Risk mitigation for affinity groupings

• US 10,713,728 B1
• Filed: 01/12/2018
• Issued: 07/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Original Assignee: State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm)
• Inventors: Roll, Leif Agerholm, Isaacs, Craig Dean, Webster, Eric, Hayward, Gregory L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US15/869,685
• Time in Patent Office: 914 Days
• Field of Search: 705 3- 44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

Multiple insurance policies may be grouped or segmented into affinity groups, each of which corresponds to a respective risk level. A set of financial instruments corresponding to a particular affinity group of insurance policies may be created and automatically offered for auction, e.g., online. Bids received from potential investors may indicate, e.g., percentage of assumed risk, percentage of profit sharing, percentage of shared loss, service or commission fee amounts, etc. that are acceptable to the bidding party. The party or parties submitting the winning bids may be awarded investment in the financial instruments and may enter into respective financial agreements with the financial instrument provider, thereby securitizing the risk associated with the insurance policies. Profits and/or losses generated by the insurance policies of the affinity group corresponding to the financial instruments may be distributed in accordance with the terms of the financial agreement.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:

dividing or segmenting, via one or more processors of a securities provider executing functions of a policy grouping unit, and based upon risk levels, multiple insurance policies into multiple affinity groups, the multiple insurance policies held by an insurance provider;

creating, by the one or more processors of the securities provider executing functions of an instrumentation unit, a set of financial instruments corresponding to a particular affinity group of the multiple affinity groups, the particular affinity group having a particular level of risk, and each financial instrument included in the set of financial instruments indicative of a respective assumption of risk for the particular affinity group over a time interval;

procuring, by the one or more processors of the securities provider executing functions of a procurement unit, one or more other parties as investors in at least a portion of the set of financial instruments, thereby securitizing at least a portion of the particular level of risk associated with the insurance policies of the particular affinity group, wherein procuring the one or more parties as investors comprises;

auctioning, via an electronic or communications network, an opportunity to invest in the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments, at least in part by causing computing devices of a plurality of potential investors to generate displays indicating the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments, wherein the plurality of potential investors includes the one or more other parties;

receiving, via the electronic or communications network and from the computing devices of the plurality of potential investors, one or more bids for the opportunity to invest in the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments; and

accepting at least one bid of the one or more received bids, the accepted at least one bid submitted by the one or more other parties; and

distributing, by the one or more processors of the securities provider, at least a portion of profit or loss incurred by respective insurance policies included in the particular affinity group over the particular policy period to the one or more other parties in accordance with terms of the set of financial instruments.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

accepting the at least one bid comprises accepting a particular bid based upon a percentage of the assumption of risk for the particular affinity group indicated by the particular bid; and

wherein the set of terms of the set of financial instruments is established based upon the percentage of the assumption of risk for the particular affinity group indicated by the particular bid.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

accepting the at least one bid comprises accepting a particular bid based upon at least one of a percentage of profit corresponding to the particular affinity group indicated by the particular bid or a percentage of loss corresponding to the particular affinity group indicated by the particular bid; and

distributing the at least the portion of the profit or loss incurred by respective insurance policies included in the particular affinity group over the particular policy period to the one or more parties comprises distributing the at least the portion of the profit or loss based upon the percentage of profit corresponding to the particular affinity group or the percentage of loss corresponding to the particular affinity group indicated by the particular bid.

4. A system, comprising:

one or more persistent memories storing indications of multiple insurance policies held by an insurance provider;

one or more communication interfaces configured to communicate with remote devices via one or more electronic or communications networks;

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to;

execute functions of a policy grouping unit that divides or segments, based upon risk levels, the multiple insurance policies into multiple affinity groups and store respective indications of the multiple affinity groups on the one or more persistent memories;

execute functions of an instrumentation unit that creates a set of financial instruments corresponding to a particular affinity group of the multiple affinity groups and store respective indications of the set of financial instruments on the one or more persistent memories, the particular affinity group having a particular level of risk, and each financial instrument included in the set of financial instruments indicative of a respective assumption of risk for the particular affinity group over a particular policy period;

execute functions of a procurement unit that procures, via the one or more communications interfaces and the one or more electronic communications networks, one or more other parties for at least a portion of the set of financial instruments, thereby securitizing at least a portion of the particular level of risk associated with the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group, wherein procuring the one or more parties as investors comprises;

auctioning, via the electronic or communications network, an opportunity to invest in the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments, at least in part by causing computing devices of a plurality of potential investors to generate displays indicating the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments, wherein the plurality of potential investors includes the one or more other parties;

receiving, via the electronic or communications network and from the computing devices of the plurality of potential investors, one or more bids for the opportunity to invest in the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments; and

accepting at least one bid of the one or more received bids, the accepted at least one bid submitted by the one or more other parties; and

distribute at least a portion of profit or loss incurred by respective insurance policies included in the particular affinity group over the particular policy period to the one or more parties in accordance with a set of terms of the set of financial instruments.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the acceptance of the at least one bid is based upon a respective percentage of the assumption of risk for the particular affinity group indicated by each bid included in the at least one bid; and

the set of terms of the set of financial instruments is established based upon the respective percentages of the assumption of risk for the particular affinity group.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the acceptance of the at least one bid is based upon at least one of a respective percentage of profit corresponding to the particular affinity group or a respective percentage of loss corresponding to the particular affinity group indicated by each bid included in the at least one bid; and

the distribution of the at least the portion of the profit or loss is based upon the at least one of the respective percentages of profit corresponding to the particular affinity group or the respective percentages of loss corresponding to the particular affinity group indicated by the each bid included in the at least one bid.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein, wherein the acceptance of the at least one bid is based upon a respective bid amount indicated by each bid included in the at least one bid, the respective bid amounts indicative of respective maximum fees that respective bidding parties are willing to pay for the opportunity to invest in the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the respective maximum fees are based upon respective maximum percentages of premiums of the respective insurance policies included in the particular affinity group.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein, wherein a particular party that submitted a respective accepted bid is qualified to invest in the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the multiple insurance policies provide insurance coverage for respective tangible, physical assets.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the respective tangible, physical assets include at least one of a vehicle, a building, land, or another type of real property.

12. The system of claim 4, wherein the multiple affinity groups are formed based upon at least one of:

a geographic location, one or more characteristics of respective real property covered by the multiple insurance policies, one or more characteristics of insured parties of the multiple insurance policies, or one or more policy terms of the multiple insurance policies.

13. The system of claim 4, wherein the distribution of the at least the portion of profit or loss incurred by respective insurance policies included in the particular affinity group over the particular policy period to the one or more parties comprises a transfer of at least some of the at least the portion of the profit incurred by the respective insurance policies over the particular policy period to the one or more parties.

14. The system of claim 4, wherein the distribution of the at least the portion of profit or loss incurred by respective insurance policies included in the particular affinity group over the particular policy period to the one or more parties comprises a reception of a reimbursement from the one or more parties, the reimbursement determined based upon at least some of the at least the portion of loss incurred by the respective insurance policies over the particular policy period.

15. The system of claim 4, wherein at least a portion of the system is a block-chain system.

16. The system of claim 4, wherein the system is owned and/or operated by a securities provider.

17. The system of claim 4, wherein the procurement of the one or parties for the at least the portion of the set of financial instruments comprises:

an auction of an opportunity to be at least one of a provider, an administrator, and/or a servicer of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group;

respective receptions, via the one or more communication interfaces, of one or more bids for the opportunity to be the at least one of the provider, the administrator, and/or the servicer of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group; and

an acceptance, by the one or more processors, of at least one bid of the one or more received bids for the opportunity to be the at least one of the provider, the administrator, and/or the servicer of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group, the accepted at least one bid submitted by the one or more other parties.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein a first particular party that submitted a respective accepted bid is granted the opportunity to be at least one of the administrator and/or the servicer of at least a portion of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the first particular party is granted the opportunity to at least one of administrate and/or service the at least the portion of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group in a manner transparent to the insured parties of the at least the portion of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein a second particular party of the one or more parties is granted the opportunity to be the primary insurance provider of the insurance policies included in the particular affinity group.