Financial planning and counseling system projecting user cash flow

• US 7,921,048 B2
• Filed: 08/13/2001
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Sloan, Ronald E., Slutsky, Stephen B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Borlinghaus; Jason M
• Application Number:
  US09/929,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20020095363A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,522 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36
• US Class Current: 705/36.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for generating an online, web-enabled financial model accessible over the Internet. A service level agreement that defines a level of financial management desired by a user is provided. A user is prompted to input financial information relative to the user. The financial information is stored in a database. A prospective cash flow of the user is aggregated over a predetermined amount of time based on the service level agreement and the financial information. The prospective cash flow is then output to the user. As an option, the user may be allowed to re-input the financial information if the prospective cash flow is deemed unacceptable by the user. A risk analysis may be executed if the prospective cash flow is deemed acceptable by the user. Further, advice based on the financial information may be output if the prospective cash flow is deemed acceptable to the user.

Claims

1. A method for developing a long-term financial plan using a financial modeling and counseling system accessible over a wide area network comprising:

projecting expected yearly income for a period of time based on user-provided historical financial information and external market data, said historical financial information relating to user income and expenses, and said external market data including at least one of interest rates and inflation rates;

projecting expected yearly expenses for said period of time based on the user-provided historical financial information and the external market data;

providing investment coaching over the wide area network for any projected surplus of income after expenses, said investment coaching including investment advice, tax advice, product recommendations, and additional information for recommended products;

providing financial coaching over the wide area network for any projected deficit of income after expenses, said financial coaching including tax advice, business funding advice, spending advice, and investment portfolio balancing advice;

wherein the investment coaching and financial coaching are each directly provided to a user through a customized automated coaching interface, and are each directly provided to the user through customized independent counseling from a live advisor; and

wherein access to the customized automated coaching interface and independent live advisor counseling is provided over the wide area network according to a user-selected service level agreement selected from a plurality of available unique service level agreements, wherein each of the available unique service level agreements includes a unique combination of amounts of accessible customized automated coaching, customized live advisor counseling, and the external market data, and

wherein the user introduces life risk events into the at least one of the income and expense projections and wherein the automated coaching interface performs a life risk analysis, the life risk analysis comprising calculating an impact of the life risk events on a cash flow of the user based on the life risk events, actuarial data, the expected yearly income, and the expected yearly expenses.

2. The method of the claim 1 wherein user income and expense history reside on external databases.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the life risk event includes at least one of:

job loss, disability, casualty, divorce, theft, fire, and collision.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one of the income and expense projections predicts and highlights potential cash flow surplus and cash flow shortage for the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one of the income and expense projections includes displaying the aggregate cash flow in the form of a timeline over a defined period of time.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each annual point of said timeline can be interactively dragged up and down on its vertical axis.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the at least one of the income and expense projections includes recalculating the aggregated cash flow based on the new positions of said annual points.

21. The method of claim 4, wherein the life risk event includes at least one of market downturn and portfolio downturn.

8. A system for developing a long term financial plan comprising:

a user computer system coupled to a wide area network;

a financial model generator coupled to said wide area network configured to project yearly user income and user expenses based on user-provided historical financial information and external market data for a plurality of years, said historical financial information relating to user income and expenses, and said external market data including at least one of interest rates and inflation rates;

a financial counseling server coupled to said wide area network configured to dispense investment coaching for any projected surplus of income after expenses, said investment coaching including investment advice, tax advice, product recommendations, and additional information for recommended products, and configured to dispense financial coaching related to a projected user cash flow over said plurality of years, said financial coaching including tax advice, business funding advice, spending advice, and investment portfolio balancing advice;

wherein the investment coaching and financial coaching are each directly provided to a user through a customized automated coaching interface, and are each directly provided to the user through customized independent counseling from a live advisor; and

wherein access to the customized automated coaching and independent live advisor counseling is provided over the wide area network according to a user-selected service level agreement selected from a plurality of available unique service level agreements, wherein each of the available unique service level agreements includes a unique combination of amounts of accessible customized automated coaching, customized live advisor counseling, and the external market data, and

wherein the user introduces life risk events into the at least one of the income and expense projections and wherein the automated coaching interface performs a life risk analysis, the life risk analysis comprising calculating an impact of the life risk events on a cash flow of the user based on the life risk events, actuarial data, the yearly income, and the user expenses.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein user income and expense history residing on external databases can be accessed by the financial model generator through the wide area network.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the risk event includes at least one of:

job loss, disability, casualty, market downturn, divorce, theft, fire, and collision.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the financial model generator predicts and highlights potential cash flow surplus and cash flow shortage.

12. The financial model generator of claim 8 wherein the at least one of the income and expense projections includes displaying the aggregate cash flow in the form of a timeline over a defined period of time.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein each annual point of said timeline can be interactively dragged up and down on its vertical axis.

14. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for developing a long term financial plan using a financial modeling and counseling system, accessible over a wide area network, which, when executed on a computer, performs the method comprising:

projecting expected yearly income for a period of time based on user-provided historical financial information and external market data, said historical financial information relating to user income and expenses, and said external market data including at least one of interest rates and inflation rates;

projecting expected yearly expenses for said period of time based on the user-provided historical financial information and the external market data;

providing investment coaching over the wide area network for any projected surplus of income after expenses, said investment coaching including investment advice, tax advice, product recommendations, and additional information for recommended products;

providing financial coaching over the wide area network for any projected deficit of income after expenses, said financial coaching including tax advice, business funding advice, spending advice, and investment portfolio balancing advice;

introducing life risk events into the model; and

performing a life risk analysis through a customized automated coaching interface, the life risk analysis comprising calculating an impact of the life risk events on a cash flow of the user based on the life risk events, actuarial data, the expected yearly income, and the expected yearly expenses,

wherein the investment coaching and financial coaching are each directly provided to a user through the customized automated coaching interface, and are each directly provided to the user through customized independent counseling from a live advisor; and

wherein access to the customized automated coaching and independent live advisor counseling is provided over the wide area network according to a user-selected service level agreement selected from a plurality of available unique service level agreements, wherein each of the available unique service level agreements includes a unique combination of amounts of accessible customized automated coaching, customized live advisor counseling, and the external market data.

15. The computer program embodied on the computer readable medium of claim 14, the method further comprising accessing user income and expense history residing on external databases.

16. The computer program embodied on the computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the risk event includes at least one of:

job loss, disability, casualty, market downturn, divorce, theft, fire, and collision.

17. The computer program embodied on the computer readable medium of claim 14, the method further comprising predicting and highlighting potential cash flow surplus and cash flow shortage for the user.

18. The computer program embodied on a the computer readable medium of claim 14, the method further comprising displaying the aggregated cash flow in the form of a timeline over a defined period of time.

19. The computer program embodied on the computer readable medium of claim 18, the method further comprising dragging up and down each annual point of said timeline interactively on its axis.

20. The computer program embodied on the computer readable medium of claim 19, the method further comprising recalculating the aggregated cash flow based on the new positions of said annual points.