Patent ID: 7246070

Claim:
A computer based electronic method for determining and issuing an insurance policy comprising: providing a rider to a first insurance policy, a combination of the rider and the first insurance policy having a higher switching cost than the first insurance policy alone, the rider directed toward pet insurance; determining and presenting a set of premiums and deductibles for the rider by: identifying a class of pets to be insured; estimating a distribution of annual veterinary expenses for an average pet of a species of a class of pet to be insured based on a look-up table, the annual veterinary expenses optionally occurring within a first geographic region to pet owners in a first demographic categony or during a first time period; adding expected non-benefit related expenses to the distribution of annual veterinary expenses to be incurred by a first insurance company in order to provide the rider, the adding of the expected non-benefit related expenses yielding a set of average premiums versus deductibles, discounting a set of actual premiums by an amount governed by a vaccination frequency of the particular pet to be insured, the discounted set of actual premiums yielding a set of required premiums versus deductibles; and assembling and electronically presenting the set of required premiums versus deductibles to a potential customer of the rider; and issuing the insurance policy including the rider having a premium and a deductible.