Methods and systems for implementing dynamic billing

10990,938

14/944166

November 17, 2015

Described herein are methods and systems for administering a life insurance policy that provide an alternative to the traditional approach by querying a client for a set of coverage objectives and using a set of algorithms to automatically adjust billed premiums on an ongoing basis to maintain the client-specified coverage objectives—a methodology referred to herein as “dynamic billing.” Dynamic billing enables clients to take corrective action sooner than it would otherwise be taken and/or provides an automated mechanism or prompt for clients to take such action on an ongoing basis. For example, in certain embodiments, the disclosed technology computes adjusted premiums and allows the policy owner to be billed the amount required to keep his/her policy on track with his/her current insurance policy objectives.

John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) (Boston, MA, US)

John Hancock Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.) (Boston, MA, US)

1. A method of implementing dynamic billing for a life insurance policy, the method comprising: automatically adjusting billed premiums of a life insurance policy on an ongoing basis to maintain client-specific coverage objectives by: receiving, by a processor of a computing device, from a processor of a point of sale computing device, a plurality of dynamic billing objectives wherein the dynamic billing objectives comprise at least one member selected from the group consisting of: assumptions, actual policy performance, current crediting rates, and one or more on-file policy illustration objectives specified by the policy owner; generating, by the processor of the computing device, a unique identifier associated with a life insurance policy and associating the unique identifier with the plurality of dynamic billing objectives; storing, by the processor of the computing device, in a database accessible by an illustration system and an administrative system, the dynamic billing objectives; receiving, by a processor of the illustration system, from a processor of an administration system, current policy in-force values associated with the life insurance policy; querying, by the processor of the illustration system, the database for one or more dynamic billing objectives using the unique identifier associated with the life insurance policy; calculating, by the processor of the illustration system, a recalculated premium value based at least in part on the current policy in-force value and the actual policy performance, wherein the actual policy performance comprises at least three members selected from the group consisting of interest credits, wellness statuses achieved, policy charges, policy credits, timing of premiums paid, amount of premiums paid, fund performance, premium payments, rider terminations, distributions, death benefit increase, and death benefit decrease; providing, to the processor of the administration system, the recalculated premium value; and overwriting, by the processor of the administration system, in a database associated with the administration system, a planned premium value with the recalculated premium value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the current policy in-force values comprise a wellness status.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein actual policy performance comprises at least one member selected from the group consisting of interest credits and premium payments.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more on-file policy illustration objectives specified by a policy owner comprise at least one member selected from the group consisting of: desired premium duration, target cash value, target cash value year, crediting rate, death benefit option, contractual changes, distributions, non-guaranteed elements, and any other illustrated policy goals.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising: accessing, by the processor of the computing device, the one or more on-file policy illustration objectives on a regular and/or ad-hoc basis and providing one or more updates to a policyholder.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more updates are provided online, by mail, by email, and/or by a digital portal that can be accessed by the customer.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more updates comprise at least one of a policy statement, a bill, and a notice.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more on-file policy illustration objectives comprise at least one of: pay premiums for n years to maintain coverage for lifetime, achieve a specified Policy Value at a specified year, and withdraw a specified amount of Policy Value at for a specified time period.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the assumptions comprise at least one of: number of years to pay premium, amount of premium payments, assumed policy interest rate, assumed equity return, assumed loan rate, assumed scale of insurance charges, contractual changes, distributions, non-guaranteed elements, and status used to determine size of wellness or other policy credit.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the one or more updates comprise at least one of: an indication of how the policy is tracking toward the plurality of objectives based on the most current policy information and updated assumptions for the future, and actions the policyholder can take to remain on track with their insurance goals.

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