Systems and methods to collect and augment decedent data

• US 8,165,966 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2010
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Forte LLC
• Original Assignee: Forte LLC
• Inventors: Balogh, James A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Syed, Farhan
• Application Number:
  US12/871,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20100325119A1
• Time in Patent Office: 603 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/311
• 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 system comprising:

a processor;

a data storage device;

an estate database; and

software stored on the data storage device that executes on the processor to cause the system to;

process decedent identifying data from a received file to match at least one decedent with at least one court in which a probate estate exists for one or more decedents, wherein the matching includes searching for at least one probate estate of the at least one decedent in at least one court based on the decedent identifying data from the received file, the at least one court to search identified based at least in part on the decedent identifying data from the received file; and

when locating the probate estate within a court, update the estate database with decedent identifying data and data identifying each court-decedent match identified by the processing.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein estate database is a database from which a file can be extracted and distributed.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the software further executes on the system to identify court-decedent matches by use of field match scoring and threshold comparison, and extract decedent data from a file into the decent database.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein file is a Death Master File.

5. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving decedent data via a network interface device of a computer, the decedent data including decedent identifying data of at least one decedent;

processing, on a processor of the computer, the received decedent data to match at least one decedent with at least one court in which a probate estate exists, wherein matching includes searching for at least one probate estate of the at least one decedent in the at least one court based on the decedent identifying data from the received file, the at least one court to search identified based at least in part on the decedent identifying data from the received file; and

when locating the probate estate within an identified court, updating an estate database with decedent identifying data and data identifying each court-decedent match identified by the processing.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the estate database is a database from which a file can be extracted and distributed.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

identifying court-decedent matches through application of field match scoring and threshold comparison.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

storing the received decedent data in a decent database.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the decedent data is received in a file.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the file is a Death Master File.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein the updating of the estate database includes creating a recording in the estate database and populating the created record with decedent identifying data and a court identifier of the court in which a match was identified by the processing.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, with instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor of a computer to cause the computer to perform actions comprising:

receiving decedent data via a network interface device of a computer, the decedent data including decedent identifying data of at least one decedent;

processing, on a processor of the computer, the received decedent data to match at least one decedent with at least one court in which a probate estate exists, wherein the matching includes searching for at least one probate estate of the at least one decedent in at least one court based on the decedent identifying data from the received file, the at least one court to search identified based at least in part on the decedent identifying data from the received file; and

when locating the probate estate within an identified court, updating an estate database with decedent identifying data and data identifying each court-decedent match identified by the processing.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the estate database is a database from which a file can be extracted and distributed.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, with further instructions stored thereon that are executable by the processor of the computer to cause the computer to perform further actions comprising:

identifying court-decedent matches through application of field match scoring and threshold comparison.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, further comprising:

storing the received decedent data in a decent database.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the decedent data is received in a file.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the file is a Death Master File.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the updating of the estate database includes creating a recording in the estate database and populating the created record with decedent identifying data and a court identifier of the court in which a match was identified by the processing.