Abstract:
The present inventions provide improved funding and administrative arrangements that allow an employer to provide enhanced benefits to certain employees. In general, the arrangement includes means by which the cost of certain insurance, such as life insurance, is reduced through the use of a trust and financing contract. Proceeds from the financing contract are used to pay premiums on the insurance to reduce the cost of that insurance to the employee. The insurance policy may be used to collateralize the financing contract. When a qualifying event occurs, the employee (or designated beneficiaries) is paid a predefined benefit amount and the financing contract is paid off. One benefit of such an arrangement is that it is portable with the employee, who may continue to retain the benefit of the insurance even though he or she may change jobs, or may be unemployed or retired.

Description:
PRIORITY CLAIM 
       [0001]    This application claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 119 to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/072,582 filed Apr. 1, 2008. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates to enhanced employee benefit programs, and more particularly, to systems and methods of reducing the costs and improving the flexibility and portability of such programs. 
         [0003]    Employers, whether corporations, professional partnerships or other entities, have long acknowledged the special insurance and other benefit needs of partners, key employees, and other highly compensated individuals within their organization. This group of key employees has often been defined as a special subset of the company&#39;s employee group to allow the company to better provide for their insurance and/or benefits needs. These “carve out” programs often provide additional benefit options not generally found in the basic employee benefit program, such as the availability of enhanced insurance options, planning flexibility, and corporate security. Such programs often serve as incentives for the hiring and retention of such individuals. 
         [0004]    Thus, a need exists for systems and methods which offer insurance or other benefit products at reduced rates to such highly compensated individuals. There is also a need for such products to be portable, allowing employees to maintain coverage beyond their period of employment with a specific organization. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]    The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which: 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  illustrates the inception and operation of a benefit program constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention. 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  illustrates certain events that occur upon payment of a life insurance benefit in accordance with certain aspects of the present invention. 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  illustrates some of the steps involved in a computer implemented embodiment of the present invention as illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
       
    
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    It is contemplated that the subject matter described herein may be embodied in many forms. Accordingly, the embodiments described herein are provided to illustrate and convey the present inventions to one of ordinary skill in the art, and are not to be considered limitations. 
         [0010]    The present inventions provide improved funding and administrative arrangements that allow an employer to provide enhanced benefits to certain employees. In general, the arrangement includes means by which the cost of certain insurance, such as life insurance, is reduced through the use of a trust and financing contract. Proceeds from the financing contract are used to pay premiums on the insurance to reduce the cost of that insurance to the employee. The insurance policy may be used to collateralize the financing contract. When a qualifying event occurs, the employee (or designated beneficiaries) is paid a predefined benefit amount and the financing contract is paid off. 
         [0011]    One benefit of such an arrangement is that it is portable with the employee, who may continue to retain the benefit of the insurance even though he or she may change jobs, or may be unemployed or retired. 
         [0012]    One specific embodiment of the present invention is directed towards a portable life insurance product, including a trust, a life insurance contract that insures a life of an insured individual, wherein the trust is the beneficiary of the life insurance contract, and the death benefit for the life insurance contract includes a defined benefit amount which is to be paid to the insured individual or designated beneficiaries; and at least one finance contract, which is at least partially collateralized by the life insurance contract, and provides funds to the trust for premium payments on the life insurance contract. 
         [0013]    Another specific embodiment of the present invention is directed towards a method for reducing life insurance premiums for selected individuals associated with an organization, including: obtaining a life insurance contract that insures the life of the insured individual, wherein a trust is the beneficiary of the life insurance contract, and the death benefit for the life insurance contract includes a defined benefit amount which is to be paid to the insured individual, entering into a finance contract with the trust, the finance contract being collateralized by the life insurance contract, paying premiums on the life insurance contract using the proceeds from the finance contract and additional funds provided by the insured individual or a third party, and upon payment of the death benefit to the trust, paying the defined death benefit from the trust to trust beneficiaries, and paying off the finance contracts. 
         [0014]    Another specific embodiment of the present invention is directed towards a computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of sequences of instruction including sequences of instructions, which, when executed by one or more processors cause an electronic device to: obtain a life insurance contract that insures the life of the insured individual, wherein a trust is the beneficiary of the life insurance contract, and the death benefit for the life insurance contract includes a defined benefit amount which is to be paid to the insured individual, enter into a finance contract with the trust, the finance contract being collateralized by the life insurance contract, pay premiums on the life insurance contract using the proceeds from the finance contract and additional funds provided by the insured individual or a third party, and upon payment of the death benefit to the trust, pay the defined death benefit from the trust to trust beneficiaries, and paying off the finance contracts. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0015]    It is contemplated that the subject matter described herein may be embodied in many forms, including computer-based implementations. Accordingly, the embodiments described herein are provided to illustrate and convey the present inventions to one of ordinary skill in the art, and are not to be considered limitations. 
         [0016]    Inception and Ongoing Operation 
         [0017]      FIG. 1  illustrates an embodiment of a benefit program constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention. As shown, a bankruptcy remote entity such as an Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (“ILIT”)  100  may be created and associated with an insured individual  110 . Insured individual  110  may be a person (or group of persons) defined or otherwise identified by an employer, business partner or other suitable entity associated with an organization sponsoring or providing the benefit. 
         [0018]    In some embodiments, ILIT  100  may be a contract with a trustee to administer an insurance contract, and may not be able to be rescinded and/or modified after its creation. At the outset, ILIT  100  may apply for an insurance policy, such has a life insurance or other policy on insured  110 . The amount of total benefit, such as death benefit, applied for may depend on a number of factors, which may include the defined death benefit insured  110  desires to secure, the amount of insurance that can be taken out on the life of insured  110 , the anticipated life span of the insured  110 , the anticipated interest rate on a loan  131  from premium lender  130  over the anticipated lifespan, and the cost of life insurance premium payments  121 , etc. Other factors may be taken into consideration as well. 
         [0019]    For example, in some embodiments, participants (i.e., insured  110 ) may be selected to be between about the ages of 30 and 75 (however, other age ranges that make financial sense may also be used). Based on such factors, a total benefit amount, such as total death benefit is calculated. Often a “base amount” of coverage can be offered by a life company  120  on a guaranteed issue basis, with an additional coverage amount provided on an elective basis with evidence of insured  110  insurability. 
         [0020]    By applying for, or structuring the life insurance policy  122  such that a death benefit in excess of the defined death benefit will be obtained, ILIT  100  is in a position to seek financing using the assignment of the life insurance policy  122  as collateral. For example, ILIT  100  may pledge the proceeds from life insurance policy  122  as collateral for loan  131 . Loan  131  may be obtained from premium lender  130 , in exchange for loan documents  132 , and its proceeds may be used to pay a portion of premium payments  121 , reducing the amount of contributions  111  made to ILIT  100  from insured  110 . 
         [0021]    For example, an insured  110  may wish to have $1M of coverage, applicable while the insured is employed, which ordinarily may cost $10,000 per year. In this case, ILIT  100  may obtain $1.5M of coverage on behalf of insured  110 , which is applicable even when the insured is unemployed or switches employers. Such a policy  122  may have a premium of $30,000 per year. Accordingly, loans  131  may be obtained in the amount of $22,000 per year, which ILIT  100  uses to partially pay the $30,000 annual premium payments  121 . Insured  110  then only needs to make an $8,000 per year contribution to ILIT  100  for $1M of coverage, rather than pay a $10,000 per month premium that the insurance would cost otherwise. As a result, insured  110  maintain the $1M death benefit, with the premium cost reduced by 20%. 
         [0022]    In other embodiments, insured  110  employers may pay all or a different portion of the contributions  111  on behalf of insured  110  to obtain the desired premium reduction and/or death benefit differential between ILIT  100  and insured  110  (e.g., a 10% or 30% reduction, even split of death benefit, etc.). 
         [0023]    In addition, the interest rate applicable on loans  131  may depend of the rate of return of life insurance company  120  provides on insurance policy  122 . In other embodiments, the rate applicable on the loans may be fixed, based on actual costs of funds of premium lender  130 , based on a market index such as LIBOR, or a combination of these or other known factors. 
         [0024]    Funding by premium lender  130  may be secured through a commercial paper conduit, such as a bond market, with the assignment of life insurance policy  122  acting as collateral for loans  131 . One benefit of this arrangement is that the interest rate associated with the commercial paper conduit can be significantly less than that which may be obtained through another capital source, often on the order of 100 basis points or more per year. By reducing the amount of interest accrued, premium lender  130  incurs less cost associated with loans  131 , providing for the potential for more value to ILIT  100 . In other embodiments, funding by lender  130  may be obtained by a bank loan facility and/or the issuance of securities. 
         [0025]    According to an aspect of the invention, ILIT  100  may obtain life insurance policy  122  from a highly-rated (on a financial basis) life insurance company  120 , to reduce risk. Generally a “whole life” insurance policy is acquired from a mutual life insurance company (although certain types of term or hybrid of the two types may be used if desired). A benefit of selecting a whole life insurance policy is that a portion of the premium payments may be invested, if desired, and the resulting dividends may eventually become sufficient for the life insurance policy  122  to become self-funding. 
         [0026]    The total death benefit of life insurance policy  122  is typically for an amount greater than that paid to insured  110  (e.g., as described above), with ILIT  100  designated as the beneficiary of policy  122 . In this case, the proceeds of policy  122  are pledged to premium lender  130  as collateral for the loan  131 . 
         [0027]    Contributions  111  are collected and additional loans  131  may be secured periodically, as needed to make payments on premiums  121 . It is generally desirable to secure loans  131  on an “as needed” basis, in order to minimize the interest accruing on outstanding loans  131 . Often, life insurance policy  122  will require premiums  121  to be paid for only a certain amount of time, such as for ten years. In other instances, after a certain amount of time, life insurance policy  122  may be converted or modified such that no more premiums  121  are due (or the premiums are substantially reduced (e.g., to administration or maintenance fees)). 
         [0028]    The above embodiment also allows for portability in the event of a change in employment, allowing the ILIT  100  to continue to own the life insurance policy  122  even after the insured  110  leaves their employer or cease working altogether. Furthermore, insured  110  may also continue to enjoy the benefit of the death benefit described above (assuming insured  110  and ILIT  100  continue to make the required capital contributions or such capital contributions are substantially fully paid). As a result, the insurance benefit is portable for both insured  110  and ILIT  100 . 
         [0029]    Death or Other Maturation of Life Insurance Contract 
         [0030]      FIG. 2  depicts certain events that occur upon payment of a life insurance benefit in accordance with certain aspects of the present invention. More particularly,  FIG. 2  illustrates how payments may flow upon death of insured  110  for the embodiment described in  FIG. 1 . However, it will be understood that events other than those specifically depicted may occur that cause life insurance policy  122  to mature (become payable). For example, certain insurance products may pay the benefit  123  upon diagnosis of a critical illness (or other qualifying payout event). 
         [0031]    Upon the death or occurrence of a qualifying payout event of insured  110 , life insurance company  120  pays death benefit  123  to ILIT  100 . From this amount, the principle of loan  131  plus accrued interest  133  may be paid to premium lender  130  first. Next, defined death benefit  211  may be paid to beneficiaries  210 , such as the insured&#39;s family or other designated beneficiaries (which may include insured  110  in the case of a qualifying payout event). After this amount is paid, premium lender  130  may receive contingent interest  134 , which may include interest on the loan  131  over and above that received in  133 . For example, premium lender  130  may receive an additional 8% interest on the loan (however, other amounts may be used, if desired). Lastly, beneficiaries  210  may receive any remaining funds after lender  130  is paid the contingent interest  134 . 
         [0032]    The embodiment above is one possible division of death benefit  123 , and other splits as agreed to for the loan  131  by ILIT  100  and/or insured  110  may be implemented, if desired. Moreover, it will be understood that the order in which funds are paid may vary to achieve desired business goals. For example, beneficiaries  210  may be paid the defined death benefit before premium lender  130 , with contingent interest  134  paid afterwards. Any suitable rearrangement of funds payout may be effected if desired. 
         [0033]    It is also possible that prior to death or occurrence of a qualifying payout event of insured  110 , certain amounts may be withdrawn respective of life insurance policy  122  from life company  120 . An example of use of such funds is to pay principal and/or interest on loan  131  to premium lender  130 . 
         [0034]    Computer Implementation 
         [0035]    In some embodiments, some or all aspects of the invention may be embodied on a computer readable medium and performed by one or more computers (not shown), in order to more effectively and efficiently establish and/or administer particular aspects of the invention. For example, given the potentially large size of some employee groups and the number of factors considered in evaluating various products offered in the insurance market, it may be impractical to perform some or all aspects of the invention manually. Thus, some or all of the aspects of the inventions described herein may be performed by a computer or network of computers based on software embodied on a computer readable medium in the form of instructions or code. 
         [0036]    For example, one or more computer programs may be developed, in the form of source and/or executable code and be disposed on computer readable medium such as a CD ROM, jump drive, or other magnetic or optical storage media for performing or implementing any of the features described herein. Such computer code may also be disposed on a local or personal computer, a network computer or on a remote computer such a server as part of a distributed network such as a WAN or LAN, etc. 
         [0037]    One such embodiment is generally depicted in the flow chart of  FIG. 3 , which illustrates some of the steps that may be performed by one or more computers based on one or more application programs developed in accordance with the principles of the present invention. 
         [0038]    At step  302 , information regarding an employee or group of employees may be considered for receiving additional benefits. Information on group or individual attributes, such as income level or general health, along with available products for such groups may be may be obtained and entered into a database, etc. An analysis of such information using known techniques may determine which employee or groups of employees may benefit from the present invention, and therefore should be approached to participate. 
         [0039]    At step  304 , information on the employee group and/or group members, such as personal information relating to health information may be obtained by having each employee fill out relevant insurance related documents, and entered into a database, etc. Some or all of this information may already be present in an existing employer database. In this case, the existing database may be used as the basis for performing the following steps. 
         [0040]    Next, at step  306 , this information is evaluated to develop a view on life expectancy of the group members. Based on the database information and life expectancy, a group of potential participants may be selected in view of one or more initial screening factors such as age, health, etc. to obtain a group for which the arrangement described herein may succeed. 
         [0041]    For participants that satisfy the transaction criteria, possible insurance/financing combinations are created and analyzed to determine optimal insurance/financing arrangement (step  308 ). This may include consideration of several different life insurance factors such as policy amount, premiums, mortality, and life expectancy. This information may be obtained from one or more life insurance companies such as Northwestern Mutual or AXA (e.g., through online policy illustrations or may be quoted or customized on request). Financing component considerations may include, for example, interest rates, swaps, capital market requirements, cash flow, securities holder payment terms, etc. and may be available online or may be quoted or customized on request from various financing concerns such as Morgan Stanley. Once optimal insurance/financing combinations are formed, optimal insurance/financing is sourced (step  310 ), potentially with the help of insurance agents and/or financial intermediaries such as Morgan Stanley. 
         [0042]    Next at step  312 , once individual insureds and insurance/financing combinations are optimized and arranged, the transaction is documented as appropriate and executed. This may involve the use of one or more application programs in generating the transaction documents complete with relevant financial and demographic information. Following step  312 , at step  314 , certain communications with involved parties may occur (e.g., may be generated substantially automatically and may be completed by one or more application programs). These may include communicating with the employer, employee group, insurance carriers, financing providers, and carrying out any of the other tasks as described herein in connection with described inventions. Such communication at step  314  may further include one or more of the payout activities described in conjunction with  FIG. 2  herein. 
         [0043]    An embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer-readable medium having computer code thereon for performing various computer-implemented operations. The computer-readable media and computer code may be those specially designed and constructed for the purposes of the present invention, or they may be of the kind well known and available to those having skill in the computer software arts. 
         [0044]    Examples of computer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and holographic devices; magneto-optical media such as optical disks; and hardware devices that are specially configured to store and execute program code, such as application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), programmable logic devices (“PLDs”) and ROM and RAM devices. Examples of computer code include machine code, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-level code that are executed by a computer using an interpreter. For example, an embodiment of the invention may be implemented using XML, JavaScript, C, C++, or other scripting, markup and/or programming languages and development tools. Another embodiment of the invention may be implemented in hardwired circuitry in place of, or in combination with, machine-executable software instructions. 
         [0045]    As will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing disclosure, many alterations and modifications are possible in the practice of this invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is to be construed in accordance with the substance defined by the following claims.