Integrated Investment and Insurance Accounts

Abstract

The techniques disclosed herein generally relate to providing insurance via an integrated investment and insurance account. An integrated account may have an owner, and may include an investment vehicle portion and an insurance policy portion. The investment vehicle portion may include or be associated with one or more investment vehicles via which the account owner may invest money and, based on the invested funds, the insurance policy portion may provide insurance for which the account owner is designated as the insured party. Premiums for the insurance policy portion may be borne by the operating expenses of the investment vehicle portion. Additionally, a payout or benefit amount of the insurance provided by such integrated accounts may be based on the value of accumulated assets under management of the investment vehicle portion at the time of the payout.

1 . An integrated account provider system, the system comprising:
 a communication interface configured to communicatively couple the system to a communications network;   a processor; and   a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
 establish an investment vehicle portion in an integrated account on a data storage device via a first link to the communications network, the investment vehicle portion including an indication of an amount of funds invested by an owner of the integrated account in one or more investment vehicles, an indication of an operating expense assessed on at least a part of the amount of funds, and an indication of a premium of an insurance policy portion, the one or more investment vehicles having one or more beneficiaries who are designated to receive total assets under management (AUM) of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of death of the owner, wherein a value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles is based in part upon market values of the one or more investment vehicles, 
   establish the insurance policy portion of the integrated account, the insurance policy portion including an indication that an amount of the payout of the at least one of one or more insurance policies is based on a value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of the payout, the insurance policy portion corresponding to one or more insurance policies each having the owner of the integrated account designated as an insured party, and funds for a payout of at least one of the one or more insurance policies being provided from funds other than the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles,   cause at least a portion of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds to be paid towards a premium of the at least one of the one or more insurance policies, thereby providing insurance for the owner,   receive, at a user interface of the system via a second link to the communications network, one or more indications of at least one of a change to the one or more insurance policies from an insurance policy computing system, or receive via a third link to the communications network one or more indications of a change to the one or more investment vehicles from an investment vehicle computing system, and   trigger, in response to the one or more indications, one or more changes of the plurality of the entries stored in the data storage device via an application programming interface, the one or more of the plurality of entries updated based on the received one or more indications.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more investment vehicles include at least one of a mutual fund, a certificate of deposit, a savings account, a checking account, an exchange-traded fund, a brokerage account, an investment management account, or an interest bearing vehicle, and wherein the at least one of the one or more insurance policies further include another type of insurance policy having the account owner designated as the insured party. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the operating expense is at least one of (i) a fixed monetary amount, or (ii) a percentage of the total AUM at least one investment vehicle included in the one or more investment vehicles. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the operating expense is assessed periodically. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more investment vehicles exclude at least one of a tax-deferred investment vehicle or an annuity. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one of the one or more insurance policies corresponding to the integrated account and designating the account owner as the insured party has been approved by an underwriting process that is a subset of an underwriting process for a stand-alone insurance policy that designates the account owner as the insured party and that provides a same type of insurance as provided by the at least one of the one or more insurance policies. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the amount of the payout of the at least one of the one or more insurance policies at the time of the payout comprises at least one of an entirety of the value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at the time of the payout, a predetermined percentage of the value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at the time of the payout, a fixed, predetermined amount, an amount within a range of a predetermined minimum amount and a predetermined maximum amount, or a value of total AUM of a particular investment vehicle included in the one or more investment vehicles at the time of the payout. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more investment vehicles comprise multiple investment vehicles, or the at least one of the one or more insurance policies comprises multiple insurance policies. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising accessing on the data storage device at least one of:
 an indication of a total current balance of the one or more investment vehicles;   an indication of a current balance of at least one of the one or more investment vehicles;   an indication of another parameter of the one or more investment vehicles;   an indication of a type of insurance provided by the insurance policy;   an indication of an amount of the premium of the insurance policy; or   an indication of another parameter of the insurance policy.   
     
     
         10 . A method to provide integrated insurance and investment accounts, the method comprising:
 establishing an investment vehicle portion in an integrated account on a data storage device via a first link to the communications network, the investment vehicle portion including an indication of an amount of funds invested by an owner of the integrated account in one or more investment vehicles, an indication of an operating expense assessed on at least a part of the amount of funds, and an indication of a premium of an insurance policy portion, the one or more investment vehicles having one or more beneficiaries who are designated to receive total assets under management (AUM) of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of death of the owner, wherein a value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles is based in part upon market values of the one or more investment vehicles,   establishing the insurance policy portion of the integrated account, the insurance policy portion including an indication that an amount of the payout of the at least one of one or more insurance policies is to be determined based on a value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at a time of the payout, the insurance policy portion corresponding to one or more insurance policies each having the owner of the integrated account designated as an insured party, and funds for a payout of at least one of the one or more insurance policies being provided from funds other than the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles,   causing at least a portion of the operating expense assessed on the at least the part of the amount of funds to be paid towards a premium of the at least one of the one or more insurance policies, thereby providing insurance for the owner,   receiving, at a user interface of the system via a second link to the communications network, one or more indications of at least one of a change to the one or more insurance policies from an insurance policy computing system, or receive via a third link to the communications network one or more indications of a change to the one or more investment vehicles from an investment vehicle computing system, and   triggering, in response to the one or more indications, one or more changes of the plurality of the entries stored in the data storage device via an application programming interface, the one or more of the plurality of entries updated based on the received one or more indications   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more investment vehicles include at least one of a mutual fund, a certificate of deposit, a savings account, a checking account, an exchange-traded fund, a brokerage account, an investment management account, or an interest bearing vehicle, and wherein the at least one of the one or more insurance policies further include another type of insurance policy having the account owner designated as the insured party. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the operating expense is at least one of a fixed monetary amount, or a percentage of the total AUM at least one investment vehicle included in the one or more investment vehicles. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein at least a portion of the operating expense is assessed periodically. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the at least one of the one or more insurance policies corresponding to the integrated account and designating the account owner as the insured party has been approved by an underwriting process that is a subset of an underwriting process for a stand-alone insurance policy that designates the account owner as the insured party and that provides a same type of insurance as provided by the at least one of the one or more insurance policies. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the amount of the payout of the at least one of the one or more insurance policies at the time of the payout comprises at least one of an entirety of the value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at the time of the payout, a predetermined percentage of the value of the total AUM of the one or more investment vehicles at the time of the payout, a fixed, predetermined amount, an amount within a range of a predetermined minimum amount and a predetermined maximum amount, or a value of total AUM of a particular investment vehicle included in the one or more investment vehicles at the time of the payout. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein at least one of the one or more investment vehicles comprise multiple investment vehicles, or the at least one of the one or more insurance policies comprises multiple insurance policies. 
     
     
         17 . A method for providing insurance via an integrated investment and insurance account, the method comprising:
 augmenting an established investment account with an application for an insurance policy to generate an integrated investment and insurance account, wherein the established investment account is opened by an account owner and has an operating expense, wherein the account owner is designated as an insured party of the insurance policy, and wherein an amount of a payout of the insurance policy is to be based on a value of total assets under management (AUM) of the established investment account at a time of the payout, wherein the value of the total AUM of the established investment account is based in part upon market values of one or more underlying investment vehicles;   causing an underwriting process to be performed on the application for the insurance policy, the underwriting process being a subset of an underwriting process designated to be performed for an application for a stand-alone insurance policy that does not augment any investment account of the account owner;   receiving an approval from the underwriting process performed on the application of the insurance policy;   based on the approval, including the approved insurance policy in the integrated investment and insurance account; and   causing at least a portion of monies received in response to an assessment of the operating expense on the established investment account to be paid towards a premium of the insurance policy, thereby providing insurance to the account owner.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein
 the one or more investment vehicles include at least one of a mutual fund, a certificate of deposit, a savings account, a checking account, an exchange-traded fund, a brokerage account, an investment management account, or an interest bearing vehicle, and   the insurance policy is at least one of a life insurance policy, a disability insurance policy, a long-term care insurance policy, a personal liability insurance policy, a personal umbrella insurance policy, or another type of insurance policy for which the owner of the established investment account is designated as the insured party.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the operating expense of the one or more investment vehicles includes at least one of a fixed monetary amount or a percentage of the total AUM of at least one of the one or more investment vehicles. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the payout of the insurance policy comprises at least one of:
 a predetermined percentage of the value of the AUM of the established investment account at the time of the payout;   a predetermined monetary amount;   an amount within a range of a predetermined minimum monetary amount and a predetermined maximum monetary amount; or   a value of the total AUM of a particular investment vehicle included in one or more investment vehicles associated with the established investment account at the time of the payout.