Patent ID: 7885831

Claim:
A method for use with a computer, comprising: providing in a computer memory an insurance product model comprising insurance policy metadata that includes: a plurality of policy patterns, and relationships between at least some of the plurality of policy patterns, wherein: the plurality of policy patterns include a risk unit pattern and a coverage term pattern; the relationships include a relationship between the risk unit pattern and the coverage term pattern; and the plurality of policy patterns and relationships between at least some of the plurality of policy patterns define a plurality of allowable combinations of policy elements associated with a policy product, the plurality of allowable combinations of policy elements including a plurality of allowable coverages, a plurality of allowable coverage terms associated with the plurality of allowable coverages, and a plurality of allowable coverage term values associated with the plurality of allowable coverage terms; substantively interpreting, in the computer, the insurance product model using the relationships between at least some of the plurality of policy patterns of the insurance product model to thereby facilitate obtaining supplemental policy-specific data, including: receiving, at the computer, information about a risk unit to be covered by a policy; determining, one or more available coverages associated with the risk unit, one or more available coverage terms associated with the one or more available coverages, and one or more available coverage term values associated with the one or more available coverage terms, the determination being based on the insurance product model, the risk unit pattern and the coverage term pattern of the insurance product model, and the relationship between the risk unit pattern and coverage term pattern; receiving, at the computer, a plurality of selections including a selected one of the one or more available coverages, a selected one of the one or more available coverage terms, and a selected one of the one or more available coverage term values; and constructing an insurance policy based on the plurality of selections.