Method and system for portable retirement investment

• US 20020188540A1
• Filed: 06/08/2001
• Published: 12/12/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Genworth Holdings, Inc. (Genworth Financial Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Genworth Financial Incorporated
• Inventors: Sharpe, Matthew, Stiff, Geoffrey, Haley, Paul, Root, Vickey, Fay, Mary M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,398,241 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/36
• 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 40/03 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 process and a system for providing a user with a plurality of periodic retirement income payments is disclosed. The process comprises the steps of receiving an input including two of a retirement date, a minimum retirement income amount and a defined premium payment amount for payment over a plurality of preset payment intervals. The process also includes the steps of calculating the other one of the retirement date, the minimum retirement income amount and the defined premium payment amount for an accumulation period defined by the retirement date and a current age of the user; receiving a premium payment amount from the user during the accumulation period; investing the received premium payment amount in an account in a manner consistent with one or more predefined objectives during the accumulation period to realize a retirement income amount. The process further includes the step of transmitting the retirement income amount to at least one of the user and a designated receiver at a designated time after the end of the accumulation period. The retirement income amount includes a predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income if the received premium payments are received according to a preset premium payment schedule.

Claims

1. A quoting process comprising the steps of:

receiving as an input two of a retirement date, a minimum retirement income amount and a defined premium payment amount for payment at each of a plurality of preset payment intervals; and

calculating the other one of the retirement date, the minimum retirement income amount, and the defined premium payment amount, wherein the user receives the minimum retirement income amount when the user reaches the retirement date if the user pays the defined premium payment amount at each of the preset payment intervals.

2. The quoting process of claim 1 wherein a total of the preset payment intervals is based on a difference between the retirement date and a current age of the user.

3. The quoting process of claim 1 wherein each of the preset payment intervals is a month.

4. The quoting process of claim 1 wherein the step of calculating the other of the minimum retirement income amount and the defined premium payment amount is based on at least one of a table of mortality rates and a predetermined interest rate.

5. The process of claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting the user with a signature-ready application for electronic transmittal.

6. The process of claim 1 further comprising the step of presenting the user with an application including the received input and the calculated minimum retirement income amount or the calculated defined premium payment amount.

7. A process for providing a user with a plurality of periodic retirement income payments comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more premium payments from the user during an accumulation period;

investing the received premium payments in an account in a manner consistent with one or more predefined objectives during the accumulation period and a payment payout period to realize a retirement income amount; and

transmitting the retirement income amount to at least one of the user and a designated receiver at a designated time after the end of the accumulation period, wherein the retirement income amount includes a predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount if the received premium payments are received according to a predetermined premium payment schedule, and wherein one of the predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and a premium payment amount is defined by the user.

8. The process of claim 7 wherein the retirement income amount is an amount greater than the predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount.

9. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments includes the step of receiving the premium payments in a plurality of predefined interval payments during the accumulation period.

10. The process of claim 9 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments in the plurality of predefined interval payments includes the step of receiving a plurality of monthly payments during the accumulation period.

11. The process of claim 9 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments in the plurality of predefined interval payments includes the step of receiving a late payment within a grace period after an interval payment was due.

12. The process of claim 11 wherein the step of receiving the late payment within the grace period includes the step of receiving the late payment along with an interest payment for the time between when the interval payment was due and the time when the late payment is received wherein the interest payment is calculated based on a predefined interest rate.

13. The process of claim 12 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments includes the step of receiving at least a portion of one of the premium payments in an amount greater than a predefined interval payment and converting the portion of the one of the premium payments into the predefined interval payment.

14. The process of claim 13 wherein the step of converting the portion of the premium payments includes the step of placing the portion of the premium payments in a flexible premium funding account and transferring a predefined interval payment to the account after each predefined interval until the flexible premium funding account is empty.

15. The process of claim 13 wherein the step of converting the portion of the premium payments includes the step of placing the portion of the premium payments in a flexible premium funding account and transferring a predefined portion of the predefined interval payment to the account after each predefined interval until the end of the accumulation period.

16. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments includes the step of receiving the premium payments from the user during employment at a first employer during at least a part of the accumulation period.

17. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments includes the step of receiving the premium payments from an insurance policy in a 1035 tax-free exchange.

18. The process of claim 16 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments includes the step of receiving the premium payments from the user during employment at a second employer during at least a part of the accumulation period in which the user is not employed at the first employer.

19. The process of claim 7 wherein the user comprises two individuals, each premium payment comprises a joint premium payment, the predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount comprises a joint guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and the retirement income amount comprises a joint retirement income amount.

20. The process of claim 19 further comprising the step of dividing the premium payment, the predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and the retirement income amount proportionally wherein each of the two individuals is assigned a proportionally split premium payment, a proportionally split predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and a proportionally split predetermined retirement income amount.

21. The process of claim 20 further comprising the step of adding a second user after receiving at least a portion of the premium payments to create a joint premium payment amount, a joint guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and a joint retirement income amount shared by both individuals.

22. The process of claim 7 wherein the step of transmitting the retirement income amount includes the step of transmitting the retirement income amount for a period encompassing at least one of a life of the user and a certain time period.

23. The process of claim 7 further comprising the step of transmitting a commuted value of at least a portion of the received premium payments and an invested premium payment to the user before the end of the accumulation period in response to a request by the user, wherein the commuted value is adjusted to include a discounting impact of an investment return on the invested premium payment and an appropriate predetermined surrender charge.

24. The process of claim 23 wherein the step of receiving the premium payments further comprises the steps of receiving a rider selection from the user and calculating the other of the predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and the premium payment based on the user'"'"'s rider selection.

25. The process of claim 24 wherein the step of receiving the rider selection includes the step of receiving a selection of at least one of a disability rider, an unemployment rider and an early death rider.

27. The process of claim 26 wherein the step of calculating the premium payment amount includes the step of calculating the premium payment amount using at least one equity performance factor.

30. The quoting system of claim 29 wherein the means for calculating the other of the minimum retirement income amount and the premium payment amount is based on at least one of a mortality rate and a predetermined interest rate.

31. The quoting system of claim 29 further comprising means for presenting the user with a signature-ready application for electronic transmittal.

32. The quoting system of claim 29 further comprising means for presenting the user with an application including the received input and the calculated guaranteed minimum retirement income amount or the calculated premium payment amount.

26. A process for providing a user with periodic retirement income payments comprising the steps of:

receiving an input including two of a retirement date, a minimum retirement income amount and a defined premium payment amount for payment at each of a plurality of preset payment intervals;

calculating the other one of the retirement date, the minimum retirement income amount and the premium payment amount based on the input for an accumulation period defined by the retirement date and a current age of the user;

receiving a plurality of premium payments from the user during the accumulation period;

investing the received premium payments in an account in a manner consistent with one or more predefined objectives during the accumulation period to realize a retirement income amount; and

transmitting the retirement income amount to at least one of the user and a designated receiver at a designated time after the end of the accumulation period wherein the retirement income amount includes a predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income if the received premium payments are received according to a predetermined premium payment schedule, and wherein one of the predetermined minimum retirement income amount and the premium payment amount is defined by the user.

28. A process for investment comprising the steps of:

receiving a premium payment amount from a user at each of a plurality of predefined intervals over an accumulation period during employment at a first employer during a first part of the accumulation period;

receiving the premium payment amounts from the user during employment at a second employer during a second part of the accumulation period;

investing the received premium payment amounts during the accumulation period; and

transmitting a retirement income amount to at least one of the user and a designated receiver at a designated time after the end of the accumulation period, wherein the retirement income amount includes a predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount if the total received premium payment amounts were received according to a predetermined premium payment schedule, and wherein one of the predetermined guaranteed minimum retirement income amount and the premium payment amount is defined by the user.

29. A quoting system comprising:

means for receiving as an input two of a retirement date, a minimum retirement income amount and a defined premium payment amount for payment at each of a plurality of preset payment intervals; and

means for calculating the other one of the retirement date, the minimum retirement income amount and the defined premium payment amount, wherein the user receives the guaranteed minimum retirement income when the user reaches the retirement date if the user pays the defined premium payment amount at each of the preset payment intervals.

33. A system for providing a user with a plurality of periodic retirement income payments comprising:

a variable deferred annuity module to receive a predetermined premium payment from the user at each of a plurality of predetermined payment intervals to invest the premium payments and to output an income generating payment; and

a variable immediate annuity module to receive the income generating payment and to output a periodic retirement income payment amount wherein the periodic retirement income payment amount is greater than or equal to a predetermined guaranteed minimum periodic retirement income payment amount if the premium payments received are received according to a predetermined premium payment schedule, and wherein one of the predetermined minimum periodic retirement income payment amount and a premium payment amount is defined by the user.

34. The system of claim 33 further comprising a flexible premium funding account module means to invest a received premium payment into a user flexible premium funding account and to output one of a predetermined premium payment and a portion of a predetermined premium payment to the variable deferred annuity module.

35. The system of claim 33 further comprising a surrender charge module to receive as a surrender input at least one of a cash value of the invested premium payments from the variable deferred annuity module and a market commutation value or an assignment value of the flexible premium funding account from the flexible premium funding account module, to add an appropriate surrender charge to the surrender input and to output a cash surrender amount to the user in response to the received surrender input.