Financial portfolio management system and method

• US 20020042764A1
• Filed: 06/15/2001
• Published: 04/11/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Morningstar Incorporated
• Original Assignee: By All Accounts.Com, Inc.
• Inventors: Dickau, Ellen L., Carney, James M., Gardner, L. Patrick, Dickau, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 7,640,200 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• 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

A financial portfolio management system operable in a network environment can be configured to gather financial information from a plurality of sources over an electronic network and intelligently aggregate the information into a financial portfolio viewable by a client. The client can determine which accounts should be included in the portfolio. The system uses web crawling, parsing, or spidering technology to update the portfolio information. The system provides one platform that conveys financial information from a variety of accounts held at several different financial institutions.

Claims

1. A financial portfolio management computer-implemented method for providing access to financial information of customers of financial institutions, the financial information being from a plurality of financial sources including a plurality of financial institutions, the method comprising the steps of:

gathering financial information associated with a client, the financial information being gathered from a plurality of financial sources, the plurality of financial sources including at least one financial institution, wherein the financial information is stored in at least one data format;

normalizing the financial information from a plurality of financial sources into a single normalized data format;

aggregating the financial information into a financial portfolio; and

conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of aggregating the financial information into a financial portfolio comprises integrating the financial information to establish relationships among the financial information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client comprises providing a display of graphical and textual information related to the information associated with the financial portfolio of the client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of gathering information associated with a client comprises communicating financial information associated with the client from the plurality of financial sources via a network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the network is the Internet and the communication of financial information uses a secure communication protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a communication from a client computer to initiate the step of conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the client computer is operatively connected to a network via a network browsing program, the network browsing program including an application which the client can engage to communicate a request to initiate the step of conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client comprises communicating the information to a browser operating on a client computer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client comprises communicating the information to a communication device for presentation by voice, text, or graphics.

11. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, further comprising means for receiving a communication from an application running on a client computer.

12. The financial portfolio management system of claim 9, wherein the communication from an application running on a client computer is a communication from an applet application running on a browser on the client computer.

13. The financial portfolio management system of claim 9, wherein the communication includes information regarding client identification.

14. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, wherein the means for gathering client-specific financial information gathers information automatically at intervals determined by a system configuration or at a specific time when requested by the client.

15. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, wherein the means for gathering client-specific financial information includes at least one of web crawling, parsing, and spidering technology.

16. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, wherein the means for conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client includes receiving a request from the client as to the information to convey.

17. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, wherein the means for intelligently aggregating the financial information into a financial portfolio includes means for integrating the financial information to establish relationships among the financial information.

18. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, further comprising means for calculating a value, including multiplying a price by a given number of shares of a stock or mutual fund to calculate the total value of an investment by a client in the stock or mutual fund.

19. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, wherein the means for converting the financial information into a single data format comprises a data parser.

20. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, further comprising an alert generator, wherein the alert generator conveys an alert message to the client when a client-defined condition is satisfied.

21. The financial portfolio management system of claim 8, further comprising means for encrypting financial information and portfolio information.

23. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for presenting asset allocation of a client.

24. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for presenting a return on investment associated with the financial account information with at least one of a plurality of financial institutions.

25. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for providing alert messages generated when a user-defined condition is satisfied.

26. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for presenting net worth of a user.

27. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for presenting historical information for at least one of a plurality of financial securities.

28. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for requesting an update of financial account and security price information.

29. The user interface of claim 20, further comprising means for aggregating financial information from a plurality of financial accounts into at least one financial portfolio.

10. A financial portfolio management system operable in a network environment, the system comprising:

means for gathering client-specific electronic financial information from a plurality of sources over an electronic network, wherein the financial information is stored in at least one of a plurality of data formats and the financial information is associated with a client;

means for normalizing the client-specific financial information into a single normalized data format;

means for intelligently aggregating the client-specific financial information into a financial portfolio; and

means for conveying information associated with the financial portfolio to the client.

22. A user interface configured to allow a user to view and modify financial portfolio information gathered from a plurality of financial sources, the plurality of financial sources including a plurality of unrelated financial institutions, the user interface comprising:

means for presenting financial account information of a client, the financial account information being associated with at least one of a plurality of financial institutions;

means for presenting information for at least one of a plurality of financial securities; and

means for presenting a value from the financial account information with at least one of a plurality of financial institutions.

30. A method of enabling access to financial information over a network, a method comprising:

using a first processing system to maintain a financial information processing unit, the financial information processing unit for receiving and processing requests for financial information associated with a number of unrelated financial institutions;

receiving a signal for invoking the financial information processing unit from a remote processing system via a network, the signal having been transmitted from the remote processing system in response to a selection of a hypermedia link; and

using the first processing system to operate the financial information processing unit in response to the signal.

31. In a local processing system, a method of enabling access to financial information over a network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a first remote processing system via a network, the request having been generated by the first remote processing system according to a hypermedia link provided to the first remote processing system from a separate processing system on the network; and

in response to receiving the request, transmitting to the first remote processing system over the network information for enabling the first remote processing system to output a financial information interface to a user, the financial information interface including financial information for a number of financial institutions, the financial information interface being configured to enable the user to request specific financial information for a financial institution.

32. A processing system comprising:

a central processing unit (CPU); and

a storage device coupled to a processor and having stored there information for configuring the CPU to;

maintain a financial information processing unit corresponding to a single client and financial institutions maintaining accounts for the client, the financial information processing unit configured to provide a user interface for enabling the client to submit requests for information on financial information of the financial institutions and configure to receive and process the requests;

receive a request for invoking the financial information processing unit from a remote processing system via a network, the request having been transmitted from the remote processing system in response to a selection of a hypertext link by the user; and

operate the financial information processing unit in response to the request.

33. An apparatus for enabling access to financial information from a plurality of unrelated financial institutions over a network, the apparatus comprising:

means for receiving a signal from a remote processing system via the network, the signal having been transmitted from the remote processing system in response to a selection of a hypermedia link by a client, the hypermedia link provided by a web site of a financial institution, the hypermedia link specifying a financial information aggregator; and

means for invoking a financial information processing unit in a local processing system in response to the signal, wherein the means for invoking includes providing information for generating a user interface for access to financial information from the financial information aggregator, wherein the financial information processing unit is configured to receive and process requests for financial information.