Facilitating finance based on behavioral triggers

• US 10,346,905 B1
• Filed: 11/02/2016
• Issued: 07/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank NA (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Original Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank NA (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Inventors: Chang, Michael, Pearce, Brian M., Sanford, Daniel, Fisi, Suzanne, Chuprevich, John, Hill, Miranda C., Nguyen, Traci, Kalaboukis, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tien C
• Application Number:
  US15/341,343
• Time in Patent Office: 979 Days
• Field of Search: 705 31, 705 30, 705 38, 705 39, 705 40, 705 729, 705 725, 709224, 235379, 370412
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

Systems and methods for facilitating finance by monitoring behavior of users indicative of behavioral patterns or deviations from behavioral patterns and inviting users to make financial changes that may be appropriate based on the monitored behavior. In some embodiments, a minimum amount of relevant data must be collected to support the existence of a behavioral pattern or deviation before a user is invited to make appropriate changes to their finances.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating one or more financial actions, the system comprising:

a plurality of positioning devices, each respective positioning device of the plurality of positioning devices having a known location and a proximity sensor to track mobile devices based on proximity of the mobile devices to the respective positioning device;

at least one processor; and

memory encoding instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to;

monitor a user'"'"'s behavior over a period of time in connection with one or more predefined triggering events, the one or more predefined triggering events comprising a new behavior pattern or a deviation from a previous behavior pattern and being selected from;

personal relationship changes of the user;

employment changes of the user or a family member of the user or a person living with the user;

residence changes of the user or a family member of the user or a person living with the user;

new purchases that exceed a predefined threshold purchase amount; and

new purchases that require multiple payments over time, wherein monitoring the user'"'"'s behavior over the period of time in connection with the one or more predefined triggering events includes to;

collect a plurality of location data blocks over the period of time, each respective location data block storing the user'"'"'s physical location at a point in time based on monitoring the plurality of positioning devices to track a mobile device associated with the user over the period of time based on proximity of the mobile device associated with the user to one or more of the plurality of positioning devices; and

assign, to each respective location data block of the plurality of location data blocks, a respective relevance value indicating a predictive value of the respective location data block in connection with at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events;

infer, based on data collected from the monitoring, an occurrence of at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events responsive to a sum of relevance values of the plurality of location data blocks collected in connection with the at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events that meets or exceeds a predefined threshold relevance value;

notify the user of the at least one inferred triggering event;

invite the user to take one or more financial actions related to the at least one inferred triggering event; and

in response to a selection of the user to take at least one of the one or more financial actions, execute at least one of the one or more financial actions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein, before the invite, the instructions cause the at least one processor to generate one or more confirmation questions and process answers of the user to the one or more confirmation questions confirming or disconfirming the at least one inferred triggering event.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more financial actions are selected from:

changing information regarding one or more financial accounts of the user;

setting up automatic bill payments;

sharing bill payments; and

opening one or more financial accounts.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more financial actions the user is invited to take are determined partially based on information received from the user about the at least one inferred triggering event after the user is notified about the at least one inferred triggering event.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to identify a socioeconomic group associated with the user, and wherein the one or more financial actions the user is invited to take are determined partially based on financial actions taken by one or more people in the socioeconomic group other than the user.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the user'"'"'s behavior is monitored using one or more tracking devices selected from:

motion tracking devices;

web activity tracking devices;

spending tracking devices; and

social media tracking devices.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user'"'"'s behavior over the period of time in connection with the one or more predefined triggering events further includes to:

decrease a relevance value of at least one of the plurality of location data blocks over the period of time; and

adjust a relevance value of at least one of the plurality of location data blocks based on a repetition of the existence of the third location data block.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein monitoring the user'"'"'s behavior over the period of time in connection with the one or more predefined triggering events further includes to:

modify a relevance value of at least one of the plurality of location data blocks based on a new interaction by the user, thereby increasing the specificity of the second location data block.

9. A computer implemented method, comprising:

monitoring a user'"'"'s behavior over a period of time in connection with one or more predefined triggering events, the one or more predefined triggering events comprising a new behavior pattern or a deviation from a previous behavior pattern, the monitoring comprising;

collecting data blocks in connection with the one or more predefined triggering events, wherein each of the data blocks is assigned a relevance value between a negative number and a positive number, the relevance value indicating a predictive value of a data block in connection with at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events, wherein collecting the data blocks includes;

collecting a plurality of location data blocks over the period of time, each respective location data block of the plurality of location data blocks storing the user'"'"'s physical location at a point in time based on monitoring a plurality of positioning devices to track a mobile device associated with the user over the period of time based on proximity of the mobile device associated with the user to one or more of the plurality of positioning devices; and

assigning, to each respective location data block of the plurality of location data blocks, a respective relevance value indicating a predictive value of the respective location data block in connection with at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events;

inferring, based on the data blocks collected from the monitoring, an occurrence of at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events based on a sum of reference values of the data blocks meeting or exceeding a threshold;

notifying the user of the at least one inferred triggering event;

inviting the user to take one or more financial actions related to the at least one inferred triggering event; and

in response to a selection of the user to take at least one of the one or more financial actions, executing at least one of the one or more financial actions.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more predefined triggering events are selected from:

personal relationship changes of the user;

employment changes of the user or a family member of the user or a person living with the user;

residence changes of the user or a family member of the user or a person living with the user;

new purchases that exceed a predetermined threshold purchase amount; and

new purchases that require multiple payments over time.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the inferring occurs when a sum of relevance values of the data blocks collected in connection with a first of the at least one inferred triggering event meets or exceeds a predefined threshold relevance value for the first of the at least one triggering event.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

generating one or more confirmation questions; and

processing answers of the user to the one or more confirmation questions confirming or disconfirming the at least one inferred triggering event,

wherein the generating of the one or more confirmation questions and the processing of the answers are performed before the inviting.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more financial actions are selected from:

changing information regarding one or more financial accounts of the user;

setting up automatic bill payments;

sharing bill payments; and

opening one or more financial accounts.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more financial actions of the inviting step are determined partially based on information received from the user about the at least one inferred triggering event after the notifying step.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

identifying a socioeconomic group associated with the user,

wherein the one or more financial actions the user is invited to take are determined partially based on financial actions taken by one or more people in the socioeconomic group other than the user.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

monitor a user'"'"'s behavior over a period of time in connection with one or more predefined triggering events, the one or more predefined triggering events comprising a new behavior pattern or a deviation from a previous behavior pattern and being selected from;

personal relationship changes of the user;

employment changes of the user or a family member of the user or a person living with the user;

residence changes of the user or a family member of the user or a person living with the user;

new purchases that exceed a predefined threshold purchase amount; and

new purchases that require multiple payments over time, wherein monitoring the user'"'"'s behavior over the period of time in connection with the one or more predefined triggering events includes to;

collect a plurality of location data blocks over the period of time, each respective location data block of the plurality of location data blocks storing the user'"'"'s physical location at a respective point in time based on monitoring a plurality of positioning devices to track a mobile device associated with the user over the period of time based on proximity of the mobile device associated with the user to one or more of the plurality of positioning devices; and

assign, to each respective location data block, a respective relevance value indicating a predictive value of the respective location data block in connection with at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events;

infer, based on data collected from the monitoring, an occurrence of at least one of the one or more predefined triggering events;

notify the user of the at least one inferred triggering event;

invite the user to take one or more financial actions related to the at least one inferred triggering event; and

in response to a selection of the user to take at least one of the one or more financial actions, execute at least one of the one or more financial actions.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more financial actions are selected from:

changing information regarding one or more financial accounts of the user;

setting up automatic bill payments;

sharing bill payments; and

opening one or more financial accounts.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more financial actions the user is invited to take are determined partially based on information received from the user about the at least one inferred triggering event after the user is notified about the at least one inferred triggering event.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium of claim 16, wherein the relevance values have a value between a negative number and a positive number.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable data storage medium of claim 16, wherein the inferring of a first of the at least one triggering event occurs when a sum of relevance values of the data blocks collected in connection with the first of the at least one triggering event meets or exceeds a predefined threshold relevance value.