Systems and methods for intelligent underwriting based on community or social network data

• US 8,660,864 B2
• Filed: 11/08/2011
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Krause, Jacqueline LeSage, Grosso, Anthony J., Peak, David F., Walters, Eugene J.
• Primary Examiner(s): CAMPEN, KELLY SCAGGS
• Application Number:
  US13/291,609
• Publication Number:
  US 20120221357A1
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4, 705/319, 705/38, 705/2, 705/347, 709/217, 709/224, 1/1
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

A system for underwriting using community and/or social networking based data includes an automated insurance underwriting platform for rating and pricing insurance policies through the accessing and evaluating of community, social and business network based information. Community or social network rating data may be analyzed and weighting factors may be applied to the community or social network rating data. An underwriting decision for the potential entity to be insured may then be transmitted based at least in part on the community or social network rating data.

Claims

1. A system for intelligently underwriting insurance policies using community or social network rating data, comprising:

a communication device to receive community or social network rating data associated with a potential entity to be insured by an insurance entity, wherein the community or social network rating data is generated by a party other than the insurance entity, the party being a community or social network user and the rating data comprising one or more of a rating, a review or a recommendation by the community or social network user;

a processor coupled to the communication device; and

a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to;

analyze the community or social network rating data, the analyzing comprising conducting key word searches on text based recommendations of the community or social network rating data to identify recommendations indicating a satisfactory experience and recommendations indicating a poor experience;

apply weighting factors to the community or social network rating data, wherein said weighting factors comprise at least two of;

a community or social network site credibility rating factor applicable to all rating data from a community or network site, a reviewer'"'"'s credibility factor applicable to all rating data from one of the community or social network users, an amount of reviews/ratings factor applicable to all rating data from one of the community or social network users, a current or dated information factor, and a specificity of data factor; and

transmit an underwriting decision for the potential entity to be insured based at least in part on the community or social network rating data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the community or social network rating data is associated with at least one of:

a star based rating, a grade based rating, a transaction based rating, and a recommendation based rating.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the underwriting decision is further based on at least one of:

historical loss information, risk information, and a standard industrial code.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the underwriting decision is associated with at least one of:

a personal insurance policy, a business insurance policy, an automobile insurance policy, and a home insurance policy.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein execution of the program instructions further cause the computer processor to:

extract relevant underwriting information from the community or social network rating data, wherein the underwriting decision is further based on the extracted relevant underwriting information.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said extracting includes a key word search of a text based recommendation.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein said extracting includes natural language processing to mine characteristic information from the community or social network rating data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the community or social network rating data comprises at least one of:

text information, image information, audio information, video information, and a website link.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the underwriting decision is further based on a predictive model.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the underwriting decision for the potential entity to be insured is transmitted responsive to a trigger event.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the trigger event is based on information associated with an existing or potential insurance customer.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the trigger event is associated with at least one of:

an application for a new insurance policy, a request to renew an existing insurance policy, and a periodic basis.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein execution of the program instructions further cause the computer processor to:

facilitate a provision of an interactive application to the potential entity to be insured,

gather social network profile information associated with the potential entity to be insured, and

score an insurance product for the potential entity to be insured based at least in part on the community or social network rating data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the interactive application is associated with at least one of:

a game, a survey, a calculator, a widget, and an insurance audit.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the social network server is associated with a third party service associated with a plurality of social networks.

16. A computer-implemented method associated with underwriting decisions based on community or social network based data, comprising:

receiving, by a computer processor of an insurance server, the computer processor executing an underwriting module, community or social network rating data associated with a potential entity to be insured by an insurance entity, wherein the community or social network rating data is generated by a party other than the insurance entity, the party being a community or social network user and the rating data comprising one or more of a rating, a review or a recommendation by the community or social network user;

analyzing, by the computer processor executing the underwriting module, said community or social network rating data, the analyzing comprising conducting key word searches on text based recommendations of the community or social network rating data to identify recommendations indicating a satisfactory experience and recommendations indicating a poor experience;

automatically applying, by the computer processor executing the underwriting module, weighting factors to said community or social network rating data, wherein said weighting factors comprise at least two of;

a community or social network site credibility rating factor applicable to all rating data from a community or network site, a reviewer'"'"'s credibility factor applicable to all rating data from one of the community or social network users, an amount of reviews/ratings factor applicable to all rating data from one of the community or social network users, a current or dated information factor, and a specificity of data factor;

determining by the computer processor an underwriting decision for the potential entity to be insured based at least in part on said community or social network rating data; and

transmitting, by the computer processor executing the underwriting module, the underwriting decision.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the community or social network rating data is associated with at least two of:

a star based rating, a grade based rating, a transaction based rating, and a recommendation based rating.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the underwriting decision is further based on at least one of:

historical loss information, risk information, and a standard industrial code.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the underwriting decision is associated with at least one of:

a personal insurance policy, a business insurance policy, an automobile insurance policy, and a home insurance policy.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a computer processor to perform a method, said method comprising:

receiving, at underwriting module of an insurance server, community or social network rating data associated with a potential entity to be insured by an insurance entity, wherein the community or social network rating data is generated by a party other than the insurance entity, the party being a community or social network user and the rating data comprising one or more of a rating, a review or a recommendation by the community or social network user;

analyzing the community or social network rating data, the analyzing comprising conducting key word searches on text based recommendations of the community or social network rating data to identify recommendations indicating a satisfactory experience and recommendations indicating a poor experience;

automatically applying, by the underwriting module, weighting factors to the community or social network rating data, wherein said weighting factors comprise at least two of;

a community or social network site credibility rating factor applicable to all rating data from a community or network site, a reviewer'"'"'s credibility factor applicable to all rating data from one of the community or social network users, an amount of reviews/ratings factor applicable to all rating data from one of the community or social network users, a current or dated information factor, and a specificity of data factor; and

transmitting an underwriting decision for the potential entity to be insured based at least in part on the community or social network rating data.

21. The medium of claim 20, wherein the underwriting decision for the potential entity to be insured is transmitted responsive to a trigger event.

22. The medium of claim 21, wherein the trigger event is based on information associated with an existing or potential insurance customer.

23. The medium of claim 21, wherein the trigger event is associated with at least one of:

an application for a new insurance policy, a request to renew an existing insurance policy, and a periodic basis.