Abstract:
The present disclosure is directed to methods for providing insurance brokerage services for both a property owner and potential insurers. The methods provides for virtual websites and related mobile applications for estimating the value of a property based on current reconstruction costs. The methods also provide for aiding a property owner in procuring an insurer by compiling property valuation information in a format that is submitted to potential insurers to bid upon. The methods further provides for helping property owners manage changes to property value and updating insurance policy based on valuation changes to reconstruction costs as well as compiling information for reconstruction costs when damage does occur. Finally, disclosure provides for methods of maintaining important records for insurer, maintaining communications between insured and insurer, and providing emergency services related to the insured property in the time of emergencies related to the insured property.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    The present disclosure relates generally to insurance brokerage services. In particular, the disclosed methods are directed to providing a way for insures to select the best insurer for their needs and provide the insurer up-to-date information regarding the owner&#39;s property, so that accurate insurance policy premium quotes may be prepared. The methods disclosed provide insurance-related services to both property owner and insurer. 
         [0002]    People purchase insurance to protect themselves from potential future loss. Maintaining up-to-date and detailed information regarding one&#39;s property, real or personal, is important for policy holders when they need to make a claim for loss or damage to that property. Unfortunately, disagreements arise between policy holders and insurers as to what is owed to the policy holder or what the insurer&#39;s obligations are based on the value of the policy holder&#39;s property. Most policy holders, such as a homeowner, never experience losing their home and attempting to rebuild, so the relationship with their insurer remains distant and cordial. This relationship between policy holder and insurer is tested only in the face of extreme adversity. The aftermath of many recent disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and the Colorado and California wildfires, reveals an alarming disconnect between the insurers and policy holders. 
         [0003]    Traditional home-insurance policy holder/insure relationships have not been ideal. Historically, through the 1980&#39;s, insurance companies wrote a large number of guaranteed replacement policies for homeowners. These policies represented the highest level of coverage and truly guaranteed full replacement on losses experienced by policy holders. In the 1990&#39;s, devastating natural disasters prompted numerous claims against said full rep replacement policies from homeowners (policy holders) who had just experienced a total loss on their homes. These mass, simultaneous claims bankrupted a number of smaller insurers and significantly impacted the profits of the major providers. 
         [0004]    Insurers, learning from the aftermath of the 1990&#39;s natural disasters, realized that providing full replacement policies was unprofitable and not sustainable. Currently, most insurance companies do not offer true full replacement policies comparable to the pre-1990&#39;s full replacement policies. Standard policies today provide far less coverage compared to what would be considered full replacement coverage, while charging considerably greater premiums for top-tier policies. 
         [0005]    Unfortunately, policy holders have been slow to adjust to changes in the degree of coverage and the responsibilities placed upon them to maintain the information contained within their policies. A far too common occurrence is when policy holders choose to trust their insurance agent and sign up for a policy without fully understanding for the terms. Policy holders often assumed that a top-tier replacement policy guarantees full replacement value for losses when disaster strikes: In reality, these policies cover only the value of the home at the time it is insured and, in some instances, include additional terms to cover reconstruction costs. 
         [0006]    Furthermore, many policy holders assume their insurance agent will keep them update on any additional information required to keep their policy current, when in fact, this often does not occur. Thus, although unknown to the policy holder, insurers will not always check in with them periodically to see if there should be any changes to their existing policy. It is then an unspoken rule that the policy holder must notify the insurer if there are any changes to his property that might require. the insurance policy to be adjusted. For example, it is often on the policy holder to inform his insurance when the policy holder replaces the existing carpet or upgrades his kitchen, thereby changing the value of his property. 
         [0007]    Becoming obsolete is one major problem with home insurance policies. An insurance policy can become obsolete due to a range of factors. For one thing, traditional market forces alone can cause the value of a property to appreciate over time. Another factor that comes into play is when price of construction materials change due to over or short supply of such materials. When combined with changes in building codes and regulations, inflation in the price of labor, and any significant updates to the home, it becomes apparent that a policy based on a fixed valuation from potentially many years back could easily underestimate the cost of reconstruction at today&#39;s rates by tens of thousands of dollars or more. 
         [0008]    Thus, there exists a need for a service that provides “transparency” for both the policy holder as well as the insurer. This service would not only aid policy holders with not only choosing an appropriate policy but also helping the policy holder maintain up-to-date specifications about their property. Furthermore, insurers would benefit from having an easy set of parameters to build an accurate policy quote as well as having an accurate assessment of the value of their policy holder&#39;s property, thus giving rise to fewer disputes over claims filed. 
         [0009]    A number of prior art patents disclose methods related to insurance offers and services, but none offer the comprehensive services detailed in the description below. The following patents are representative and are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes: US 2010/0042440 to Seitomer published on Feb. 18, 2010 (“Seitomer”); US 2008/0126138 to Cherney published on May 29, 2008 (“Cherney”); and US 2015/0012304 to Rao published on Jan. 8 2015 (“Rao”). 
         [0010]    Seitomer discloses applications and methods related to estimating the value of a home. Seitomer applies heuristic research methodology to determine the values of different characteristics of a home that is then used to estimate the value of a home. The methodology includes researching different types of home renovations and home furnishings based on quality and quantity. A user enters data regarding heir property and software application accesses the value for home reconstruction based on the user&#39;s entries. Also, the software generates initial insurance premiums based on the data generated from the home value estimator. While the methods disclosed in Seitomer would be able to estimate the cost of reconstructing a home, when the estimate relies on a user&#39;s own familiarity with the components that go into constructing their home, there may inaccuracies in determining the actual value of reconstruction. 
         [0011]    The Cherney application discloses a system and method for presenting insurance otters and is specifically directed to vehicular insurance. Cherney&#39;s system stores user information and a plurality of insurance policy offers. The Cherney system provides for a user interface where a user can input information about the item they wish to insure, and the owner&#39;s personal information. The system generates an insurance quote used on the information provided and the repository of policies in their system. The Cherney application does not relate easily to home insurance. For example, it would be much more challenging to build an insurance quote for real property based on what a user could input. Further, unlike vehicles, where the value can be roughly estimated from the make, model and year, the value of a home cannot be so easily estimated. The Rao application discloses methods for managing insurance policy events. One method includes steps beginning with (a) a broker receiving an electronic communication from an insurance provider of an event elated to a policy of a consumer serviced by the insurance provider and (b) responding to the notice, automatically determining whether the event meets at least one event criteria monitored by the broker. This method further includes steps of the program initiating an action related to the event once the program determines that at least one event criterion monitored by the broker has been met. While the methods described by Rao would help a broker better service his customers does not provide bid preparation services for both finding an insurer or contractor nor does it provide a repository for relevant information regarding a property or a platform on which policy holders and insurers or contractors may communicate. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0012]    The present disclosure is directed to methods for providing insurance brokerage services for both a property owner and potential insurers. The methods provides for virtual websites and related mobile applications for estimating the value of a property based on current reconstruction costs. The methods also provide for aiding a property owner in procuring an insurer by compiling property valuation information in a format that is submitted to potential insurers to bid upon. The methods further provides for helping property owners manage changes to property value and updating insurance policy based on valuation changes to reconstruction costs as well as compiling information for reconstruction costs when damage does occur. Finally, disclosure provides for methods of maintaining important records for insurer, maintaining communications between insured and insurer, and providing emergency services related to the insured property in the time of emergencies related to the insured property. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0013]      FIG. 1  is a flowchart that shows how the insurance brokering method works from a homeowner&#39;s standpoint. 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is a second flowchart showing how a homeowner and the insurer would use the insurance brokerage services once the homeowner has accepted a policy. 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  is a third flowchart showing how the insurance brokerage service would be helpful in real-time emergencies. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    The present invention is generally directed to method of providing intermediary services between an insurance policy seekers (herein after termed “policy holder”) and a pool of potential insurers. On the homeowner/policy holder side, this method provides clarity regarding what each policy provides and associated premiums. On the side of the insurer, this method provides a way of providing their customers with accurate assessment of their property valuation and thus leading to less spurious claims. 
         [0017]    The scope and spirit of the present invention, including the disclosed services and methods, will become better understood through a review of the following detailed description in conjunction with the figures. The detailed description and figures provide merely examples of the various inventions described herein. Those skilled in the art will understand that the disclosed examples may be varied, modified, and altered without departing from the scope of the inventions described herein. Many variations are contemplated for different applications and design considerations; however, for the sake of brevity, each and every contemplated variation is not individually described in the following detailed description. 
         [0018]    Throughout the following detailed description, whenever possible, examples are provided to aid the reader in understanding the services and methods disclosed. Related features in the examples may be identical, similar, or dissimilar in different examples. For the sake of brevity, related features will not be redundantly explained in each example. Instead, the use of related feature names will cue the reader that the feature with a related feature name may be similar to the related feature in an example explained previously. Features specific to a given example will be described in that particular example. The reader should understand that a given feature need not be the same or similar to the specific portrayal of a related feature in any given figure or example. 
         [0019]    The system  100  includes, but is not limited to, a property owner or a policy holder  110 , a virtual agency  120 , proprietary software  130 , and insurance companies  140 . Policy holders  110 , before they become policy holders  110 , are property owners are parties seeking the best insurance policy to protect their property, which includes the most coverage they can obtain with reasonable premiums. From the get-go, property owner is tasked with finding, researching, and selecting an insurance provider, to providing the selected insurance company with the necessary information related to the future coverage of his property. Then, once the property owner is a policy holder  110 , the policy holder makes a claim for coverage when damages or loss occurs. A virtual agency  120  will help homeowners, or more precisely, future policy holders  110  make educated decisions about which policy to choose and to make apparent what exactly they are covered for and the degree of coverage. 
         [0020]    Turning to  FIG. 1 , when future policy holder  110  engages the virtual agency  120 , virtual agency will aid future policy holder  110  in creating a specbook (short for specification book)  150 . Virtual agency  120  will enter detailed information regarding all the elements that go into constructing a home with information provided by owner/policy holder  110  and information obtained from reliable sources, input the information into proprietary software  130  to generate specbook  150  for a particular property. Specbook  150  will describe in detail all the elements that go into construction the property. Specbook  150  will integrate the property&#39;s blueprints, materials used, fixtures used, spacing of studs, and so forth, and create a living, digital document that can he updated when the property is updated. Specbook  150  can also include details and photos of valuables that potential policy holder  110  wishes to insure. In the event that a property is destroyed, an exact replica of the property can be constructed based on the information contained within specbook  150 . 
         [0021]    Accompanying specbook  150  is a new certification that be made available to home inspectors. Certified inspectors typically create specbooks from new homes when construction of the home has been completed and a final inspection performed and virtual agency  120  will work with inspectors to generate specbook  150  for the policy holder  110 . Proprietary  130  can also create specbook  150  retroactively for properties that are not newly built. Furthermore, when improvements or additions are made to a property having specbook  150 , virtual agency  120  will update the new information in specbook  150 , where the information will be validated by a certified inspector. 
         [0022]    As mentioned above, proprietary software  130  can calculate the exact costs associated with rebuilding a property based on current market prices for materials and labor. Proprietary software  130  will further retain historical data, so that users can track trends. Advanced functionality of proprietary software  130  will allow users to receive alerts based on valuation thresholds, such as when the price of a specific raw material were to increase by more than a specified percentage over a specific timeframe. Proprietary software  130  allows each client to set what the threshold limit will be. 
         [0023]    Proprietary software  130  has benefits for insurers. Proprietary software  130  allows insurers to better manage the risks associated with insuring their customers. For reals property, prior to insuring the property, virtual agency  120  can aid potential insurers in providing more accurate coverage costs based on current material costs for reconstructing the property. Insurers using system  100  will be able to track the true costs of replacing or reconstruction. Having an accurate account of the costs associated with insuring a particular property based on the materials and labor costs will allow insurers to set associated premiums accordingly. 
         [0024]    Another aspect of this invention is a central repository  152  for all communications between the policy holder and the insurer. Central repository  152  provides an easily retrievable insurance-related information. Proprietary software  130  will provide an easy and intuitive way for both policy holders and insurers to access central repository  152  either on virtual agency  120 &#39;s website or via virtual agency  120 &#39;s mobile application. Thus the invention includes both a standard web interface as well as a mobile application. In addition to having access to specbook  150  and all communications, both policy holders and insurers that sign up for virtual agency  120 &#39;s services will have a digital locker  154 . Digital locker  154  is a virtual place for retaining copies of receipts and important document such as deeds, birth and wedding certificates. Policy holders can also upload pictures of possessions that are covered under their policy or policies. 
         [0025]    Another aspect of the present disclosure is a bid builder  156 . Bid builder  156  first provides a tool that will help customers (future policy holders) create a portfolio of information regarding the property or properties they want to insure. The customer is ultimately in control of this information and decides which insurer agent will receive the information. In an exemplary case, online website of virtual agency  120  will allow registered insurance agents to login onto their secure site. Once logged in potential insurers  140  can view a list of potential customers with a general description. Interested insurers  140  can inquire about making bids on portfolios shown; a request is sent to the corresponding potential policy holder  110  of the portfolio of interest. Potential policy holder  110  then decides which interested potential insurers  140  he will share digital access to specbook  150 . Once received, potential insurers  140  can then craft their bids based on specbook  150  within a limited period of time. If multiple potential insurers  141 , once these potential insurers have created bids for a particular portfolio, bid builder  156  will compile the multiple bids and notify potential policy holder  110  when the compile bids are ready for review. When potential policy holder  110  has reviewed and selected insurer  140 , virtual agency  120  will digitize and be made accessible to policy holder  110  on virtual agency  120 &#39;s website or mobile site. Futures changes to a particular policy will be noted and recorded. 
         [0026]    Once a particular insurer  140  has won the bid to insure a particular property, virtual agency  120  will aid policy holder  110  in his relation with insurer  140 . Virtual agency  120  will manage the premium costs for policy holder  110 . Any new information from insurer  140  will also be sent through virtual agency  120 . Information can include notices of non receipt of payment or any other changes to their policy. Other information may include when insurers need to adjust the price for particular coverage. In this latter case, once virtual agency  120  sends policy holder  110  of such a notice, policy holder  110  has a set amount of time (e.g. five to ten business days) to accept the new terms of the policy. In addition, virtual agency will  120  will aid policy holder  110  when policy holder  110  seeks to have additional items covered under his policy or wishes to update the coverage under his policy because he undergoing a remodel or addition to his property. 
         [0027]    Yet another aspect of this invention relates to when damage has occurred to policy holder&#39;s  110  insured property and reconstruction is required. When damage occurs to property, policy holder  110  will notify virtual agency  120  and virtual agency  120  will generate a unique QR code  158  to the particular incident. Assigned QR code  158  will be placed in front of the property of interest. When reconstruction agencies and contractors come to look at the potential project and bid on the reconstruction job, they will go through virtual agency  120  much like how insurers  140  go through virtual agency  120  to bid on the initial policy holder  110 &#39;s insurance policy. To start the process, registered contractors use virtual agency  120 &#39;s mobile application to scan QR code  158  in front of the property. Policy holder  110  is then notified that a contractor is or multiple contractors are requesting information in order to generate a reconstruction bid. Like the insurance policy bidding process, if policy holder  110  approves, a contractor is or multiple contractors are given access through virtual agency  120 &#39;s website or mobile site to relevant information, such as specbook  150 , photos of the related damage to the insured property, and other related reports to prepare a bid. In other examples, the potential contractors may request through the virtual agency to have a physical inspection of the property of interest to better assess the damages. 
         [0028]    Virtual agency  120  will also act as a liaison if any questions or disputes arise between policy holder  110  and insurer  140 . Virtual agency  120  will provide both parties with records of communications between the parties. Virtual agency  120  will aid both parties determine what is covered and to what degree the coverage is. 
         [0029]    Virtual agency  120  would also offer related services. One such services is providing customers with automatic forwarding email aliases and access to a phone conferencing line. Thus, all communications between policy holder  110 , insurer  140 , contractor, or other relevant outside party can be easily archived on virtual agency  120 &#39;s system. For example, when homeowner Jon Smith signs up with the virtual agency, he will be granted an email address, such as, jon.smith@virtualagency.com. As part of the registration process, Jon would provide the virtual agency with his personal email address, so that messages to jon.smith@virtualagency.com will automatically forward to Jon&#39;s personal address. Likewise, when an insurance agent signs up with the virtual agency to provide bids to potential policy holders, he will also be granted an email address associated with the virtual agency. Then, when policy holders and insurers communicate, all related emails will be sent through virtual agency&#39;s system and will be archived and stored with the virtual agency, even though on the user end, they appear be communication through their personal or work mails. For in-person or over-the-phone communications, property owner and the insurer or contractor will dial a virtual agency&#39;s number and connect through the virtual agency&#39;s system, so an audio recording can be made of each conversation. Payments to the insurer and contractors are also performed through the virtual agency&#39;s website and records of such payment maintained for easy access later. All communications and transactions between a property owner and an insurer or contractor will be archived and made available to both parties through the virtual agency&#39;s web portal or mobile application. 
         [0030]    Another service that virtual agency  120  can offer policy holders  110  is during the time of a crisis or emergency. Virtual agency  120  will create an emergency time function that give certified emergency crews access to any policy holder  110  registered with virtual agency  120  critical information such blueprints of a property for helping save and handle an emergency situation. A potential scenario would be that when a property owner notifies virtual agency that their house is on fire and they have just notified the fire department. Virtual agency can send the blueprints directly to the firemen en route to the property so they will have additional information about the property helping them better respond to the emergency. Even if no call is made to virtual agency, emergency responders can manually log in and check if there is any information on the reported property through the virtual agency&#39;s web or mobile site. 
         [0031]    The disclosure above encompasses multiple distinct inventions with independent utility. While each of these inventions has been disclosed in a particular form, the specific embodiments disclosed and illustrated above are not to be considered in a limiting sense as numerous variations are possible. The subject matter of the inventions includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and subcombinations of the various elements, features, functions and/or properties disclosed above and inherent to those skilled in the art pertaining to such inventions. Where the disclosure or subsequently filed claims recite “a” element, “a first” element, or any such equivalent term, the disclosure or claims should be understood to incorporate one or more such elements, neither requiring nor excluding two or more such elements. 
         [0032]    Applicant(s) reserves the right to submit claims directed to combinations and subcombinations of the disclosed inventions that are believed to be novel and non-obvious. Inventions embodied in other combinations and subcombinations of features, functions, elements and/or properties may be clammed through amendment of those claims or presentation of new claims in the present application or in a related application. Such amended or new claims, whether they are directed to the same invention or a different invention and whether they are different, broader, narrower or equal in scope to the original claims, are to be considered within the subject matter of the inventions described herein.