WO2018016658A1

WO2018016658A1 - System and method of administering insurance scheme

Info

Publication number: WO2018016658A1
Application number: PCT/KE2017/000048
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mukesh Yatin MEHTA
Original assignee: Mehta Mukesh Yatin
Priority date: 2016-07-19
Filing date: 2017-02-01
Publication date: 2018-01-25
Also published as: BR112019001122A2

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and a method of administering insurance scheme to provide free of charge insurance to customers upon the customers purchasing of goods or procuring services from participating vendors. The system comprises of a server with one or more processors and a computer readable storage media with one or more programme instructions stored in the computer readable media where in response to the to receiving records of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or services from participating vendors, the customer is provided with a free of charge insurance, by utilizing part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees or customer's discount as premium for the insurance.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ADMINISTERING INSURANCE

SCHEME

The invention relates to a system and a method of administering an insurance scheme, and in particular to a system and method of administering an insurance scheme to provide free of charge insurance to customers upon the customers purchasing goods or procuring services from participating vendors whereby the free of charge insurance is provided by crediting part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees or customers discount as premium for the insurance.

BACK GROUND OF THE INVENTION

In many countries, especially developing countries, insurance services remain very low to the majority of people due to varied reasons such as high premiums charged by insurance companies, lack of understanding of the benefits of one having an insurance cover. The situation is compounded by the high upsurge of lifestyle and non-communicable diseases in many parts of the world, a situation that has left many people unable to meet the high cost of medical services, especially in situations where people mainly rely on meeting such expenses out of pocket.

In order for a person to be insured, the person is required to pay periodic premium to an insurance company in exchange for the insurer's undertaking to compensate the insured in the event of a covered loss. Normally the insurance policy runs for a specified period of time during which the insured person is required to pay premiums or else the policy lapses. The insured person receives an insurance policy or contract, which details the conditions and circumstances under which the insured will be financially compensated.

The sum assured is the financial value disbursable to the insured person or policyholder and is a fixed value, based on the agreed premiums that are paid in advance or periodically.

Many systems of administering insurance schemes are known in the art. For example, US4831526 relates to computerized insurance system for processing and preparing applications for insurance and premium quotations and for preparing and writing insurance contracts.

US20030236686 relates to a system for calculating insurance premium in consideration of factors other than the distance covered and the number of workdays of an automobile.

US8271299 relates to a method for offering a multi-term insurance product with a return-of-premium benefit utilizing a computer.

US20130124230 relates to a method for maintaining an account for a life insurance policy, including determining an amount to apply to the account and increasing at least a portion of the account by the amount. There is therefore a need for a system of providing inexpensive insurance to as many people as possible and a system that would enable people to meet expenses in the event of a loss or in accessing medical services.

OBJECTIVES OF INVENTION

One objective of the present invention is to extend insurance services to a high number of people who otherwise would not be able to afford to pay insurance premiums.

Another objective is of the invention is to provide a system and a method of providing customers with insurance at no extra cost other than the normal costs incurred when the customers purchase goods or procure services from participating vendors.

Another objective is to provide a system for providing an insurance scheme with flexible sum assured in which the sum assured is varied depending on a customer's accumulated purchases over a set period to the extent that the insurance cover does not lapse so long as the insured person is purchasing goods or services.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is banking on the growth of the electronic payment systems to provide a system and method of generating insurance premiums from commissions or transaction fees due to vendor of goods and services and in particular with regard to airtime vendors and retail outlets. The system requires a vendor participating in the insurance scheme to submit details of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or procure services from the vendor. The vendor commits part of the commission or transaction fees earned from such transactions as premium for the insurance, which is processed in accordance with a method of the present invention for the benefit of the customer.

The invention thus provides an administration system for an insurance scheme comprising:

a server comprising of one or more processors;

a computer readable storage media;

wherein one or more programme instructions is stored in the computer readable storage media, the one or more programme instructions when executed in the server, causes the system to:

receive records of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or services from participating vendors, whereby the

participating vendors are entitled to receive a commission or transaction fees as a result of the sale of goods or services;

determine from the records of purchase transactions received the identity of each customer, the vendor and the amount associated with each transaction, determine whether the purchase transaction is a first or a subsequent transaction for the customer in the insurance scheme and thereof register the customer in the insurance scheme upon determining that it is a first transaction; and to issue a free of charge insurance to the customer wherein the free of charge insurance is issued by crediting part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees as the premium for the insurance. The system determines, based on the customer's transaction amount, the amount of premium and the corresponding sum assured to be credited to the customer's insurance. The system provides an insurance scheme with a flexible sum assured that varied upwards or down wards depending on whether the insured person exceeds, achieves, or does not achieve set purchase targets over a set period.

In particular, the sum assured is varied upwards if the customer surpasses the set purchase expenditure over a period. The sum assured is retained if the customer achieves or maintains the set purchase expenditure over the period while the sum assured is downgraded if the customer does not meet the set target.

The present invention further provides a system that enables the insured person to add other persons to form a group of beneficiaries who apart from being beneficiaries also contribute to the insurance scheme when they individually and collectively make purchases from participating vendors. The sum assured of the group is also varied according to the periodic contribution of the group members when they make purchases.

The invention further provides a method of administering an insurance scheme, the method including the steps of:

receiving records of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or services from participating vendors, whereby the participating vendors are entitled to receive a commission or transaction fees as a result of the sale of goods or services or where the goods and services are sold to customers with a discount;

determining based on the records of purchase transactions, the identity of each customer, the vendor and the amount associated with each customer's transaction;

determining whether the purchase transaction is a first or a subsequent transaction for the customer in the insurance scheme and registering the customer in the insurance scheme upon determining that it is a first transaction; and

issuing a free of charge insurance to the customer where the free of charge insurance is issued by crediting part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees as the premium for the insurance.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a general schematic drawing illustrating the interaction between customers, participating vendors and insurance scheme administration system; Figure 2 is a schematic drawing illustrating the interaction between mobile network subscribers, airtime vendors and insurance scheme administration system;

Figure 3 is further schematic drawing illustrating the interaction between customers, the vendors and the insurance scheme administration system;

Figure 4 is table illustrating an example of criteria for dynamically enhancing or increasing the sum assured based on purchases made over a set period. A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in detail herein, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Detailed description of the invention

All terms used throughout the description and claims should be given their ordinary meaning. However, for purposes of clarity the following terms should be understood as defined below:

A "participating vendor" is a vendor who has subscribed to participate in the insurance scheme implemented by the present invention by submitting to the administration system of the present invention records of purchase transactions of eligible customers.

An "eligible customer" is a customer who purchases goods or service from a participating vendor and who can be identified by the participating vendor's system by some form of identification, including their mobile telephone number, credit card, debit card, loyalty card and the like.

"Insured person" means a customer or a person who is already enrolled in the insurance scheme of the invention. A "database" is any structured and organized collection of data. One database may contain a plurality of other databases and a plurality of database may be combined into one database. A database may be accessed through a communication network, but the physical location of the database is not critical.

Reference to debit or credit cards include credit, debit and prepaid cards, and include physical cards and electronic payment systems that mimic physical cards.

As illustrated in Figs 1, 2 and 3, there is provided an insurance administration system (10) comprising of a server (20), the server comprising of one or more processors (21); computer readable storage media (22) as well one or more databases (23) necessary for operation of the system of the invention.

The computer readable storage media (22) has one or more programme instructions stored therein, which when executed causes the system to process and issues free of charge insurance (24) to customers (15). In particular the one or more programme instructions when executed in the server, causes the system in general to perform the following:

The system (10) receives records of purchase transactions (31) made when customers (15) purchase goods or services from participating vendors (30). Relevantly, the participating vendors (30) are vendors who are entitled to receive commissions or transaction fees as a result of the sale of goods or services. For example, the participating vendors (30) may earn the commission or transaction fees as a result of agreements with third parties on whose behalf they sell the goods or perform certain services. Examples of transactions in which participating vendors earn commissions include sale of airtime on behalf of mobile network operators (MNO) (17). The participating vendors may also be vendors who provide discounts to customers when the customers purchase goods or services that qualify for award of a discount. The discount amount or part thereof is then utilized as an insurance premium for the benefit of the customer. Examples of discounts include "cash back" discount where the customer pays the full purchase amount and the discount is credited to the customer's account. Another example of a discount is where customers pay for goods or service less the discounted amount.

The vendors may submit the transaction records in hard copies or by electronic means, which is the preferred method of the invention. This may be done for example by way of integrating a vendor's system with the system of the present invention.

The participating vendors may also submit their transaction records in response to receiving invoices from the administrator of the present administration system, who may be an insurance provider or a third party working in partnership with the insurance provider. The invoices would for example provide details of customers who are enrolled in the insurance scheme by virtue of having previous purchased goods or procured services from other participating vendors. From the records of the purchase transactions, the system (10) determines the identity of each customer (15), the participating vendor (30) and the amount associated with each transaction. The system (10) further determines whether the purchase transaction (31) is a first or a subsequent transaction for the customer (15) in the insurance scheme. Upon determining that it is a first transaction, the customer (15) is registered in the insurance scheme and is then issued with a free of charge insurance (24). The free of charge insurance (24) is issued by utilizing and crediting part of the participating vendor's commission or transaction fees or customer's discount as the premium for the insurance.

In addition to determining the amount associated with each transaction the system (10) determines or computes the amount of premium and the corresponding sum assured to be credited to the customer's insurance. Where the purchase transaction is determined to be a subsequent transaction the system updates the customer's insurance record in accordance with further aspects of the present invention.

The system (10) further analyses from the records of subsequent purchase transactions whether the customer (15) has achieved, surpassed or not achieved a set purchase target within a set period. The set period is may be weekly, monthly, yearly but preferably, the set period is monthly. Depending on the outcome of the analysis carried out within the set period, the system varies or adjusts the sum assured according to a set criteria. The set criteria comprises the following: increasing the customer's sum assured where the purchase target is surpassed; retaining the sum assured where the purchase target is achieved and decreasing the sum assured where the set target is not achieved.

For purposes of varying the sum assured, the insurance scheme is implemented with graduated ranges of the sum assured as illustrated for example in Fig. 4. The set criteria thus further comprises a graduated range of sum assured with each range of sum assured corresponding to the set purchase targets.

The system is configured so that when the one or more programme instructions are executed, the system adds other persons to an insured person's insurance to form a group of beneficiaries and contributors. The system is also configured to vary the sum assured of the group according to the set criteria based on individual and cumulative purchases of the group members. The system is configured to vary the group dynamics. For example, the insured person can remove members from the group, and such members then cease to be beneficiaries or contributors of the scheme. Other dynamics that can be varied include the percentage of the sum assured that each group member is entitled to receive.

In a preferred embodiment of the system as illustrated in Fig. 2, the customer is a subscriber (15) of a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) (17) of which the MNO operates a subscription based mobile network system (18). The participating vendor (30) is a vendor of airtime who is entitled to receive a commission from the MNO (17) on account of the airtime sold to subscribers. Preferably, the participating vendor is a vendor who sells or distributes bulk airtime on behalf of the MNO (17). The subscriber (15) purchases airtime for their mobile device (16) through any of a plurality of payment channels that are operatively in communication with the vendor's one or more servers. The vendor's server are configured to receive and process payments from subscribers.

The payment channels include Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code, payment systems through mobile devices, an app running on the subscriber's mobile device, and the vendor's website (14) that is configured to receive payments by debit or credit cards. The importance of these types of payment channels is that subscribers can be identified or their identities can extracted from the records of their purchase transactions.

The customers can for example be identified based on their telephone numbers, credit or debit card numbers. The insurance is then associated with the mobile phone number, credit or debit card number of the customer. The association allows the system to easily determine from subsequent transaction records whether the customer is already enrolled in the insurance scheme and to aggregate a customer's transactions from different payment channels into the same insurance cover.

The purchase transaction records are transmitted from the vendor's system and are received by the administration system (10), at which point the system processes the transaction records and issues a free of a charge insurance (24). In another embodiment as illustrated in Fig. 3, the participating vendor (300) is a vendor of goods or a provider of services and the customer (15) is a customer who purchases goods or procures services from the participating vendor (300) preferably using a credit or debit cards (116) of which the vendor is entitled to receive or charge transaction fees in relation to the use of the credit or debit card. In an embodiment, the participating vendor may also offer goods or provide services to customers at a discount.

An example of participating vendors (300) in this case would be retail outlets and supermarkets that are entitled to charge transaction fees when customers purchase goods or pay for services using credit cards, debit cards or mobile money transfer services operated by MNO. Examples of such mobile money services include Mpesa®, Airtelmoney®, Youcash®, ZAP® money transfer systems operated by their respective MNOs in Kenya, as well as similar systems in other countries.

The participating vendor (300) may also operate a website (114) through which customers can purchase goods by credit cards or mobile money transfer services.

The system is further configured to communicate to the customer details of their insurance including the insurance policy number, the sum assured and inviting them to submit any additional details including selecting the preferred type of insurance policy such as medical, life, education and the like. The communication may be effected by way of a webserver implemented as part of the system of the present invention or through the MNO mobile communication network to the customer's mobile device or through a suitable app installed in the customer's mobile device for purposes of implementing the present invention.

In addition to receiving records of purchase transactions from participating vendors, the system is further configured to receive direct payments from insured persons to allow enhancement of the sum assured. In particular, this would allow insured persons to raise the sum assured to a desired level by paying ("topping up") additional fees as may be provided.

In a further aspect, the set criteria may comprise the insured persons or group members paying fees in order to raise or enhance the sum assured. Such payments may be made by the same methods used for payment of goods or services. The system would process the payments in the same way as if it was with respect to purchase of goods.

In another embedment, invention also relates a method for administering an insurance scheme, the method comprising:

receiving records of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or services from participating vendors, whereby the participating vendors are entitled to receive a commission or transaction fees as a result of the sale of goods or services or the participating vendors offer goods or services to customers at a discount ;

determining based on the records of purchase transactions, the identity of each customer, the vendor and the amount associated with each customer's transaction; determining whether the purchase transaction is a first or a subsequent transaction for the customer in the insurance scheme and registering the customer in the insurance scheme upon determining that it is a first transaction; issuing a free of charge insurance to the customer where the free of charge insurance is issued by crediting part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees as the premium for the insurance.

The method further comprises determining based on the customer's transaction amount, the premium and the corresponding sum assured to be credited to the customer's insurance.

The method further comprises determining from the records of subsequent purchase transactions whether the customer has achieved, surpassed or not achieved a set purchase target within a set period and thereof varying the sum assured according to a set criteria. The set criteria comprises increasing the customer's sum assured where the purchase target is surpassed, retaining the sum assured where the purchase target is achieved and decreasing the sum assured where the set target is not achieved.

The method further comprises adding other persons to an insured person's insurance to form a group of beneficiaries and contributors and varying the sum assured of the group according to the set criteria based on individual and cumulative purchases of the group members.

The method further comprises communicating to the customer details of the insurance, including the insurance policy number, the sum assured and inviting them to submit any additional requirements including selecting the preferred type of insurance policy such as medical, life, education and the like.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that certain modifications and variations may be made to the described embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

For example, it will be appreciated that the system and method of the present invention may be integrated with other insurance management system or it may be implemented as an integrated insurance management system that is provided with other management tools and modules such as product management, underwriting management, policy and membership management, policy endorsement management, refund management, preauthorization management, claim management, accounting integration management.

Claims

1. An administration system for an insurance scheme comprising:

a server comprising of one or more processors;

a computer readable storage media;

one or more programme instructions stored in the computer readable storage media, the one or more programme instructions when executed in the server, causing the system to:

receive records of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or services from participating vendors, whereby the participating vendors are entitled to receive a commission or transaction fees as a result of the sale of goods or services or the participating vendors sell goods or provide services to customers at a discount;

determine from the records of purchase transactions received the identity of each customer, the vendor and the amount associated with each transaction,

determine whether the purchase transaction is a first or a subsequent transaction for the customer in the insurance scheme and thereof register the customer in the insurance scheme upon determining that it is a first transaction; and issue a free of charge insurance to the customer wherein the free of charge insurance is issued by crediting part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees or discount amount as the premium for the insurance.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein when the one or more programme instructions are executed causes the one or more processors to determine, based on the customer's transaction amount, the amount of premium and the corresponding sum assured to be credited to the customer's insurance.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein when the one or more programme instructions are executed causes the one or more processors to determine, from the records of subsequent purchase transactions whether the customer has achieved, surpassed or not achieved a set purchase target within a set period and thereof varying the sum assured according to a set criteria

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the set criteria comprises increasing the customers sum assured where the purchase target is surpassed, retaining the sum assured where the purchase target is achieved and decreasing the sum assured where the set target is not achieved.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the set criteria further comprises a graduated range of sum assured with each range of sum assured corresponding to the set purchase targets.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein when the one or more programme instructions are executed causes the one or more processors to add other persons to an insured person's insurance so as to form a group of beneficiaries and contributors and wherein system varies the sum assured of the group according to the set criteria based on individual and cumulative purchases of the group members.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the customer is a subscriber of a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and the participating vendor is a vendor of airtime who is entitled to receive a commission from the MNO on account of the airtime sold to subscribers.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the subscriber purchases airtime through any of a plurality of payment channels that are operatively in communication with the vendor's one or more servers that are configured to receive and process payments from subscribers.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the payment channels are selected from a group comprising of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code, payment systems through mobile devices, an app running on the subscribers mobile device, and the vendor's website that is configured to receive payments by debit or credit cards.

The system of claim 1 wherein the customers are identified based on their telephone numbers, credit or debit card numbers and wherein their insurance is associated with their mobile phone number, credit or debit card number.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the participating vendor is a vendor of goods or services and the customer is a customer who purchases goods or services from the participating vendor preferably using a credit or debit card of which the vendor is entitled to receive transaction fees in relation to the use of the credit or debit card.

12. The system of claim 1 further comprising means of communicating to the customer details of the insurance, including the insurance policy number, the sum assured and inviting them to submit any additional requirements including selecting the preferred type of insurance policy such as medical, life, education and the like.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the set criteria comprises the insured person paying fees in order to increase the sum assured.

14. The system of claim 3 wherein the set period is weekly, monthly, yearly and preferably monthly.

15. A method for administering an insurance scheme, the method comprising:

receiving records of purchase transactions made when customers purchase goods or services from participating vendors, whereby the participating vendors are entitled to receive a commission or transaction fees as a result of the sale of goods or services or where the participating vendors sell goods or provide services to customers at a discount;

determining whether the purchase transaction is a first or a subsequent transaction for the customer in the insurance scheme and registering the customer in the insurance scheme upon determining that it is a first transaction;

issuing a free of charge insurance to the customer where the free of charge insurance is issued by crediting part of the vendor's commission or transaction fees or the customer's discount as the premium for the insurance.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising determining based on the customer's transaction amount, the premium and the corresponding sum assured to be credited to the customer's insurance.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising determining from the records of subsequent purchase transactions whether the customer has achieved, surpassed or not achieved a set purchase target within a set period and thereof varying the sum assured according to a set criteria.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the set criteria comprises increasing the customer's sum assured where the purchase target is surpassed, retaining the sum assured where the purchase target is achieved and decreasing the sum assured where the set target is not achieved.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the set criteria comprises of a graduated range of sum assured where the set purchase target corresponds to each range of sum assured.

20. The method of claims any of the above claims further comprising adding other persons to an insured person's insurance so as to form a group of beneficiaries and contributors and varying the sum assured of the group according to the set criteria based on individual and cumulative purchases of the group members.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the customer is a subscriber of a Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and the participating vendor is a vendor of airtime who is entitled to receive a commission from the MNO on account of the airtime sold to subscribers.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the subscriber purchases airtime through any of a plurality of payment channels that are operatively in communication with the participating vendor's one or more servers that are configured to receive and process payments from subscribers.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the payment channels are selected from a group comprising of Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code, payment systems through mobile devices, an app running on the subscribers mobile device, and the vendor's website that is configured to receive payments by debit or credit cards.

24. The method of claim 15 wherein the customers are identified based on their telephone number, credit or debit card number and wherein the insurance is associated with the customer's mobile phone number, credit or debit card number.

25. The method of claim 15 wherein the participating vendor is a vendor of goods or services and the customer is a customer who purchases goods or services from the participating vendor preferably using a credit or debit card and of which the vendor is entitled to receive transaction fees in relation to the use of the credit or debit card.

26. The method of claim 15 further comprising communicating to the customer details of the insurance, including the insurance policy number, the sum assured and inviting them to submit any additional requirements including selecting the preferred type of insurance policy such as medical, life, education and the like.

27. The method of claim 17 wherein the set criteria comprises the insured person paying fees in order to increase the sum assured.

28. The method of claim 17 wherein the set period is weekly, monthly, yearly, and preferably monthly.

29. A computer readable storage media with one or more programme instructions stored therein, which when executed, cause a computer system to perform the method of any one of claims 16 to 28.

30. A computer system adapted to execute the method of any one of claims 16 to 28.