Specification
A SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MANAGING AN INSURANCE SCHEME
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present application relates to a system and method of managing an insurance scheme.
The present invention may be implemented by a traditional life insurance plan operator for its members or may be implemented by another party.
Conventionally, insurance policies such as life insurance policies operate on the basis that an insured person, sometimes referred to as an insured life, pays a premium to the life Insurer, and the life insurer pays a predetermined sum, referred to as the sum assured, to the Insured life or his/her beneficiary on the occurrence of an insured event. Typical insured events are the insured life suffering disability, contracting a dread disease or dying.
However, during the time between the purchase of the insurance and a claim to the insurance the insured life's financial position may change negatively resulting in the undesired outcome that the insurance received by them does not cover their needs.
Thus, the quantum of insurance purchased in the event of any insurable event may be correct at the Inception of the policy but may not be sufficient after changes in their financial position.
A system and method of managing an insurance scheme is provided to address this.
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SUMMARY
According to one example embodiment a metliod of managing an insurance policy includes:
defining a plurality of meclianisms to protect an insured person from adverse financial outcomes;
receiving a selection of at least one of the plurality of mechanism from the insured person and storing the selection in a memory;
on the occurrence of an insured event, retrieving the stored selection;
calculating a basic Insurance amount to be paid to the insured person based on an insurance policy of the insured person;
determining based on the stored selection of mechanisms if the insured person has suffered any adverse financial outcomes since the inception of the policy and if so then calculating a further financial protector amount to be paid to the insured person based on the stored selection of mechanisms; and
paying the basic insurance amount and further financial protector amount to the insured person or their nominated beneficiary.
The plurality of mechanisms may include at least some of an asset protector, a debt instalment protector and a currency protector.
The method may further include:
monitoring the compliance of the insured person with a wellness programme; and
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altering the further financial protector amount based on the Insured person's compliance with the wellness programme.
According to another example embodiment a system for managing an insurance policy includes:
a memory for storing a policy inception interest rate level which is an interest rate level payable on debt of the insured person;
an interest rate determining module to determine after the policy inception an interest rate level payable on debt of the insured person at that time;
a comparator module to compare the determined interest rate level with the inception interest rate level;
a calculating module to calculate a debt protector amount to be paid to the insured person if the determined interest rate level is higher than the inception interest rate level; and
a payment module to pay the debt protector amount to the insured person or their nominated beneficiary on the occurrence of an insured event.
The plurality of mechanisms may include at least some of an asset protector, a debt instalment protector and a currency protector.
The system may further include:
a monitoring module to monitor the compliance of the insured person with a wellness programme; and
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the calculation module altering the further financial protector amount based on the insured person's compliance with the wellness programme.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example system to
implement the methodologies described herein; and
Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example method of managing an insurance scheme.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
The systems and methodologies described herein relate to a system and method of managing an insurance scheme such as a life insurance scheme.
Conventional life insurance schemes operate on the basis that an insured person, referred to as the insured life, pays premiums on a regular basis to the life insurer, specifying a sum assured which is an amount to be paid out on the occurrence of an insured event. For example, on the death of the insured life, a predetermined death benefit is paid to the nominated beneficiaries of the insured life. If the Insured life is disabled or suffers a dread disease, a different, lesser amount is paid out.
The method and system will be described with reference to these kinds of schemes but it will be appreciated that the method and system could equally be applied to other types of insurance schemes.
It will also be appreciated that the system and methodology may be implemented by any relevant person or organisation. For example, the system and methodology may be operated by the organisation which operates the life insurance scheme or may be implemented by another
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associated organisation, in one example the system and methodology may be impiemented by a financiai organisation which issues credit cards to its members.
For purposes of iliustration, the system and methodology will be described herein as being operated by the managers of a life insurance scheme.
A plurality of life changing events are defined. The plurality of life changing events in the example includes disability, contracting a dread disease or dying as these are typical of the kind of events which are insured by life insurance schemes. However, It will be appreciated that in other contexts these life changing events may be other events such as the birth of a child or changing jobs to name but a few examples.
However, during the time between the purchase of the insurance and a claim to the insurance the insured life financial position may change negatively resulting in the undeslred outcome that the insurance received by them does not cover their needs.
Thus, the quantum of insurance purchased in the event of any insurable event may be correct at the inception of the policy but may not be sufficient after changes in their financial position.
Referring to Figure 1 of the accompanying Figures, an exemplary system for implementing the above methodologies Is shown.
The system includes a server 12 which includes a number of modules to implement the methodologies described herein.
The modules described may be implemented by a machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform any of the methods described above.
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It will be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention are not limited to such architecture, and could equally well find application in a distributed, or peer-to-peer, architecture system. Thus the modules illustrated could be located on one or more servers operated by one or more institutions.
The system implements a method of managing an insurance policy and includes a memory 10 associated with the server 12.
In the accompanying drawings, the memory is illustrated as a database 10. It will be appreciated that the memory could take any other suitable form.
A plurality of mechanisms to protect an insured person from adverse financial outcomes are defined and stored in the memory 10.
In one example embodiment, the plurality of mechanisms include at least some of an asset protector, a debt instalment protector, a currency protector, a credit or debit card interest protector, a severe illness medical booster and a cash payout mechanism. These will be described in more detail below.
The server 12 receives typically via a communications network 22 a selection of at least one of the plurality of mechanisms from the insured person and stores the selection in a memory.
It will be appreciated that the insured person could select the required mechanism or mechanisms using a computer to access the server 12 over the communications network 22. Alternatively, this could be done by the insured person instructing a third party insurance sales person to make the necessary selection. These are but a few examples of how this could be implemented.
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It will also be appreciated that a default setting could be Implemented, for example that all of the mechanisms on offer are included unless the insured person indicates to the contrary.
On the occurrence of an insured event, the stored selection is retrieved and a basic insurance amount to be paid to the insured person based on an insurance policy of the insured person is determined by a determining module 14.
The determining module 14 then determines, based on the stored selection of mechanisms if the insured person has suffered any adverse financial outcomes since the inception of the policy. If so then calculating module 18 calculates a further financial protector amount to be paid to the insured person based on the stored selection of mechanisms.
A payment module 20 pays the basic insurance amount and a further financial protector amount to the insured person or their nominated beneficiary.
A few example financial protection mechanisms will now be described. However, it should be appreciated that other financial protection mechanisms could be incorporated into the present invention.
The exemplary financial protection mechanisms will be referred to as an asset fall protector, a currency protector and a debt instalment protector.
Describing firstly the asset fall protector, a notional starting value is recorded in the memory 10. On the occurrence of a claim to the insurer, the calculating module 18 performs a calculation to determine how the notional starting value would have incremented if invested in a moderate growth investment fund as opposed to simply increasing at the rate of CPI. Therefore, the calculation module calculates a first amount being an amount to which the notional starting value would have grown if invested in
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a moderate fund between the inception of tlie insurance policy and tlie claim,
Next, the calculating module 18 calculates a second amount being an amount to which the notional starting value would have grown if invested in a bank account with an interest rate equal to CPI between the inception of the insurance policy and the claim,
If the second amount is larger than the first amount this indicates that typical moderate growth fund type investments have not performed over the life of the Insurance policy as expected and it is therefore lil= 10% 50% 3,000 6,000
Max Total
36,000 72,000
Accumulation
Thus, If the interest rate increases by 1 % in a given month then R480 will be the calculated amount payable to the insured person for that month.
A record of this amount will be stored in the memory 10 and as each month goes by, if the interest rate is higher than the starting interest rate a further amount will be added to this amount and the total will grow.
The last row in the table indicates a maximum total accumulation which is an upper limit for this benefit.
Referring next to the asset protector, and referring to the first table above, in this example 30% of the R400,000 is allocated to the asset protector mechanism which is a total of R120,000. This amount of R120,000 is the amount that is assumed to be invested in a moderate fund and in a bank account with an interest rate according to CPI applying. If a financial protector amount as described above becomes payable due to the poor performance of the moderate fund, this will be the difference between the amount banked at CPI less the amount invested in a moderate fund which will need to be not performing for there to be any payout.
There may also be a limit applied to this payment based on age so that even if the moderate fund decreased significantly, the amount paid to the insured person would be reduced.
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Referring to the currency protector, 20% of the R400,000 equates to
Rao.ooo.
The calculation model 18 converts this amount at the inception of the insurance policy to a dollar amount. For illustrative purposes, using an exchange rate of 8:1 this would equate to a dollar amount of USD 10,000.
This amount is stored in the memory 10.
At the time of an insurance claim, the calculation model uses the exchange rate at that time to again calculate the dollar amount equating to R80,000. If this amount is less than the original USD 10,000 then the insured person has suffered an adverse financial outcome and will be paid a further financial protector amount.
One example of how to calculate the amount is to pay the insured person the rand difference to allow them to purchase the USD10,000 so that they have suffered no loss.
In one example, the financial protector amount need not be United to any premium payments. Alternatively, this amount may be linked to a premium payment so that the larger the premium payment the larger the amount payable as the financial protector amount.
In another example, the further financial protector amount can be linked to the compliance of the insured person with the wellness program described above so that the better the compliance with the wellness program the larger the financial protector amount.
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CLAIMS:
1. A method of managing an insurance policy including:
defining a plurality of mechanisms to protect an insured person from adverse financial outcomes;
receiving a selection of at least one of the plurality of mechanism from the insured person and storing the selection in a memory;
on the occurrence of an insured event, retrieving the stored selection;
calculating a basic Insurance amount to be paid to the insured person based on an insurance policy of the insured person;
determining based on the stored selection of mechanisms if the insured person has suffered any adverse financial outcomes since the inception of the policy and if so then calculating a further financial protector amount to be paid to the insured person based on the stored selection of mechanisms; and
paying the basic insurance amount and further financial protector amount to the insured person or their nominated beneficiary.
2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of mechanisms
include at least some of an asset protector, a debt instalment
protector and a currency protector.
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3. A method according to claims 1 or 2 furtlier including:
monitoring tlie compliance of the insured person with a wellness programme; and
altering the further financial protector amount based on the insured person's compliance with the wellness programme.
4. A system for managing an insurance policy, the system including:
a memory for storing a policy inception interest rate level which is an interest rate level payable on debt of the insured person;
an interest rate determining module to determine after the policy inception an interest rate level payable on debt of the insured person at that time;
a comparator module to compare the determined interest rate level with the inception interest rate level;
a calculating module to calculate a debt protector amount to be paid to the insured person if the determined interest rate level is higher than the inception interest rate level; and
a payment module to pay the debt protector amount to the insured person or their nominated beneficiary on the occurrence of an insured event
5. A system according to claim 4 wherein the plurality of mechanisms
include at least some of an asset protector, a debt instalment
protector and a currency protector.
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6. A system according to any of claims 4 or 5 further including:
a monitoring module to monitor the compliance of the insured person with a wellness programme; and
the calculation module altering the further financial protector amount based on the insured person's compliance with the wellness programme.
Dated this 24'^ day of May 2012.
ROBlifMARK GROSER
of GljRbSER & GROSER
AGENT FOR THE APPLICANTS
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