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Insurance Abstract
A system for evaluating and scoring software products in which illustration
engines relating to insurance products are run based on a common
set of inputs. The illustration engines output a set of output metrics
which are common to all illustration engines. The output metrics
of products selected for comparison or evaluation are mathematically
combined with each other and with the corresponding metrics of from
all other illustration engines to determine a score which can be
used to compare quickly and accurately the selected product against
all other products in the database. The score may be determined
by a weighted average in which the weights assigned to output metrics
are adjustable at the user's discretion.
Insurance Claims
1. A method of evaluating insurance products for a customer comprising:
determining a quantitative scoring component for at least two products
in a plurality of insurance products, said quantitative determination
based on information about a customer, wherein at least two insurance
products in said plurality are not from the same insurance company.
2. The method of searching for insurance products of claim 1, wherein
said quantitative scoring component is determined based on a series
of cash flows, said series of cash flows based on two or more decrement
factors.
3. The method of searching for insurance products of claim 2, wherein
said cash flows are derived from death benefit, cash value, and
premium.
4. The method of searching for insurance products of claim 2, wherein
said two decrement factors include at least one of probability of
death, probability of life, and probability of persistence.
5. The method of searching for insurance products of claim 1, wherein
said step of determining a quantitative scoring component comprises
determining said quantitative scoring component for all products
in said plurality.
6. The method of searching for insurance products of claim 2, wherein
said series of cash flows is based at least on information about
the customer.
7. A method of evaluating financial products, comprising: obtaining
a series of cash flows for a plurality of said financial products;
determining a first quantitative scoring component for each of said
products; determining a second qualitative scoring component for
each of said products; and determining a score for each of said
products based on said first scoring component and said second scoring
component.
8. The method of evaluating financial products of claim 7, wherein
said series of cash flows includes a cash flow for each year.
9. The method of evaluating financial products of claim 7, wherein
said first quantitative scoring component is internal rate of return.
10. The method of evaluating financial products of claim 7, wherein
said first quantitative scoring component is the credited rate of
the policy minus the internal rate of return.
11. The method of evaluating financial products of claim 7, wherein
said second qualitative scoring component corresponds to the financial
strength of a firm offering said financial product.
12. A method of searching and solving for insurance products, comprising:
determining a series of cash flows for each insurance product in
a plurality of insurance products based on a customer's information
and financial scenario; quantitatively determining the value of
at least one scoring component for each insurance product in said
plurality of insurance products based on said series of cash flows;
and ranking at least one insurance product.
13. The method of searching and solving for insurance products
of claim 12, wherein said series of cash flows includes a cash flow
for each year.
14. The method of searching and solving for insurance products
of claim 12, wherein said quantitatively determining the value of
at least one scoring component comprises calculating the internal
rate of return for each insurance product based on the series of
cash flows.
15. The method of searching and solving for insurance products
of claim 12, wherein said financial scenario comprises information
about expected withdrawals from the policy.
16. The method of searching and solving for insurance products
of claim 12, wherein said financial scenario comprises information
about expected loans from the policy.
17. The method of searching and solving for insurance products
of claim 12, wherein at least two of said insurance products are
not provided by the same insurance carrier.
18. A financial product evaluation, comprising: a list of at least
two financial products from a plurality of financial products, wherein
each of said products in the plurality is ranked, said rank determined
based on a value of at least one scoring component derived from
a series of cash flows, said series of cash flows incorporating
a customer's demographic information and financial circumstances;
and wherein said at least two financial products are listed according
to said rank.
19. A system for evaluating insurance products, comprising: a plurality
of illustration engines for each of a plurality of insurance products;
a plurality of customer scenarios, each of said customer scenarios
comprising demographic and financial information about a customer,
said customer scenarios being different from one another, wherein
each of said illustration engines operate on each of said customer
scenarios; and generates a series of cash flows for each product
based on each user scenario; a scoring engine operating on said
series of cash flows and product characteristics for at least one
product and customer scenario to produce a policy score; wherein
said policy scores for at least one policy are combined into a product
score.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein a plurality of product scores
for products within a product line are combined into a product line
score.
21. The system of claim 19, wherein a plurality of product scores
for products within a group are combined into a composite score.
22. The system of claim 19, wherein said policy scores are combined
using a weighted average.
Insurance Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to evaluating insurance products.
More specifically, the system relates to using software and computer
systems to evaluate a group of insurance products based on a common
derived set of output metrics.
[0003] 2. Discussion of the Related Art
[0004] The financial services industry consists of industry segments
such as insurance and banking. In turn, the insurance industry consists
of industry segments such as life insurance, health insurance, and
property and casualty insurance.
[0005] The life insurance industry includes product markets such
as term life insurance, universal life insurance, variable life
insurance, annuities, joint products, viatical settlements, preneed
insurance, and long-term care insurance. Insurance carriers sell
life insurance products through various distribution channels such
as captive agents, independent agents, banks, affinity groups, and
financial planners.
[0006] The present life insurance product markets for both insurance
product proposals and in-force insurance products are inefficient.
For insurance product proposals, the problem stems from: (1) an
inadequate exchange of information between consumers and insurers
during the selling process and, (2) the absence of a real-time auction
market in which to price life insurance product proposals. Inefficient
product markets for in-force insurance products stem from the absence
of a system for measuring an insurance product's performance while
that product is in-force.
[0007] An inadequate exchange of relevant and available information
between consumers and insurers during the selling process is a significant
source of product market inefficiency. Typically, consumers often
do not receive relevant and available information necessary to make
an informed purchase decision. Also, insurers frequently do not
receive relevant and available information on the consumer and current
market pricing necessary to tailor their proposals for optimal product
performance and pricing. Such inefficient transmission of information
results in product market inefficiency. Such product market inefficiency
in the insurance industry adversely affects consumers and insurance
companies.
[0008] Moreover, many life insurance products have complex features
that consumers do not understand. Consumers' lack of insurance product
knowledge opens the door to misleading sales practices such as twisting,
churning, and vanishing premiums. Product "gimmickry,"
such as lapse basing, preys on a consumer's inability to detect
its existence. Recent, widely publicized accounts of race-based
underwriting indicate that market conduct problems can go undetected
for years by consumers, insurance company managements, and insurance
industry regulators. Insurance industry regulators have attempted
to enforce market conduct standards. Insurance companies have sought
to curtail sales abuses. Their efforts have not solved the problem.
[0009] Market conduct problems occur regardless of an insurance
company's financial strength. Favorable financial ratings are no
indication of an insurer's compliance with market conduct standards.
Independent rating firms evaluate an insurer's claims paying ability.
They do not rate the products sold by insurers. The life insurance
industry has no product rating system that appraises a proposed
insurance product's total value to the consumer.
[0010] These and other market conduct problems point to the need
for a system that assists the consumer in appraising a proposed
insurance product's value.
[0011] The life insurance industry is fragmented. Over a thousand
insurers populate the industry, and product commoditization prevails.
Product commoditization is common in fragmented industries, brings
about price competition, and shrinks margins. Life insurers yearn
for product differentiation.
[0012] Many insurers have high financial and counterparty credit
strength ratings that are assigned by rating agencies such as Standard
& Poor's, A. M. Best, Moody's and Fitch. But a high rating is
no source of product differentiation. It is a prerequisite for selling
insurance through certain distribution channels such as wirehouses,
independent broker-dealers, and banks. Rating agencies intend for
a financial strength rating to serve as a measure of an insurer's
claims paying ability. Counterparty credit ratings gauge the creditworthiness
of an insurer's debt securities.
[0013] The ubiquity of financial strength ratings underscores a
struggle insurers face in their search for product differentiation.
Rating agencies do not rate life insurance and annuity products.
[0014] For intermediaries and consumers, life insurance can be
a complex and frequently confusing product. Intermediaries struggle
with analyzing and comparing insurers' products and achieving credibility
in their recommendations. Sound policy purchase or retention recommendations
require informed evaluations of both policy value and the insurer's
financial strength. Making unsupported recommendations is risky,
and product complexity can make evaluating and recommending a policy
difficult and subjective.
[0015] Consumers usually have no way of objectively knowing whether
a policy proposal is better, worse, or about the same as other policies
available in the marketplace. This can result in decisions based
on no information, bad information, or even irrelevant information,
such as relying on the perceived quality or the financial strength
rating of the insurer offering the policy.
[0016] No system exists for embedding real-time, objective product
value comparisons into the life insurance selling process. Similarly,
no system for rating the value of an existing policy's expected
future performance is available in the marketplace. The life insurance
industry has been stuck with an inefficient way of doing business
that gives up margin to product commoditization and where product
complexity gets in the way of closing sales.
[0017] For these reasons, the challenges facing life insurance
companies and intermediaries in selling life insurance point to
an unmet need for independent life and annuity product ratings.
Efficient Markets was founded to fill this unmet need.
[0018] Likewise, other financial products, including mortgages
and other complex loans, for example, have costs, fees, expenses,
and tax considerations beyond principal and interest rate, that
vary greatly among borrowers and lenders, and are similarly difficult
to evaluate precisely and objectively.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0019] Accordingly, the present invention is directed to searching
and searching and solving for the highest scoring insurance products
that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations
and disadvantages of the related art.
[0020] An advantage of the present invention is to provide a system
and method for evaluating insurance products that is based on precise
information about the user rather than generalizations or approximations.
[0021] Another advantage of the present invention is to provide
a score for comparing insurance products in which the score is based
on the precise information about the user and the financial information
about the policy as it relates to that user.
[0022] Additional features and advantages of the invention will
be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will
be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice
of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention
will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed
out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the
appended drawings.
[0023] To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance
with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly
described, a method for evaluating insurance products is provided
that includes storing at least one illustration engine in a database
corresponding to an insurance product; selecting a group of products
for evaluation; determining a set of input fields based on the required
inputs of each of the illustration engines corresponding to each
selected product; obtaining input data for each of said input fields
through a user interface; running at least those illustration engines
that correspond to the selected products to obtain a plurality of
output metrics and their corresponding values for each of said products;
and scoring said products based on a predetermined scoring algorithm.
At least one of the output metrics is a common output metric obtained
for each illustration engine. In addition the algorithm scores said
products based at least upon said common output metric.
[0024] In another aspect of the present invention, a system for
scoring and evaluating insurance products includes a database or
illustration engine bank; a plurality of illustration engines stored
in said database, each of said illustration engines corresponding
to an insurance product; a set of inputs common to a plurality of
illustration engines in said database, each of said illustration
engines determining a set of output metrics based on said inputs,
said set of output metrics being common to all illustration engines;
and a product score for a product based on a weighted average determined
by relating at least one output metric to the value of the corresponding
output metric determined by another illustration engine.
[0025] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description
and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory
and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention
as claimed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0026] The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide
a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in
and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments
of the invention and together with the description serve to explain
the principles of the invention.
[0027] In the drawings:
[0028] FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the
evaluation system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0029] FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the
illustration engines in an aspect of an embodiment of the present
invention.
[0030] FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate sample output reports according to
an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ILLUSTRATED EMBODIMENTS
[0031] Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the
present invention, example of which is illustrated in the accompanying
drawings.
[0032] The present invention is suitable for evaluating any type
of financial product, including but not limited to annuities, life,
accident, long-term care, disability, health, property and casualty,
liability, and malpractice insurance; mortgages, certificates of
deposit, derivatives, or any financial product generally that may
be reduced, represented by, or modeled as a series of cash flows.
The examples and embodiment discussed herein relate to insurance
products, but it is understood that the system and method of the
present invention may be applied to other financial products as
well.
[0033] FIG. 1 illustrates flow diagram according to an exemplary
embodiment of the present invention in which insurance products
are being evaluated. In this exemplary embodiment, the system is
provided with a series, database, or bank of insurance product illustration
engines, a means for accepting information about a customer scenario,
a means for accepting information about products to display on a
report, means for processing the scenario and output from the illustration
engines, and a means for displaying a report. It is understood that
such means may include computers and computer networks, for example,
including but not limited to desktop computers, handheld computing
devices, client-server networks, mainframes, or the like. The illustration
engines are software that processes the policy scenario against
the details of a particular product to yield a series of cash values
for each year. In an aspect of this invention, the illustration
engines illustrate insurance products from a wide variety of carriers.
The bank may include illustration engines for all or nearly all
of the products on the market, or for all of a single particular
type of insurance product, or for products from a single carrier.
[0034] The output of the illustration engines is a series of values
(for example, premium, death benefit, and total cash surrender value)
for each year, for each product. In another aspect of the invention,
decrements may be applied to these cash values to obtain a series
of cash flows. The decrements, which may be derived from mortality
or lapse tables, or both, represent the probability of death, probability
of lapse, and probability of persistence (that the customer will
stay with the policy and not die or lapse). Applying one or more
of these the decrements to the values for each of the products that
are output by the illustration engines results in a series of cash
flows for each product, the elements of the cash flow being death
benefit, premium, and cash value.
[0035] An aspect of this embodiment of the present invention is
illustrated in FIG. 1. In step 101, information about the products
to be reported on is input into the evaluation system. In an aspect
of this embodiment, the user may be presented with options to select
all of the products from a particular carrier. In another aspect
of this embodiment, the universe of products from which the user
selects may be limited based on a user's access level, those products
which they are licensed to sell, or based on a contractual obligation.
[0036] Based on the products selected for evaluation, the system
identifies all of the input fields for the customer and policy scenario.
This includes information that may be required for all products,
such as age and sex, as well as financial circumstances. For example,
part of the customer information may include information about loans
or withdrawals from the policy. At step 102, the system identifies
all of the input fields needed for all of the selected products
and presents them for the user's input at one time. This way, the
user is not asked to input any information more than once, and nor
is the user required to input information that is unnecessary.
[0037] The user enters all of the information about the customer
at step 103, and starts the searching and solving process. Each
product is scored by running information from the customer scenario
through the illustration engine at step 200, taking that output
to obtain a series of cash flows for each product which are then
used in step 104 to rank and rate the products. This scoring process
will be discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and
3.
[0038] After the evaluation 200 and ranking 104 of all of the products
is complete, the system presents the results in a user-friendly
format at step 106. This format may include charts, graphs, diagrams
or a printed report, such as the exemplary reports illustrated in
FIGS. 3A and 3B, or interactive screens and spreadsheets which can
be further manipulated. Once the information is presented, the system
may allow the user to re-score the products at step 108 by adjusting
the weightings of the output scoring components or by discounting
some components altogether, based on user or customer preference.
[0039] From the diagram of FIG. 1, it is understood that the system
must have access to the details of each of the products as well
as a predetermined set of outputs in order to perform the product
evaluation and scoring. These details are discussed in greater detail
in FIG. 2.
[0040] FIG. 2 illustrates the evaluation process step 200 of FIG.
1 in more detail. Whereas related art insurance comparison schemes
rely on static product data to compare products, stored as insurance
tables or static fields in a database, the present invention is
able to provide a more accurate comparison and evaluation by relying
on an illustration engine for each product. Each illustration engine
is an algorithm or software program that operates on the input data
according to the features of the policy. Thus, the illustration
engines are not limited to user input in the form of to stored data
tables that only approximate a customer's demographic information.
[0041] Furthermore, the illustration engines, and the algorithms
and software that drive them, return a set of data including premium,
death benefit, and cash value. To compare the products to each other,
the illustration engines must output the same data, or at least
a common set of data. In practice it is convenient to select as
the output for the illustration engine the cash value, death benefit,
and premium information. For other types of financial products,
the illustration engine output may use some industry standard data.
The illustration engines themselves may be provided to the system
by the insurance company itself or a third party.
[0042] The operation of the illustration engines is discussed herein
in detail. To evaluate the products, the system of the present invention
in the embodiment under discussion and as illustrated in FIG. 2
has a database of these illustration engines. Once the user enters
all of the required input information, the system runs the illustration
engines at step 200 as noted earlier.
[0043] FIG. 2 illustrates the process to evaluate the products
using the illustration engines according to an aspect of a first
exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In this particular
aspect of this exemplary embodiment, mortality table 201 and lapse
table 202 are used to compile a decrements table 203 that represents
the probability of death, probability of lapse, and probability
of persistence (that the customer will stay with the policy and
not die or lapse).
[0044] Before, after, or in parallel to the creation of the decrements
table, the illustration engine for each product is run at step 204
based on the user information supplied in step 103 in FIG. 1.
[0045] In one aspect of this embodiment of the invention, the system
runs only those illustration engines that were selected for comparison.
In another aspect, the system runs all of the engines in the database,
but returns scores only for those selected. In a further aspect,
the system runs all of the engines in the database, scores all of
the policies, but only reports on a small subset of those policies.
Furthermore, the system of the present invention may run each illustration
engine in turn, in a sequential or serial process, or it may run
two or more, or all, or the illustration engines at once in a parallel
process.
[0046] As noted earlier, the illustration engines perform operations
and calculations on the customer scenario input data at step 204
to return the set of death benefits, premiums, and cash values for
each year for each policy, to which are applied the decrements in
order to obtain a series of cash flows at step 205. Then the decrements
from step 203 are applied to the illustration engine output from
step 205 to produce a series of cash flows at step 206.
[0047] In addition, for different financial products there may
be other factors that are applied to the output of the illustration
engines other than the insurance related decrements derived from
mortality and lapse tables. For example, in the case of a mortgage
policy, while it is well understood how to derive from a mortgage
an amortization table for that mortgage based on principal, down
payment and insurance rate, it was not obvious or well understood
how to incorporate closing costs, financial condition of the mortgage
lender, fees, taxes and payments into the amortization table to
provide the prospective mortgage customer or mortgage borrower with
an accurate picture of the real cost to them of different mortgages.
[0048] In this example, rather than decrements, the system may
apply closing cost data, taxes, and fees based on the particularities
of real estate law in the jurisdiction in which the mortgage borrowing
tends to purchase real estate to the output of the illustration
engine (which in the case of mortgages may be an amortization table
or a series of cash flows derived from an amortization table). However
because the system is able to process the output of the illustration
engines and apply these adjustment factors to that output to yield
a series of cash flows for each of the products based on the particular
circumstances of a customer's profile, financial products from different
lenders having different terms, fees, expenses and structural costs
can be compared against one another and against other products on
the market in a manner that is both objective, highly precise, mathematically
and financially accurate as well as tailored to the customer's particular
scenario.
[0049] Once the series of cash flows is obtained at step 206, the
policies can be scored. In the exemplary embodiment being discussed,
statistical, mathematical, and financial operations may be performed
on the series of cash flows, or qualitative indicators may be derived
from the policies to obtain qualitative or quantitative scoring
components at step 207 that may then be combined into scores at
step 208. Once scored, the products or policies are ranked based
on the scores in step 104 as noted above.
[0050] In this example, the scoring components are policy value,
sensitivity, and carrier rating. Each of these scoring components
may themselves have one or more scoring subcomponents. For example,
the policy value, which measures a policy's expected value for money
using current interest and dividend rates, may be determined based
on the internal rate of return that is calculated from the series
of cash flows for each policy. Likewise, the sensitivity, which
evaluates the impact of factors such as interest rate changes, penalties
for early termination and policy design on the policy may be a derived
from a combination of components that are in part based on the series
of cash flows but also based on information about the particular
insurance product such as efficiency, lapse sensitivity, no lapse
guarantee, disclosure, interest guarantee, and maturity date. Furthermore,
the carrier rating may be derived from a qualitative scoring component
may be the carrier rating of the carrier as represented by an industry
wide rating. For example, the carrier rating may be represented
by a Moody's or a Standard & Poor's (S&P) financial strength
rating.
[0051] In an aspect of the present invention, the scoring for a
calculated value such as rate of return may use the value of the
internal rate of return, as-is, or for an easier to read and more
customer friendly report, a single digit value may be assigned to
all policies based on the range in which the internal rate of return
for that policy falls. Scoring subcomponents may be assigned scores
in a similar fashion. For example, efficiency, which is determined
by subtracting the internal rate of return from the credited rate
of the policy, may be assigned a single digit score base on the
range in which that value falls.
[0052] The ranges may be predetermined before the illustration
engines are run, or they may be determined based on the statistical
distribution of the policies. In other words, policies may receive
a score of 5 for policy value if the internal rate of return is
two standard deviations above the mean of all of the policies, a
score of 4 for policy value if the internal rate of return is more
than one standard deviations above the mean, a score of 3 for policy
value if the internal rate of return is less than one standard deviation
above or greater than one standard deviation below the mean, a score
of 2 if the internal rate of return is less than one standard deviation
below the mean, and a score of 1 if the internal rate of return
is two standard deviations below the mean.
[0053] Other scoring components are qualitative. For example, the
carrier rating of the carrier may represented by an industry-wide
rating. For example, the carrier rating may be represented by a
Moody's or a Standard & Poor's (S&P) financial strength
rating. In the case of the S&P rating, the qualitative score
values are AAA+ through CC. These scoring components are said to
be qualitative because they are not calculated or derived quantitatively
by the system of the present invention, regardless of whether they
are determined quantitatively by an external source.
[0054] Once the scoring components and subcomponents are determined,
they may be averaged together or combined using a weighted average.
In aspects of the present invention, subcomponents are first combined
into a group of scoring components for each policy, each score representing
a different aspect or basis of comparison of the policy. For example,
one score may be policy value, another may be sensitivity, and a
third may be carrier rating. These scoring subcomponents may then
be combined to obtain an overall score for the policy (the policy
evaluation score). The scores may be combined using an arithmetic
mean or a weighed average in which, for example, policy value is
assigned a weight of 40%, sensitivity is assigned a weight of 40%,
and carrier rating is assigned a weight of 20%. It is understood
that the weights may be adjusted after the scenario has been run
through the illustration engine and after the scoring components
have been obtained, because recalculating the weighted average does
not require running the illustration engines again. Similarly, those
products that are selected for display in the report may also be
changed without having to rerun the search and solve system.
[0055] By running the search and solve system on all of the products
in the system regardless of which of them are selected for reporting,
the policy compares each policy against all of the other policies
in the system's universe of policies. The greater the number of
products and their illustration engines that are incorporated into
the system, the more accurate and useful the policy scores are.
Thus, while an insurance broker may only be licensed to sell a few
products, the customer will still be able to see how those products
offered by the broker compare to other products on the market.
[0056] In alternative embodiments of the invention, the system
for searching and solving for insurance policies for a particular
customer scenario can be used instead to solve for and rank insurance
products based on a broad array of policies derived from those products.
For example, in another exemplary embodiment, a number of different
customer scenarios are run through the system of the present invention
and are scored. In this embodiment, each customer scenario generates
a policy from the products available on the system. Therefore, if
a number of different customer scenarios are run through the system,
a number of different policies for each product will be scored.
These scores can be combined using an arithmetic mean or weighted
average, for example, to generate an overall score for the products.
This overall product score is a combination of the scores of all
of the policies generated by each of the customer scenarios run
through the search and solve system for that product. This way,
one product can be compared to all of the other policies and products
on the system.
[0057] In a further exemplary embodiment, the overall product scores
can themselves be combined using an arithmetic mean or weighted
average to yield a product line score. A product line would represent,
for example, all of the products of a particular type or that fall
in a particular category. For example, in the example of life insurance,
a product line may be whole life insurance, variable life insurance,
term life insurance, or annuities. All of the product scores for
term life insurance products may be combined together to obtain
an overall score for term life products generally. This way, the
term life product line as a whole may be compared and ranked against
all of the other products and policies in the system.
[0058] Furthermore, the present invention may be extended so as
to further aggregate the scores. Product line scores for each product
line of a particular category may be combined to produce an overall
score for the carrier, or product lines scores for all carriers.
[0059] Other ways of aggregating the policy scores are envisioned
by the present invention, and it is understood that one of ordinary
skill in the art may contemplate variations or modifications to
the embodiments discussed herein that would also fall within the
scope of the invention.
[0060] Furthermore, in an industry such as insurance that is highly
regulated and which insurance brokers are only able to sell that
small number of products for which they are licensed, this gives
the customer the ability to see at a glance whether those few products
that the particular insurance broker that they are in consultation
with has offered them, the customer is able to see where those insurance
policies rank with respect to other policies which are available.
This way the customer is able to get an objective determination
of whether a policy that is being offered to them is a good one
relative to other policies on the market. Therefore, if an insurance
policy that is offered to them from a particular insurance broker
is weak in one particular scoring area or another customer is then
able to take their business elsewhere.
[0061] Likewise, an insurance broker who notices that a particular
product for which they are licensed to sell is weak or strong may
alter the product offering he offers to his clients. An insurance
broker may be able to use this product to select a shelf of products
that they want to offer. For example, very large financial institutions
evaluate a large number of products to determine shelf space. They
may be able to use this system of the present invention to select
those products that are most suitable their clients.
[0062] In addition, the system can be used by a customer who is
already covered by an in force insurance policy to evaluate a potential
replacement. The system allows the policyholder to compare the in
force policy against what that customer could buy at that moment
and determine whether it is worthwhile for the customer to cash
out of their current policy and purchase a new one or whether their
current policy is a good one.
[0063] In particular in the insurance industry, 1035 exchanges
are replacements involving the tax-free transfer of cash value from
one policy to another. Over the years, a great deal of controversy
has existed over the high number of unnecessary replacements. Producers
struggle with not wanting to appear to be churning their blocks
by suggesting policy replacement for additional commission. However,
in many instances, it is in the policyholder's best interest to
exchange their policy but the producer is apprehensive in suggesting
the change for fear of appearing to be churning. In this context
the system with the present invention may be used to determine whether
or not the policies that are being exchanged are worthwhile exchanges
or whether they are simply exchanges in the course of churning;
it provides an independent, third-party evaluation. In addition,
there are trust owned life insurance policies (TOLI), bank owned
life insurance policies (BOLI), and corporate owned life insurance
(COLI) policies which are high value policies, which are purchased
by institutions or entities that are less familiar with insurance
products. For these markets, the system of the present invention
may be used to determine whether or not the product under consideration,
or in existence, is of good value. This is particularly valuable
for the TOLI market, where the trust officer has a fiduciary responsibility
to manage the institution or the trustee's money to the best of
their ability. The system of the present invention provides the
trust officer with a tool to determine whether or not the life insurance
policies under their management continue to be of good value and
it provides a report documenting the results of the evaluation
[0064] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various
modifications and variation can be made in the present invention
without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus,
it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications
and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope
of the appended claims and their equivalents. |