System and method for allocation to obtain zero activity in a selected aggregated account

• US 7,668,771 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Island Intellectual Property LLC (Double Rock Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Island Intellectual Property LLC (Double Rock Corporation)
• Inventors: Bent, Bruce, Bent, Bruce II
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell; James P
• Assistant Examiner(s): AMELUNXEN, BARBARA J
• Application Number:
  US11/767,827
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 705/10, 705/35, 705/36, 705/36.R, 705/38, 705/39, 705/40, 705/42
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• 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 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A method, program product and system for managing a group of aggregated accounts, each aggregated account held in a different one of a plurality of deposit institutions, each of the aggregated accounts associated with at least one financial entity and holding funds of a plurality of clients of the at least one financial entity, each of the clients having a client asset balance in a respective client account associated with the at least one financial entity, the method comprising: (1) allocating fund deposits to and fund withdrawals from the aggregated accounts, the step of allocating comprising: (a) calculating an aggregated transaction amount based on a total net transaction from among the plurality of the client accounts during a period of time; (b) selecting at least one aggregated account from among the group of aggregated accounts in the different deposit institutions to which to deposit or to withdraw funds based, at least in part, so as to avoid withdrawing funds from or depositing funds to at least a different one of the aggregated accounts in the group; and (2) withdrawing funds from or depositing funds to the at least one of the aggregated accounts based on the allocation.

Claims

1. A method for managing a plurality of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured, interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in a group of deposit institutions, comprising:

(1) accessing, by one or more computers, one or more databases comprising;

(a) aggregated account information for a plurality of the FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in the group of deposit institutions, wherein funds from client transaction accounts of a plurality of clients are aggregated with funds of other client transaction accounts in the aggregated accounts held in the deposit institutions, wherein each of the respective deposit institutions holds one or more of the aggregated accounts; and

(b) client transaction account information for each of the respective client transaction accounts comprising;

(i) a respective client asset balance in the respective client transaction account;

(ii) transaction data for the respective client transaction account; and

(iii) a respective balance of funds from the respective client transaction account held in each of one or more of the FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts holding funds of the respective client transaction account; and

(2) allocating, by one or more computers, deposits to and withdrawals from the aggregated accounts, the step of allocating comprising;

(a) accessing, by the one or more computers, transaction data comprising deposit amounts to and/or withdrawal amounts from one or more of the client transaction accounts for a sub-period of time such as one or more hours, days or weeks;

(b) calculating, by the one or more computers, for each of a respective one or more of the aggregated accounts held in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions in the group, a first net transaction amount with respect to the respective aggregated account based on transaction data for the sub-period of time for client transaction accounts with funds held therein;

(c) determining, by the one or more computers, for at least the respective one of the aggregated accounts held in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions, whether the respective one of the aggregated accounts has a no-withdrawal designation indicating such account is not to receive withdrawals for one or more sub-periods of time based at least in part on a number of withdrawals made or to be made during the period of time from the respective one aggregated account held in the respective deposit institution;

(d) selecting, by the one or more computers, at least one aggregated account in one of the deposit institutions from among the group of the deposit institutions to which to deposit or to withdraw funds, while avoiding withdrawing funds for the respective sub-period of time from each of one or more of the other aggregated accounts based at least in part on whether a no-withdrawal designation is determined for each of the one or more other respective aggregated accounts;

(e) allocating, by the one or more computers, the respective client asset balance of funds of a plurality of the respective client transaction accounts among a plurality of the aggregated accounts in the group so that one or more of the aggregated accounts that has a no-withdrawal designation and at least a first net transaction amount that is negative has a net balance of funds that is not decreased for the sub-period in time;

(3) generating instructions to withdraw funds from or depositing or having deposited funds to the at least one of the aggregated accounts based on the allocating step; and

(4) updating, by the one or more computers, the one or more databases with information on which of the deposit institutions are holding funds of a plurality of the client transaction accounts.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step is performed at least in part by determining a relationship between a respective amount of net assets in one of the at least one of the aggregated accounts in the group of aggregated accounts and a respective minimum deposit cap.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selecting step further selects deposit institutions based, at least in part, on determining a relationship between the respective amount of net assets in the at least one aggregated account held at one of the deposit institutions and both the respective minimum deposit cap and a respective maximum deposit cap.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the relationship comprises whether the amount of net assets in the one aggregated account held at that deposit institution is below the respective minimum cap, and further comprises, if these net assets are above the respective minimum cap, whether the amount of net assets in the aggregated account held at that deposit institution is below the respective maximum cap.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the relationship comprises how far the amount of net assets in the one aggregated account held at that deposit institution is below the respective minimum cap, and further comprises, if these net assets are above the minimum cap, how far the net assets in the aggregated account held at that deposit institution is below the respective maximum cap.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more databases aggregated account information comprises information indicating an association of each of a plurality of the aggregated accounts with at least one financial entity and holding funds of a plurality of clients of the at least one financial entity, and wherein the client transaction account information comprises information of each of a plurality of the clients having a client asset balance in a respective client transaction account associated with at least one financial entity, and

wherein at least one of the aggregated accounts held at one of the deposit institutions associated with the at least one financial entity has its respective maximum deposit cap set equal to its respective minimum deposit cap, and wherein the step of selecting further comprises by-passing withdrawals and deposits of funds for the at least one aggregated account that has its respective maximum deposit cap set equal to its respective minimum deposit cap if the net assets for this aggregated account are substantially equal to or greater than the minimum cap for that aggregated account.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, for each aggregated account in which the maximum deposit cap is equal to the minimum deposit cap and the net assets are substantially equal to the minimum or the maximum deposit cap, the step of allocating further comprises offsetting withdrawals from this aggregated account with deposits from another aggregated account associated with the at least one financial entity held at a different deposit institution in which its respective maximum deposit cap is not equal to its respective minimum deposit cap.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the allocating step further comprises allocating a respective amount to one of the at least one aggregated accounts based at least in part on the relationship between the respective amount of net assets in the one aggregated account held at that deposit institution and the respective minimum deposit cap.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the allocating respective amount step allocates an amount to the one aggregated account based, at least in part, on the relationship between the respective amount of net assets in the at least one aggregated account and both the respective minimum deposit cap and a respective maximum deposit cap for that aggregated account in that deposit institution.

10. The method of claim 2, wherein the relationship is whether the amount of net assets in the at least one aggregated account is below the respective minimum cap.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the relationship is how far the net assets in the one aggregated account held at that respective deposit institution are below or above the respective minimum cap.

12. The method of claim 2, wherein the allocating amounts step further comprises allocating the respective amount to the at least one aggregated account based, at least in part, on one or more rules.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the minimum cap is a cap negotiated with the depository institution.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step is performed at least in part by determining a relationship between respective net assets in each of a plurality of the aggregated accounts and a respective minimum deposit cap associated with each of the plurality of the respective aggregated accounts.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the selecting step selects a plurality of the aggregated accounts from among the group of aggregated accounts to which to deposit or to withdraw funds.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the selecting step further selects deposit institutions based, at least in part, on determining a relationship between the respective amount of net assets in each of the plurality of aggregated accounts and both the respective minimum deposit cap and a respective maximum deposit cap.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the selecting step selects a plurality of the aggregated accounts from among the group of aggregated accounts to which to deposit or to withdraw funds.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating step further comprises selecting one of the deposit institutions holding one of the aggregated accounts to which to deposit or to withdraw funds based, at least in part, on one or more rules.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocating client asset balances in the client transaction accounts among a plurality of the aggregated accounts is performed only one time per day to substantially match the most recent allocation of funds.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating client asset balances in the client transaction accounts associated with the one financial entity among one or more of the aggregated accounts based, at least in part, on one or more rules.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein one rule of the one or more rules comprises limiting net assets of a client in at least one of the aggregated accounts in the group held at a given deposit institution to less than a predetermined amount.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of client transaction accounts is associated with a program, and wherein the step of withdrawing funds further depends on predefined program rules associated with the program, the predefined program rules comprising rules relating to one or more of the following:

level of FDIC insurance provided by the program, total client transaction account balance, the one or more deposit institutions attached to the client transaction account and the client account balance at each deposit institution, and whether or not the client has chosen to opt out of one or more of the deposit institutions.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of allocating further comprises a step of approving the information regarding the net transaction activity.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the one or more databases aggregated account information comprises information indicating an association of each of a plurality of the aggregated accounts with at least one financial entity and holding funds of a plurality of clients of the at least one financial entity, and wherein the client transaction account information comprises information of each of a plurality of the clients having a client asset balance in a respective client transaction account associated with at least one financial entity, and

wherein the step of approving comprises

collecting reported financial institution periodic activity data from each financial institution;

and

reconciling inconsistencies between reported deposit institution periodic activity data and observed deposit institution periodic activity data.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of allocating further comprises a step of notifying each deposit institution of any allocation thereto.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein, for each deposit institution where a withdrawal allocation is to be made, the step of notifying comprises steps of generating and sending a message to the deposit institution in one of the following manners:

in person, by mail, by automated teller machine, and using the telephone and distributing by mail and messenger service.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step determines if there is a data field that indicates whether to avoid withdrawing funds from or depositing funds to the different one of the aggregated accounts.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step comprises selecting a first one of the aggregated accounts during a first sub-period of time, and selecting a second one of the aggregated accounts during a second sub-period of time.

29. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregated account information in the one or more databases comprises information indicating an association of each of a plurality of the aggregated accounts with at least one financial entity and holding funds of a plurality of clients of the at least one financial entity, and wherein the client transaction account information comprises information of each of a plurality of the clients having a client asset balance in a respective client transaction account associated with at least one financial entity.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising allocating client asset balances in the client transaction accounts associated with the one financial entity among one or more of the aggregated accounts based, at least in part, on one or more rules.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein one rule of the one or more rules comprises limiting net assets of a client in at least one of the aggregated accounts in the group held at a given deposit institution to less than a predetermined amount.

32. The method of claim 30, wherein the allocating client asset balances in the client transaction accounts among a plurality of the aggregated accounts is performed only one time per day to substantially match the most recent allocation of funds.

33. The method of claim 29, further comprising allocating client asset balances in the client transaction accounts associated with the one financial entity among one or more of the aggregated accounts based, at least in part, on one or more rules.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein one rule of the one or more rules comprises limiting net assets of a client in at least one of the aggregated accounts in the group held at a given deposit institution to less than a predetermined amount.

35. The method of claim 29, wherein the allocating client asset balances in the client transaction accounts among a plurality of the aggregated accounts is performed only one time per day to substantially match the most recent allocation of funds.

36. The method of claim 29, wherein the calculating an aggregated transaction amount comprises:

receiving a sweep file associated with the at least one financial entity, the sweep file comprising fund deposits and/or fund withdrawals from a plurality of the client transaction accounts associated with the at least one financial entity;

posting by the one or more computers the fund deposits and/or the fund withdrawals and any other instructions in said sweep file associated with plurality of client transaction accounts of the at least one financial entity; and

determining by the one or more computers the total net transaction for the sweep file.

37. The method of claim 29, wherein the step of allocating further comprises a step of, for the at least one financial entity, reporting information regarding a net transaction activity associated with the client transaction accounts of the at least one financial entity.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the step of reporting comprises generating a deposit institution allocation report comprising information regarding one or more of the following:

an amount of the net transaction activity required for the corresponding deposit institution, and a reason for the net transaction activity required for the corresponding deposit institution.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step (c) determines whether the respective one of the aggregated accounts has a no-withdrawal designation indicating that such account is not to receive withdrawals for one or more sub-periods of time based at least in part on a number of withdrawals made or to be made during the period of time from the respective one aggregated account held in the respective deposit institution by one or more of check, debit card, credit card, ACH transfer, or wire transfer.

40. The method of in claim 1, wherein the no withdrawal designation is applied to one or more of the aggregated accounts in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions to indicate no withdrawal for the respective aggregated account for a given day, a given set of days, or a given week.

41. The method of in claim 1, wherein the generating instructions step (3) comprises generating instructions to withdraw funds from the at least one of the aggregated accounts by wire.

42. The method of in claim 1, wherein the generating instructions step (3) comprises generating instructions to deposit funds in at least one of the aggregated accounts that has a no withdrawal designation for the sub-period.

43. A program product for managing a plurality of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured, interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in a group of deposit institutions, comprising:

one or more computer usable media having computer readable program code embodied therein or among them, to be executed by a computer, the computer readable program code comprising

(1) program code for accessing, by one or more computers, one or more databases comprising;

(a) aggregated account information for a plurality of the FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in the group of deposit institutions, wherein funds from client transaction accounts of a plurality of clients are aggregated with funds of other client transaction accounts in the aggregated accounts held in the deposit institutions, wherein each of the respective deposit institutions holds one or more of the aggregated accounts; and

(b) client transaction account information for each of the respective client transaction accounts comprising;

(i) a respective client asset balance in the respective client transaction account;

(ii) transaction data for the respective client transaction account; and

(iii) a respective balance of funds from the respective client transaction account held in each of one or more of the FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts holding funds of the respective client transaction account; and

(2) program code for allocating, by one or more computers, deposits to and withdrawals from the aggregated accounts, the step of allocating comprising;

(a) accessing, by the one or more computers, transaction data comprising deposit amounts to and/or withdrawal amounts from one or more of the client transaction accounts for a sub-period of time such as one or more hours, days or weeks;

(b) calculating, by the one or more computers, for each of a respective one or more of the aggregated accounts held in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions in the group, a first net transaction amount with respect to the respective aggregated account based on transaction data for the sub-period of time for client transaction accounts with funds held therein;

(c) determining, by the one or more computers, for at least the respective one of the aggregated accounts held in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions, whether the respective one of the aggregated accounts has a no-withdrawal designation indicating such account is not to receive withdrawals for one or more sub-periods of time based at least in part on a number of withdrawals made or to be made during the period of time from the respective one aggregated account held in the respective deposit institution;

(d) selecting, by the one or more computers, at least one aggregated account in one of the deposit institutions from among the group of the deposit institutions to which to deposit or to withdraw funds, while avoiding withdrawing funds for the respective sub-period of time from each of one or more of the other aggregated accounts based at least in part on whether a no-withdrawal designation is determined for each of the one or more other respective aggregated accounts;

(e) allocating, by the one or more computers, the respective client asset balance of funds of a plurality of the respective client transaction accounts among a plurality of the aggregated accounts in the group so that one or more of the aggregated accounts that has a no-withdrawal designation and at least a first net transaction amount that is negative has a net balance of funds that is not decreased for the sub-period in time;

(3) program code for generating instructions to withdraw funds from or depositing or having deposited funds to the at least one of the aggregated accounts based on the allocating step; and

(4) program code for updating, by the one or more computers, the one or more databases with information on which of the deposit institutions are holding funds of a plurality of the client transaction accounts.

44. The program product of claim 43, wherein the program code for selecting further comprises program code for selecting a first one of the aggregated accounts during a first sub-period of time, and for selecting a second one of the aggregated accounts during a second sub-period of time.

45. The program product of claim 43, wherein the program code for determining (c) determines whether the respective one of the aggregated accounts has a no-withdrawal designation indicating that such account is not to receive withdrawals for one or more sub-periods of time based at least in part on a number of withdrawals made or to be made during the period of time from the respective one aggregated account held in the respective deposit institution by one or more of check, debit card, credit card, ACH transfer, or wire transfer.

46. The program product of in claim 43, wherein the no withdrawal designation is applied to one or more of the aggregated accounts in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions to indicate no withdrawal for the respective aggregated account for a given day, a given set of days, or a given week.

47. A system for managing a plurality of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured, interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in a group of deposit institutions, comprising:

one or more computers operably connected to the database for implementing the following components;

(1) a component for accessing, by the one or more computers, one or more databases comprising;

(a) aggregated account information for a plurality of the FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts held in the group of deposit institutions, wherein funds from client transaction accounts of a plurality of clients are aggregated with funds of other client transaction accounts in the aggregated accounts held in the deposit institutions, wherein each of the respective deposit institutions holds one or more of the aggregated accounts; and

(b) client transaction account information for each of the respective client transaction accounts comprising;

(i) a respective client asset balance in the respective client transaction account;

(ii) transaction data for the respective client transaction account; and

(iii) a respective balance of funds from the respective client transaction account held in each of one or more of the FDIC-insured and interest-bearing aggregated accounts holding funds of the respective client transaction account; and

(2) a component for allocating, by the one or more computers, deposits to and withdrawals from the aggregated accounts, the allocating component configured for;

(a) accessing, by the one or more computers, transaction data comprising deposit amounts to and/or withdrawal amounts from one or more of the client transaction accounts for a sub-period of time such as one or more hours, days or weeks;

(b) calculating, by the one or more computers, for each of a respective one or more of the aggregated accounts held in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions in the group, a first net transaction amount with respect to the respective aggregated account based on transaction data for the sub-period of time for client transaction accounts with funds held therein;

(c) determining, by the one or more computers, for at least the respective one of the aggregated accounts held in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions, whether the respective one of the aggregated accounts has a no-withdrawal designation indicating such account is not to receive withdrawals for one or more sub-periods of time based at least in part on a number of withdrawals made or to be made during the period of time from the respective one aggregated account held in the respective deposit institution;

(d) selecting, by the one or more computers, at least one aggregated account in one of the deposit institutions from among the group of the deposit institutions to which to deposit or to withdraw funds, while avoiding withdrawing funds for the respective sub-period of time from each of one or more of the other aggregated accounts based at least in part on whether a no-withdrawal designation is determined for each of the one or more other respective aggregated accounts;

(e) allocating, by the one or more computers, the respective client asset balance of funds of a plurality of the respective client transaction accounts among a plurality of the aggregated accounts in the group so that one or more of the aggregated accounts that has a no-withdrawal designation and at least a first net transaction amount that is negative has a net balance of funds that is not decreased for the sub-period in time;

(3) a component for generating instructions to withdraw funds from or depositing or having deposited funds to the at least one of the aggregated accounts based on the allocating operation; and

(4) a component for updating, by the one or more computers, the one or more databases with information on which of the deposit institutions are holding funds of a plurality of the client transaction accounts.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the withdrawal component comprises

a message generator that generates one or more messages for facilitating withdrawal of funds from or deposit of funds to one or more of the aggregated accounts their respective associated deposit institutions.

49. The system of claim 47, wherein the selection component is configured to select a first one of the aggregated accounts during a first sub-period of time, and to select a second one of the aggregated accounts during a second sub-period of time.

50. The system of claim 47, wherein the determining component (c) is configured to determine whether the respective one of the aggregated accounts has a no-withdrawal designation indicating that such account is not to receive withdrawals for one or more sub-periods of time based at least in part on a number of withdrawals made or to be made during the period of time from the respective one aggregated account held in the respective deposit institution by one or more of check, debit card, credit card, ACH transfer, or wire transfer.

51. The system of in claim 47, wherein the no withdrawal designation is applied to one or more of the aggregated accounts in each of a plurality of the deposit institutions to indicate no withdrawal for the respective aggregated account for a given day, a given set of days, or a given week.