Patents by Inventor Bret Benham

Bret Benham has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8271301
    Abstract: This disclosure details the implementation of methods for providing a permanent life insurance policy, such as a universal life or variable universal life insurance policy, that may provide a level cost of insurance and may be marketed to clients of an asset manager. A need exists for a life insurance policy that provides level cost of insurance rates for a specific duration, while providing a death benefit and a cash value. The instant invention provides a method and an insurance policy that addresses these and other issues. In some embodiments, the level cost of insurance rate for a universal or variable universal life insurance policy may be provided for a fixed period of time and determined based on the corresponding cost of insurance rate for a comparable term life insurance policy having a term substantially similar to that fixed period of time. In further embodiments, the asset manager may receive compensation for advising the client based on the total value of assets in the insurance policy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association
    Inventors: Craig K. Nordyke, Bret Benham
  • Publication number: 20050234821
    Abstract: A method for administering an annuity-based retirement funding in which an investor's funds or current income is used to make incremental purchases of immediate annuity benefits at market rates, with the annuity payments received from previous purchases being applied purchase additional annuity benefits. The investor allocates a first allocated portion of each received benefit into an account and the reinvested funds are thereafter available in combination with new investment payments from the investor for the purchase of additional immediate annuity benefits. At the direction of the investor, typically after retirement, all or part of the received annuity payments can be received for the use of the investor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2005
    Publication date: October 20, 2005
    Applicant: Retirement Engineering, Inc.
    Inventors: Bret Benham, James Williams, Francois Gadenne