CAN SOMEONE REALLY PATENT an annuity or life insurance product?Not exactly. But the U.S. Patent Office will grant a patent on a "business method," which is essentially a unique process that underlies a product.The good old days of observing the success of a competitor's annuity product--and getting a copy of that product to market quickly in order to share in that success--may be coming to an end. At a minimum, new wrinkles need to be carefully considered as part of the process.
Good Luck..!!!

I found this here:
http://www.google.com/patents?q=life+insurance&btnG=Search+Patents

When I think of life insurance company I don't necessarily think of patents. These are mostly patents from the U.S.

LIFE INSURANCE TABLE OR CHART
US Pat. 602035 - Filed Oct 7, 1897
UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. NATHAN P. NEAL, OF WAXAHACHIE, TEXAS. LIFE-INSURANCE
TABLE OR CHART. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. ...

LIFE INSURANCE COMPUTING PACKET
US Pat. 1314146 - Filed Jun 19, 1916
LIFE ... LIFE INSURANCE COMPUTING PACKET. APPLICATION FRED JUNE 19, 1916. ...

LIFE-INSURANCE POLICY
US Pat. 408686 - Filed Jul 2, 1888
LIFE ... LIFE INSURANCE POLICY. ...

Life insurance method, and system
US Pat. 5752236 - Filed Sep 2, 1994
PROCURE LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCT DATA SELECT BENEFIT, VALUE AND OBLIGATION AMOUNTS
FORM SEPARATE BUT RELATED POLICIES DIVIDE BENEFIT, VALUE AND OBLIGATION ...

IMPROVED TABLET, TOKEN, OR CHECK, TO BE USED IN LIFE INSURANCE
US Pat. 100638
The object of this invention is to lessen the labor of agents or officers of
life-insurance societies, and thus, by making possible small and frequent ...

System for managing hedged investments for life insurance companies
US Pat. 6049772 - Filed Dec 19, 1996 - FDI/Genesis
The life insurance policies or annuity contracts depend on stock market performance
in that the account value increase is determined as a percentage of the ...

Method for combining loan with key employee life insurance
US Pat. 5966693 - Filed May 7, 1996 - Money Accumulation Programs, Inc.
The employer borrows in installments to partly cover insurance premiums on a
policy owned by the employee, and pays interest on the loan for the life of the ...

INDUSTRIAL LIFE-INSURANCE PREMIUM COLLECTIONS AND THE LIKE
US Pat. 1486378 - Filed Mar 16, 1921
... DEVICE POR KEEPING ACCOUNT OF INDUSTRIAL LIFE INSURANCE PREMIUM COLLECTIONS'
AND THE LIKE Filed March 16. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Horry ...

LIFE-INSURANCE-POLICY TABLE-VALUE PKINTING-IN SYSTEM
US Pat. 1738911
LIFE ... LIFE INSURANCE POLICY TABLE VALUE ...

DEVICE FOR USE IN INDUSTRIAL LIFE INSURANCE SYSTEMS
US Pat. 1226277 - Filed Jul 3, 1916
... INSURANCE ... FF TAYLOR, DEVICE FOR USE [N INDUSTRIAL LIFE INSURANCE SYSTEMS.
APPLICATION FILED JULY 3, 1916. ...