Asset planning and tracking

• US 20050137953A1
• Filed: 12/17/2003
• Published: 06/23/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FMR LLC
• Original Assignee: FMR LLC
• Inventors: McDonough, John, Elterich, Steve
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,382 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/36.R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A asset planning and tracking system plans and tracks progress towards a savings goal and analyzes the consumption of assets that are being used to satisfy the savings goal. The system may further be configured to analyze a user'"'"'s periodic (e.g., monthly, quarterly, yearly) transactions and provide suggested transactions if the user has excess income for the period. An asset planning and tracking system may be implemented in the context of a retirement planning system to aid a non-retired user in planning for his or her retirement and to aid a retired user in tracking the consumption of retirement assets.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising

receiving information about transactions that occurred in one or more accounts of a user during a period;

determining if the user has excess resources based on the information received about the transactions; and

if the user has excess resources, then generating a suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess resources; and

wherein generating a suggested transaction is based on the information received indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess resources.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s desire to save a certain amount of resources by a certain future date; and

computing a periodic savings goal based on the received information indicating a desire to save a certain amount of resources by a certain future date.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

determining if the user has met the periodic savings goal based on the information received about the transactions that occurred in the portfolio of accounts during the period, and, if the user has not met the periodic savings goal, then generating a suggested transaction for using at least a portion of the excess resources to meet the periodic savings goal.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the information indicating the user'"'"'s desire to save a certain amount or resources by a certain future date is received from an operator.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting a message to the user that contains the suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the message transmitted to the user is one of the following types of messages:

an electronic mail message, an SMS message, or an SMTP.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising

posting a webpage on a server accessible by the user that contains the suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising receiving information from the user in response to the transmitted message, wherein the information indicates a desire to execute the suggested transaction.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising executing the suggested transaction.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein determining if the user has excess resources comprises:

netting debit transactions and credit transactions recorded in one or more of the user accounts during the period.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein determining if the user has excess resources further comprises:

determining if the user has consumed resources during the period less than a predetermined budgeted amount.

13. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving information about transactions that occurred in one or more accounts of a user during a period;

determining if the transactions indicate that a savings plan of the user has been exceeded based on the information received; and

if the savings plan has been exceeded, then generating a suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing excess resources; and

wherein generating a suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess is based on the information received indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess resources.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising transmitting a message to the user that contains the suggested transaction.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the message transmitted to the user is one of an electronic mail message, an SMS message, or an SMTP message.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising

posting a webpage on a server accessible by the user that contains the suggested transaction.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s desire to execute the suggested transaction.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising executing the suggested transaction.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein determining if the transactions indicate that a savings plan of the user has been exceeded comprises netting debits and credits recorded in one or more of the user accounts during the period.

21. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

prompting the user for information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess income.

22. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

receiving information form the user indicating an amount of resources to be saved by a future date; and

computing a periodic savings goal based on the received information indicating a desire to save a certain amount of resources by a certain future date.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the information indicating the user'"'"'s desire to save a certain amount or resources by a certain future date is received from an operator.

37. The system of claim 20 wherein the execution module is further configured to execute the suggested transaction in response to information indicating the user'"'"'s desire to complete the suggested transaction.

24. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving information about transactions that occurred in one or more accounts of a user during a period;

determining if the user has consumed the resources budgeted for the period based on the received information about transaction that occurred in one or more user accounts during the period; and

if the user has not consumed the resources budgeted for the period, then generating a suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess resources; and

wherein generating a suggested transaction comprises generating a suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources based on the information received indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess resources.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

transmitting a message to the user that contains the suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein the message transmitted to the user is one of the following types of messages:

an electronic mail message, an SMS message or an SMTP message.

28. The method of claim 24 further comprising

posting a webpage on a server accessible by the user that contains the suggested transaction for disposing of at least a portion of the excess resources.

29. The method of claim 26 further comprising:

receiving information from the user in response to the transmitted message, wherein the information indicates a desire to execute the suggested transaction; and

executing the suggested transaction.

30. The method of claim 24 wherein determining if the user has excess resources based on the information received about the transactions that occurred in one or more of the user accounts during the period comprises:

netting debit transactions and credit transactions recorded in one or more of the user accounts during the period.

31. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

prompting the user for information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposing of excess income.

32. A system comprising:

a setup module configured to receive information indicating a user'"'"'s preferences for disposal of excess resources;

a storage device configured to store data indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposal of excess resources;

an aggregation module configured to periodically retrieve transaction information about one or more accounts;

an execution module configured to determine if the user has excess income during a period based on the transaction information retrieved by the aggregation module and a financial plan of the user, and if the user does have excess income, then generate a suggested transaction for disposal of the excess income, wherein the suggested transaction is based on the data indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposal of excess resources.

33. The system of claim 32 further comprising:

a statement generation module configured to form a message that includes the suggested transaction.

34. The system of claim 32 wherein the financial plan is a spending plan.

35. The system of claim 32 wherein the financial plan is a savings plan.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the setup module is further configured to receive information indicating the user'"'"'s desire to save a certain amount of resources by a certain future date and to compute a periodic savings plan based on the received information indicating a desire to save a certain amount of resources by a certain future date.

38. A computer-implemented method comprising

using information about transactions that occurred in one or more accounts of a user to determine whether the user'"'"'s financial situation matches a planned financial situation, and

automatically suggesting a transaction in an account based on the determination.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein the planned financial situation is a retirement savings plan.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein the planned financial situation is a spending plan.

41. The method of claim 38 further comprising receiving information about transactions that occurred in one or more accounts.

42. The method of claim 38 further comprising:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for disposal of excess resources; and

wherein automatically suggesting a transaction is also based on the information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences.