System and method for providing financial services to children and teenagers

• US 7,117,173 B1
• Filed: 02/02/2001
• Issued: 10/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/02/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sonal Sheth Ambani
• Original Assignee: Sonal Sheth Ambani
• Inventors: Ambani, Sonal Sheth
• Primary Examiner(s): Kyle, Charles R.
• Application Number:
  US09/773,555
• Time in Patent Office: 2,069 Days
• Field of Search: 705/40, 705/35
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• 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

Abstract

A system and method of providing financial services to children provides a child-friendly user-interface that includes an age-appropriate integrated financial services account statement having links to multimedia files providing information on or related to specific assets listed in the statement. The system and method of the invention may also be used as a convenient way of giving gifts to a child, and as a portal to a variety of child-related services and products.

Claims

1. A system for providing financial services to children, comprising a server, a computing device arranged to generate documents for display over an open network, communications links to financial service providers, and a data storage arrangement, the data storage arrangement including storage areas in which are stored personal information including an age of an account holder, account information, and information of interest to the account holder but irrelevant to said financial services, said information selected from the group consisting of the a picture of the account holder and at least one of the account holder'"'"'s favorite color, sport, character, band, charity, hobby, pastime, and animal, a plurality of integrated financial services account statement templates, and multimedia files, the server being arranged such that, upon log-in by a user, the computing device:

a. retrieves said personal information from said data storage arrangement,

b. based on said age of the account holder, selects one of said integrated financial services account statement templates from said data storage arrangement,

c. retrieves current account information from at least one of said financial service providers based on said stored account information,

d. assembles an integrated financial services account statement by inserting at least some of said personal information and said current account status information into said said one of said account statement templates retrieved from said data storage arrangement, wherein said account statement displays said retrieved information selected from the group consisting of a picture of the account holder and at least one of the account holder'"'"'s favorite color, sport, character, band, charity, hobby, pastime, and animal,

wherein said integrated financial services account statement includes images which, when selected by the user, causes one of said multimedia files to be retrieved from said data storage arrangement, and

wherein when the user selects one of said images, said one of said multimedia files is retrieved and downloaded to the user over said open network by said server.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said multimedia files include promotional information supplied by a company listed on the integrated financial services account statement.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said integrated financial services account statement further includes images associated with a product offered by the company, and wherein user selection of one of said images associated with the product causes a multimedia file including information on said product to be downloaded to the user.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the computing device is further arranged, upon sign-in by the user as a gift giver, to query the giver as to the identity of a child recipient, display a financial product selection page, contact a financial services provider upon selection and purchase of a product by the gift giver, and payment by the gift giver using any of a variety of payment options, update the child'"'"'s account, and provide a gift card to the recipient of the gift.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the gift card includes information on the gift, and a link to one of said multimedia files.

6. A system as claimed in claim 4, further comprising a gift registry database, wherein said financial product selection page lists items retrieved from said gift registry database.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said personal information further includes information on an organization, and wherein said account information concerns an account held by said organization.

8. A method for providing financial services to children, comprising the steps of, following log-in by a user seeking information on assets held by a child or to give a gift to the child:

a. retrieving information about the child from a personal information data storage area, said information including an age of the child and information of interest to the child but irrelevant to said financial services, said information selected from the group consisting of the a picture of the child and at least one of the child'"'"'s favorite color, sport, character, band, charity, hobby pastime, and animal,

b. based on the retrieved age of the child, retrieving an integrated financial services account statement template from an account statement template data storage area, the account statement including links to multimedia files stored in a company information database,

c. retrieving current account status information from at least one financial services provider based on account information retrieved from the data storage area,

d. inserting the retrieved personal information and current account status information into the account statement template to form an integrated financial services account statement, wherein said account statement displays said information selected from the group consisting of the a picture of the child and at least one of the child'"'"'s favorite color, sport, character, band, charity, hobby, pastime, and animal,

e. transmitting the integrated financial services account statement for viewing by the user, and

f. upon selection of a link to one of the multimedia files stored in the company information database, retrieving the multimedia file and transmitting it to the user for playback.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein said multimedia files include promotional information supplied by a company associated with an asset listed on the integrated financial services account statement.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein said integrated financial services account statement further includes images associated with a product offered by the company, and wherein user selection of one of said images associated with the product causes a multimedia file including information on said product to be downloaded to the user.

11. A method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising the steps of, upon sign-in of the user as a gift giver:

a. querying the giver as to the identity of the child,

b. displaying a financial product selection page,

c. upon selection and purchase of a product by the gift giver, and payment by the gift giver using any of a variety of payment options, contacting the appropriate financial services provider, and

d. updating the child'"'"'s account.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising the step of providing a gift card to the child, said gift card including information concerning the gift and a link to one of said multimedia files.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein said financial product selection page lists items retrieved from said gift registry database.

14. A method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising the step of providing a personal information page to which said user may add personal information.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14, further comprising the step of collecting said personal information and providing data derived from said personal information to companies interested in said data.

16. A method as claimed in claim 8, wherein said personal information further includes information on an organization, and wherein said account information concerns an account held by said organization.

17. An electronic integrated financial services account statement assembled by the steps of retrieving information concerning an age of a child and information of interest to the child but irrelevant to said financial services, said information selected from the group consisting of the a picture of the child and at least one of the child'"'"'s favorite color, sport, character, band, charity, hobby, pastime, and animal, upon sign-in by the user at a website, selecting an statement template based on the age of the child, adding account information to the template, and displaying the template on a webpage, wherein the template includes a plurality of images displayed on the at least one page, said images linking said page to multimedia files concerning said asset, and wherein said account statement displays said information selected from the group consisting of the a picture of the child and at least one of the child'"'"'s favorite color, sport, character, band, charity, hobby, pastime, and animal.

18. An integrated financial services account statement as claimed in claim 17, wherein said images include representations of company logos and representations of company products, wherein when a user selects one of said company logo representations, a multimedia file providing information about the company is opened, and wherein when a user selects one of said product representations, a promotion for the product is displayed.

19. An integrated financial services account statement as claimed in claim 17, wherein items on said statement are listed by industry sector.