element linking the element of the status display area with an element of the parameter display area corresponding to the at least one parameter of the insurance contract.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the graphical element is created in response to input from the managing underwriter.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the input includes a selection of the element of the status display area.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the input includes a selection of the element of the parameter display area.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the input includes hovering a cursor over the element of the status display area.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the input includes hovering a cursor over the element of the parameter display area.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein the graphical element includes an indicia of a reason for which the at least parameter of the insurance contract does not satisfy the underwriting criteria in the user entry corresponding to the one of the plurality of registered underwriters.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the indicia includes a color.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the indicia includes a texture.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the graphical element includes a shape which is computed based upon a size and location of the element of the status display area and a size and location of the element of the parameter display area.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the underwriting failure message comprises receiving an instruction from the interface operated by the registered underwriter and providing the underwriting failure message in response to receiving the instruction.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing an underwriting failure message to a second managing underwriter identified in the user entry corresponding to the managing underwriter, the second managing underwriter having a higher level of underwriting authority than the managing underwriter, if the parameters of the insurance contract do not satisfy the underwriting criteria corresponding to the managing underwriter.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein providing the underwriting failure message comprises providing the underwriting failure message to an interface operated by the second managing underwriter.

31. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the underwriting criteria corresponding to the registered underwriter is based upon one of more business rules.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein each of the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract is based upon one or more of the business rules.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

providing, to the interface operated by the registered underwriter, a web page including a form for entering the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract, wherein the form is based upon the one or more business rules.

34. The method of claim 32, further comprising:

receiving, from the interface operated by the registered underwriter, an instruction including a description of one or more of the business rules;

defining one or more of the business rules according to the received instruction.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

providing, to the interface operated by the registered underwriter, a web page including a form for entering the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract, wherein the form is based upon the one or more business rules.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein providing the web page further comprises generating the web page dynamically in response to an input received from the interface operated by the registered underwriter.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the form includes at least one field that is displayed only if an entry in a previous field satisfies a predetermined criterion.

38. The method of claim 1, wherein the user entry in the user database corresponding to the registered underwriter includes a user class of the registered underwriter, and wherein the method further comprises:

generating the interface operated by the registered underwriter based, at least in part, upon the user class of the registered underwriter.

39. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the plurality of underwriting parameters in a case entry in a case database.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the case database is the same database as the user database.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising:

receiving, from an interface operated by a second registered underwriter in the user database, at least one change to the case entry.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein receiving the at least one change to the case entry further comprises receiving the at least one change to the case entry before the insurance contract is bound.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein receiving the at least one change to the case entry further comprises receiving the at least one change to the case entry after the insurance contract is bound but before the insurance contract is issued.

44. The method of claim 41, wherein receiving the at least one change to the case entry further comprises receiving the at least one change to the case entry after the insurance contract is issued.

45. The method of claim 41, wherein the at least one change to the case entry comprises at least one change to one of the underwriting parameters of the insurance contract.

46. The method of claim 41, wherein the at least one change to the case entry comprises at least one annotation to the case entry.

47. The method of claim 41, further comprising:

generating a user interface comprising a parameter display area for displaying the parameters of the insurance contract and a change display area for displaying the at least one change to the case entry made by the second registered underwriter.

48. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

displaying the user interface to a third registered underwriter, the third registered underwriter being a different underwriter from the registered underwriter, the second registered underwriter, or both.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the change display area includes an element corresponding to the at least one change to the case entry made by the second registered underwriter.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the change to the case entry relates to a parameter of the insurance contract;

and wherein the interface further comprises a graphical element linking the element of the change display area with an element of the parameter display area corresponding to the parameter of the insurance contract to which the change relates.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising:

generating the graphical element in response to an input received from the third registered underwriter.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the input from the third registered underwriter includes a selection of the element of the change display area.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein the input from the third registered underwriter includes a selection of the element of the parameter display area.

54. The method of claim 51, wherein the input from the third of the plurality of registered underwriters includes hovering a cursor over the element of the change display area.

55. The method of claim 51, wherein the input from the third of the plurality of registered underwriters includes hovering a cursor over the element of the parameter display area.

56. The method of claim 50, wherein the graphical element includes an indicia of the nature of the at least one change to the case entry.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the indicia includes a color.

58. The method of claim 56, wherein the indicia includes a texture.

59. The method of claim 50, wherein the graphical element includes a shape which is computed based upon a size and location of the element of the change display area and a size and location of the of the element of the parameter display area.

60. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing data readable by a printer to generate a printed letter of authority for the registered underwriter.