SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECEIVING AND EVALUATING REQUESTS FOR INSURANCE PROPOSALS

• US 20100324942A1
• Filed: 06/18/2009
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2009
• 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: Murphy, Rozalyn G., Rogers, James S., Scott, James Daniel
• Granted Patent: US 8,484,052 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A computer system for receiving and evaluating requests for quotes for insurance services includes a processor; and a memory storage device in communication with the processor. The processor is adapted to: receive via a communications interface data including a request for a quote to provide insurance services with respect to a first risk; verify and augment the received data with respect to one or more sources of data; determine based on the verified and augmented received data whether a quote will be provided with respect to the first risk; and provide an output signal including the received data and at least a portion of the augmented data to a third party server.

Claims

1. A computer system for receiving and evaluating requests for insurance quotes, comprising:

a processor;

a memory storage device in communication with the processor;

the processor adapted to;

receive via a communications interface data including a request for a quote to underwrite a first risk with respect to a potential insured;

access a data source via the communications interface, and verify and augment the received data with respect using data in the data source;

determine based on the verified and augmented data whether an opportunity exists for underwriting a second risk with respect to the potential insured;

determine whether a quote will be provided with respect to either the first risk or the second risk;

responsive to determining that no quote will be provided with respect to the first risk, provide an output signal via the communications interface, the output signal including the received data and at least a portion of the augmented data, to a third party server.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the third party server is configured to, responsive to the data received from the processor, return quotes from a plurality of carriers for underwriting the first risk.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first risk is for property/casualty insurance, and the data in the data source includes geographic data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first risk is for a first type of property/casualty insurance, and the second risk is for a second type of property/casualty insurance.

5. A computer system for receiving and evaluating requests for insurance quotes, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storage device in communication with the processor;

the processor adapted to;

receive via a communications interface data including a request for a quote to provide insurance services with respect to a first risk;

validate and enhance the received data with respect to one or more sources of data to obtain enhanced request data;

determine based on the validated and enhanced data whether a quote will be provided with respect to the first risk; and

provide an output signal including the received data and at least a portion of the enhanced data to a third party server.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the validating and enhancing the received data includes correcting the received data based on data in the one or more sources of data, and the output signal includes corrected received data.

7. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the validating and enhancing the received data includes adding data to the received data, and the output signal includes at least a portion of the added data.

8. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the third party server is a multi-carrier quotation server.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the processor is adapted to receive one or more third party quotes from the third party server and provide the received one or more third party quotes in response to the request.

10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further adapted to furnish the validated and enhanced received data to an underwriting engine, receive a quote from the underwriting engine, and provide the quote together with the one or more third party quotes in response to the request.

11. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the processor is adapted to furnish the validated and enhanced received data to an underwriting engine, receive a quote from the underwriting engine, and provide the quote to the third party server.

12. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further adapted to determine whether a quote will be provided with respect to a second risk.

13. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the processor is further adapted to provide in response to the request an output signal including corrected data.

14. The computer system of claim 5, wherein, responsive to determining a quote is to be provided with respect to the first risk, the processor is further adapted to furnish the validated and enhanced received data to an underwriting engine, receive a quote from the underwriting engine, furnish the quote in response to the request, receive an indication of acceptance of the quote, and provide an output signal to a policy generation system.

15. A computer-implemented method for receiving and evaluating requests for insurance quotes, comprising:

receiving via a communications interface data including a request for a quote to provide insurance services with respect to a first risk;

accessing via the communications interface one or more sources of data to validate and augment the received data;

determining by processor based on the validated and augmented received data whether a quote will be provided with respect to the first risk; and

providing via the communications interface an output signal including the received data with at least partial augmentation to a third party server.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the validating the received data includes correcting the received data based on data in the one or more sources of data, and the output signal includes corrected received data.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the augmenting the received data includes adding data to the received data, and the output signal includes the added data.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the third party server is a multi-carrier quotation server.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further including receiving, responsive to the providing the output signal to the third party server, receiving from the third party server one or more third party quotes to provide insurance services with respect to the first risk, and providing the received one or more third party quotes in response to the request.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, further including furnishing the validated and augmented received data to an underwriting engine, receiving a quote from the underwriting engine, and providing the quote from the underwriting engine together with the received one or more third party quotes in response to the request.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further including furnishing the validated and augmented received data to an underwriting engine, receiving a quote from the underwriting engine, and provide the quote from the underwriting engine to the third party server.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further including determining whether a second quote will be provided for insurance services with respect to a second risk.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the first risk is a first property/casualty risk, and the second quote is for underwriting a second property/casualty risk.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein the first risk is for workers compensation, and the second quote is for group benefits.

25. A system for receiving and responding to requests for quotes, comprising:

an authentication module for authenticating credentials of an originator of a request;

a data verification module for verifying and enriching data associated with the request;

an underwriting engine interface module for furnishing the verified and enriched data to an underwriting engine and for receiving a quote from the underwriting engine;

a communications module for communicating verified and enriched data to a third party server, for receiving one or more third party quotes from the third party server, and for communicating the underwriting engine quote and third party quotes to the originator.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a cross sell module for determining to provide a proposal for a second risk based on at least a portion of the verified and enriched data.

27. The system of claim 25, further comprising an appetite engine for determining whether a carrier has an appetite for providing a quote in response to a request.

28. A computer-readable medium having a plurality of instructions thereon for receiving and evaluating requests for insurance quotes, which instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive via a communications interface data including a request for a quote to provide insurance services with respect to a first risk;

verify the received data with respect to one or more sources of data;

augment the received data with respect to the one or more sources of data;

determine based on the verified and augmented received data whether a quote will be provided with respect to the first risk; and

provide an output signal including the received data and at least a portion of the augmented data to a third party server.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions further cause the processor, in the verifying, to correct the received data based on the verification, to include corrected received data in the output signal.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine whether to provide a cross sell suggestion for a second risk based on the verified and augmented received data.

31. A system for receiving and evaluating requests for insurance quotes, comprising:

a first computer system having a first processor;

a first memory storage device in communication with the first processor; and

a first communications interface for connecting the first computer system to a network;

a second computer system having a second processor;

a second memory storage device in communication with the second processor; and

a second communications interface for connecting the second computer system to the network;

the first processor adapted to;

receive via the communications interface data including a request for a quote to provide insurance services with respect to a risk;

validate and augment the received data with respect to one or more sources of data to obtain validated and augmented data;

determine based on the validated and augmented received data whether a quote will be provided with respect to the risk; and

provide an output signal including enhanced request for proposal data including the received data and at least a portion of the validated and augmented data via the network to the second computer system;

the second processor adapted to furnish to a plurality of carrier computer systems data including requests for quotes based on the enhanced request for proposal data, to receive quotes from the carrier computer systems, and to furnish the received quotes to the first computer system;

the first processor being further adapted to return the received quotes to the source.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the first computer system is further adapted to furnish the received data and the validated and augmented data to a quotation engine, receive a quote from the quotation engine, and furnish the quote received from the quotation engine to a source of the request for a quote.

33. The system of claim 31, further comprising a third computer system in communication with the first computer system via the network for providing at least a portion of the augmented data in response to a request from the first computer system.