Insurance patents

The New assurance products can now be protected from copying with a business method patent in the United States.

A recent example of a new insurance product that is patented is Usage Based auto insurance. Early versions were independently invented and patented by a major U.S. auto insurance company, Progressive Auto Insurance (U.S. Patent 5,797,134) and a Spanish independent inventor, Salvador Minguijon Perez (EP patent 0700009).

Many independent inventors are in favor of patenting new insurance products since it gives them protection from big companies when they bring their new insurance products to market. Independent inventors account for 70% of the new U.S. patent applications in this area.

Many insurance executives are opposed to patenting insurance products because it creates a new risk for them. The Hartford insurance company, for example, recently had to pay $80 million to an independent inventor, Bancorp Services, in order to settle a patent infringement and theft of trade secret lawsuit for a type of corporate owned life insurance product invented and patented by Bancorp.

There are currently about 150 new patent applications on insurance inventions filed per year in the United States. The rate at which patents have issued has steadily risen from 15 in 2002 to 44 in 2006. [21]

Inventors can now have their insurance U.S. patent applications reviewed by the public in the Peer to Patent program.[22] The first insurance patent application to be posted was US2009005522 “Risk assessment company”. It was posted on March 6, 2009. This patent application describes a method for increasing the ease of changing insurance companies.[23]

Insurance Financing Vehicles

* The fraternal insurance is provided on a cooperative basis by fraternal benefit societies or other social organizations.

* No-fault insurance is a type of insurance policy (typically automobile insurance) where insureds are indemnified by their own insurer regardless of fault in the incident.

* Protected Self-Insurance is an alternative risk financing mechanism in which an organization retains the mathematically calculated cost of risk within the organization and transfers the catastrophic risk with specific and aggregate limits to an insurer so the maximum total cost of the program is known. A properly designed and underwritten Protected Self-Insurance Program reduces and stabilizes the cost of insurance and provides valuable risk management information.

* Retrospectively Rated Insurance is a method of establishing a premium on large commercial accounts. The final premium is based on the insured's actual loss experience during the policy term, sometimes subject to a minimum and maximum premium, with the final premium determined by a formula. Under this plan, the current year's premium is based partially (or wholly) on the current year's losses, although the premium adjustments may take months or years beyond the current year's expiration date. The rating formula is guaranteed in the insurance contract. Formula: retrospective premium = converted loss + basic premium × tax multiplier. Numerous variations of this formula have been developed and are in use.

* Formal self insurance is the deliberate decision to pay for otherwise insurable losses out of one's own money. This can be done on a formal basis by establishing a separate fund into which funds are deposited on a periodic basis, or by simply forgoing the purchase of available insurance and paying out-of-pocket. Self insurance is usually used to pay for high-frequency, low-severity losses. Such losses, if covered by conventional insurance, mean having to pay a premium that includes loadings for the company's general expenses, cost of putting the policy on the books, acquisition expenses, premium taxes, and contingencies. While this is true for all insurance, for small, frequent losses the transaction costs may exceed the benefit of volatility reduction that insurance otherwise affords.

* Reinsurance is a type of insurance purchased by insurance companies or self-insured employers to protect against unexpected losses. Financial reinsurance is a form of reinsurance that is primarily used for capital management rather than to transfer insurance risk.

* Social insurance can be many things to many people in many countries. But a summary of its essence is that it is a collection of insurance coverages (including components of life insurance, disability income insurance, unemployment insurance, health insurance, and others), plus retirement savings, that requires participation by all citizens. By forcing everyone in society to be a policyholder and pay premiums, it ensures that everyone can become a claimant when or if he/she needs to. Along the way this inevitably becomes related to other concepts such as the justice system and the welfare state. This is a large, complicated topic that engenders tremendous debate, which can be further studied in the following articles (and others):

o National Insurance

o Social safety net

o Social security

o Social Security debate (United States)

o Social Security (United States)

o Social welfare provision

* Stop-loss insurance provides protection against catastrophic or unpredictable losses. It is purchased by organizations who do not want to assume 100% of the liability for losses arising from the plans. Under a stop-loss policy, the insurance company becomes liable for losses that exceed certain limits called deductibles.

Closed community self-insurance

Some communities prefer to create virtual insurance amongst themselves by other means than contractual risk transfer, which assigns explicit numerical values to risk. A number of religious groups, including the Amish and some Muslim groups, depend on support provided by their communities when disasters strike. The risk presented by any given person is assumed collectively by the community who all bear the cost of rebuilding lost property and supporting people whose needs are suddenly greater after a loss of some kind. In supportive communities where others can be trusted to follow community leaders, this tacit form of insurance can work. In this manner the community can even out the extreme differences in insurability that exist among its members. Some further justification is also provided by invoking the moral hazard of explicit insurance contracts.

In the United Kingdom, The Crown (which, for practical purposes, meant the Civil service) did not insure property such as government buildings. If a government building was damaged, the cost of repair would be met from public funds because, in the long run, this was cheaper than paying insurance premiums. Since many UK government buildings have been sold to property companies, and rented back, this arrangement is now less common and may have disappeared altogether.

“Health Insurance”: The Illusion of Equality

If health insurance is not insurance, what is it? It's a modern version of the illusion that all men are equal—or, when ill, ought to be treated as if they were equal. When religion was the dominant ideology, death was (supposed to be) the great equalizer: once they departed the living, prince and pauper were equal. Today, when medicine is the dominant ideology, health care is (supposed to be) the great equalizer: everyone’s life is “infinitely precious” and hence deserves the same protection from disease. Of course, prince and pauper did not receive the same burial services, and rich and poor do not receive the same medical services. But people prefer the illusion of equality to the recognition of inequality.

Actually, the ruled have always longed for “universal health care,” and the rulers have always supplied them with a policy that the masses accepted as such a service. In the Middle Ages, universal health care was called Catholicism. In the twentieth century, it was called Communism. In the 21st century, it is called Universal Health Insurance. What we choose to call “health insurance” is, in fact, a system of cost-shifting masquerading as a system of insurance.

We treat a public, statist political system of health care as if it were a system of private health insurance purchased for the purpose of obtaining private medical care.

Everyone knows but no one admits that health insurance is not really insurance. In fact, Americans now view their health insurance as an open-ended entitlement for reimbursement for virtually any expense that may be categorized as “health care,” such as the cost of birth-control pills or Viagra. The cost of these services is covered on the same basis as the cost of medical catastrophes, such as treatment for the consequences of a brain tumor. Such distorted incentives produce the perverted outcomes with which we are all too familiar.

From a public-health point of view, the state of our health is partly, and often largely, in our own hands and is our own responsibility, even if we have a chronic illness, such as arthritis or diabetes. It is an immoral and impractical endeavor to try to reject that responsibility and place the burden for the consequences on others.

Using Life Insurance To Shelter Income

In a nutshell, a tax shelter allows your investments to the grow free of tax. Many people think tax shelters are only for the rich but the biggest users of tax shelter is the middle class. When you buy a RRSP (IRA or 401K in the US), you are in fact buying a tax shelter. The money made inside the RRSP is allow to grow tax free until it’s taken out.

There are a few problems with a RRSP. The first is the Canadian government won’t allow you to put more than 18% of your income or $16,500, whichever is less, into a RRSP. The second problem is the money is subject to income tax when it’s taken out.

Another way to shelter income is by using life insurance. Life insurance proceeds are passed tax free to your beneficiaries. That’s good for your beneficiaries but what if you want the money? All whole life and universal life insurance policies have a cash surrender value that you get if you give up the insurance. If you take the cash, your beneficiaries get nothing and the money taken out gets taxed. Not a good deal. However, there is a way around this.

With the exception of term insurance, all other life insurance policies are made up of two components, the insurance component and an investment component. The key here is the investment component. While the money is inside the policy, its allowed to grow tax free, just like a RRSP. Knowing this, many investors put way more money than they have to into their policy. For example, a 37 year old non smoking female has to pay $622.50 a year to get $1 million of life insurance. If all she does is put $622.50 into her plan, all she’ll have is insurance. Anything above that amount goes into the investment component.

To prevent people from dumping in their life savings, the government sets limits on the maximum premium you can pay into a policy and still keep its tax shelter status. In the above example, the maximum is $41,847.61 a year. The higher your insurance needs, the higher the limit. Let’s assume that the above put $41,000 a year into her policy for 3 years and then stops after that. After paying for insurance cost the rest will go into the investment component, where it will grow tax free. If we assume an 8% yearly rate of return the policy will have a cash value of $1.3 million and death benefit of $2.15 million when our 37 year old female reaches 65. If she takes the cash, it gets taxed and she loses the death benefit. How can she take cash out, keep the death benefit and not pay taxes? By borrowing against the cash value.

A bank will lend up to 90% of the cash value on an insurance policy. So our investor can borrow up to $1.17 million from the bank to spend as she feels like. The money would not be taxed because it’s not income. The bank would capitalize the loan so she doesn’t have to make any payments. How does the bank get its money back? When she dies, the death benefit will pay off the bank loan plus accrue interest and any money left over will go to her beneficiary tax free.

So here you have an investment strategy that is completely sheltered from tax, allows you to take money out of the plan tax free, and allows you to transfer your estate to your heirs’ tax free. As with all investments, you should seek out the advice of an experience financial planner before proceeding.

Free Auto Insurance Quotes

The auto insurance looks like a choice, and not actually a necessity. Free Auto Insurance Quotes. For someone who owns a car, auto is actually a necessity to be protected in regards to your vehicle. For many states, auto insurance is mandatory and necessary in order to have a car and register it.

Having vehicle insurance protects all other drivers if there is an accident. Until you see that you have been in a car collision and suddenly are paying thousands of …

Finding The Best Term Life Insurance Quote

All of us will require holding the best insurance policy that is suit our living whether auto insurance, travel insurance, health insurance, car insurance or other types include to life insurance. As we will need to pay monthly or yearly that may be expensive, so it is fairly to get the most benefit from a policy we pay for on sticky schedule. In order to discover the best life insurance policy which cost us lesser while provide us the most advantage, we will need to get ourselves the most information of life insurance first.

To do this, there are several ways from to make a call to few reputable insurance companies, to get some information from someone like your relative, your friends, or your neighbor who are experience. But, the quick and easy way is to search what you need to know about life insurance from internet โ€“ the place where huge information will be provided for you. However, once you find this article (as you access the internet), it is luckily for you as here you will know about basic information as well as how to find out the best life insurance quote quickly.First of all, you should to know that there is something different between life insurance and term life insurance and this article will only focus on term life insurance.

The concept of term life insurance is not hard to understand. While most of the life insurance policies offer variety of options, term life insurance offer only limited flexibility. In addition, term life insurance does not make any cash value or any residual. It means that there is no use of term life insurance after the expiry of a policy and to continue a policy, you will need to renew it or purchase a new one.

Term life insurance remains effective for a limited, predetermined time span. A term life insurance will need you to pay regular premium during the term of your life insurance policy. And if you die during the term, death benefits will directly go to the beneficiary.

It is true that other insurance solutions provide you more readily options. Although term life insurance contain simplicity and limitations, it is still sensible among many people. The reason that why those ones prefer term life insurance policy to secure their life and financial is many times that an individual is not covered by any life insurance policy due to some reasons, but a term life insurance can fill the gap as it will protect the financial interests of their family.

Term life insurance is the best choice for people looking for life insurance coverage for a short period of time include to young working people with families. The best way to find the quote of term life insurance quickly is connect to the internet. What things to take in mind while going on searching from internet are about term of the insurance, the premium to be paid, term life insurance rate, and authenticity of the company. Look around and compare life insurance policies offered between few companies so that you can find the best one that is suit for your need.

A Special Provider For Car Insurance

The everybody loves to have a car parked inside their garage. Everybody loves to let other people feel amazed seeing the greatness possessed by a car someone has. But actually, those things will remain a dream if only they do not know how to protect their cars from the possible losses that can harm the cars themselves. Therefore, to find a perfect way of defending a car should be an ultimate final destination people would come to after they have been successful buying a car. No need to be confused as well for there has been a useful service to be applied for in order to realize the mission entirely. It is the insurance service we are talking about here.

Well, basically, this kind of service is presented as a tool for people who would like to protect any aspect of their life. But specifically for cars, Autoquotenow.com is a place from where people should come in the very first place prior to anything else, indeed.

This website is an online provider for what we can call as a service of auto car insurance. This website contains complete information about such matter and thus, every little thing we are searching for are available in this website until we can surely feel comfortable on the belongings we possess. And since the rates are one thing we need to think of upon anything else, this website allows you to pick the auto insurance quote with the lower rate which enables you to save up to $600 when you have applied for the service right away. Uniquely, this website also provides the service based on the state where you are living at in current. That means you can simply compare the rates on a state toward another state’s easily.

To apply for the service is also something nice through this website. You would only require yourself to fulfill a special field existed inside the website with your very own zip code and then you can straightly have the car insurance quote all the way. So complete this website is that you can even see some other features of articles provided by it. For instance, if you are going to look for more information about this car insurance, this website allow you to access the feature of car insurance guide it provides. After all, the conclusion is that you can rely on this website for anything you desire upon car insurance services. So please feel free to log it on whenever you want to.

Auto Insurance

The Auto insurance is one of those bills we would rather not pay each month, but is as necessary as the light bill. As with any insurance, especially auto insurance, you never know how important it is until you need to file a claim!

The auto insurance market has become so competitive with new companies arriving on the scenes. And, have you ever seen as many auto insurance commercials on TV? It seems as though every other commercial is auto insurance related.

Many people do not realize the competitive nature auto insurance companies have been forced into, but it is definitely to our benefit. It is almost as competitive as the cell phone market, ALL insurance companies want their little piece of the pie and are even giving free auto insurance quotes to get you to convert to their company. The industry as a whole realize that many customers are looking to save money and cut monthly costs any way they can, and cutting auto insurance costs is one of the easiest.

There are other auto insurance companies that can save you money online like Outsurance or you can shop and compare multiple free auto insurance quotes. This will get you the best auto insurance quotes from the best companies so you can compare prices at one time.

I hear many car buying customers say “I have been with a certain company so long, I’d hate to switch.” What if it could save you several hundred dollars per year, would that equate to getting a raise? Has your auto insurance provider ever called you and said, I am going to lower your car insurance rates? Why not save some money where you can. You may be able to trade and get the car you have been dreaming of if you were able to save some money on your auto insurance!

The problem is, auto insurance is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. It can save you hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, if you are, at one time in your life, involved in a car accident. Almost all car insurance companies provide monthly payment plans, which are quite easy to bear. Because the premiums are based on numerous factors, like age, gender, driving history, your credit history, and what kind of car you are driving. If you have more than tickets for exceeding the speed limit or you have been implied in several accidents, the price of your premium will be definitely higher.

Auto Insurance Quotes

The significance of automobile insurance is lost on many vehicle owners till the time they are unfortunate enough to run into some kind of the loss bearing event involving their vehicles. Such folks apparently see insurance as an expense and not as an investment as they ideally should. This reasoning has strong fundamental basis for it speaks of a situation where one can actually make good on certain damaging losses that may otherwise remain so.

There are different types of auto insurance covers to choose from and in this respect a good agent or broker can work with the customer to decide the cover options that provide the best protection at a price that is affordable to the customer. However the customer would stand to gain considerably in the long run if he takes the trouble of understanding certain basic factors that determine the cost of his auto insurance cover.

Deductible

Deductible is the amount that the policy holder agrees to pay in the event of a claim. Moreover by choosing a higher deductible the policyholder can reduce his premium. The importance of deductible cannot be ignored while considering cheap insurance program. Usually a higher deductible lowers the insurance cost and therefore if the customer’s driving record is good, then he can increase his deductible and pay a lower premium.

Vehicle make and model

The make and model of the vehicle matters a great deal in determining the cost of insurance. For instance, an expensive car would have a higher cost of insurance for the simple reason that any damage or loss to the car would cost the insurance company more than what it would if the car was of standard make.

Vehicle security devices

When the policy holder make his vehicle secure by installing security systems such as an alarm or a tracker device it will enable him to get his vehicle insured at a cheaper rate. This is because the presence of such devices considerably minimizes the risk of theft and therefore insurance companies do not hesitate to provide auto insurance that is affordable.

NCD (No Claims Discount)

Most auto insurance companies offer NCD to policy holders with a claim-free track record for a specific period. In fact this is a major factor in determining the cost of automobile insurance which becomes evident when a driver with an eventful history checks out the cost of insuring his vehicle.

Comparative analysis

Finally it is always helpful to take advantage of the stiff competition in the market by checking out the quotes of a good number of automobile insurance providers before selecting any one company. The differences though not substantial, do matter in the overall calculations before deciding on an insurer.