Method and apparatus for delegating authority

• US 8,086,508 B2
• Filed: 04/26/2002
• Issued: 12/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Checkfree Services Corporation (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: CashEdge Incorporated (Fiserv Incorporated)
• Inventors: Dheer, Sanjeev, Dilip, Venkatachari, Messing, Roy, Sokolic, Jeremy, Sareen, Manu, Sinha, Gautam
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammond, III, Thomas M
• Application Number:
  US10/134,046
• Publication Number:
  US 20020174048A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,532 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 40, 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• 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 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A delegated authority system allows an account holder to delegate authority to one or more individuals, such as financial advisors through a third party service. An individual receives authority to access financial accounts and/or access aggregated financial data. The individual may then retrieve account information from the individual accounts or from the aggregated financial data. In on exemplary system, the account information is accessed via the Internet or another data communication network.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

automatically receiving account data in a financial management system via a network, wherein automatically receiving comprises retrieving data that is resident on a storage medium, wherein the account data comprises,

an identification of a plurality of financial institutions;

an identification of a plurality of accounts;

an identification of an account holder; and

identifications of one or more entities to whom the account holder delegates access to the plurality of accounts;

the financial management system receiving, and storing for later use, the account holder'"'"'s authentication credentials for accessing each of the plurality of financial institutions without participation of the account holder;

the financial management system using the authentication credentials to automatically collect account data from each of the plurality of financial institutions, wherein collecting comprises using direct data feeds, XML exchange, and data harvesting scripts, wherein automatically collecting account data comprises the financial management system connecting to the plurality of financial institutions without human intervention;

storing the account data in the financial management system;

automatically receiving account data from the financial institution via the network;

updating the stored account data; and

providing access to the stored account data to the one or more entities.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the identifications are stored in a server accessible via the Internet.

3. A method as recited in claim 2 further comprising:

automatically receiving updated account data for the plurality of accounts from a plurality of institutions via a network; and

automatically receiving summary data associated with the plurality of accounts.

4. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the method is performed through a service accessible via the Internet.

5. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the entity comprises an individual financial advisor.

6. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the entity comprises an individual attorney.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the entity comprises an individual accountant.

8. A method as recited in claim 1 wherein the entity comprises a spouse of the account holder.

9. A method comprising:

automatically receiving account data in a financial management system via a network, wherein automatically receiving comprises retrieving data that is resident on a storage medium, wherein the account data comprises,

an identification of at least one financial institution;

an identification of at least one account;

an identification of an account holder; and

identifications of one or more entities to whom the account holder delegates access to the account;

the financial management system receiving the account holder'"'"'s authentication credentials for accessing the at least one financial institution;

the financial management system storing the account data and the authentication credentials for later use without participation of the account holder, comprising using the authentication credentials to automatically collect account data from the at least one financial institution, wherein collecting comprises using direct data feeds, XML exchange, and data harvesting scripts without participation of a human user;

storing the account data in the financial management system;

receiving a request from the entity to access at least one of the at least one account; and

granting access in response to the request, comprising granting access for reviewing current account information, comprising account information that is automatically updated by a communication with an institution administering the account being accessed.

10. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the entity comprises an individual financial advisor.

11. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the entity comprises a spouse of the account holder.

12. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the entity comprises an individual attorney of the account holder.

13. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein granting access comprises automatically retrieving account information through a third-party financial management system.

14. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the method is performed through a third-party service accessible via the Internet.

28. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein the entity comprises an individual accountant.

29. A method as recited in claim 9 wherein permitting the entity to access the first account and the second account includes retrieving position details associated with the first account and the second account, wherein position details comprise amounts of shares and values of shares.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, and storing for later us without the participation of a the second account holder, authorization from a first account holder, wherein authorization comprises data including authentication credentials allowing an entity identified by the first account holder to access data of a first account owned by the a first account holder;

receiving, and storing for later use without the participation of the second account holder, authorization from a second account holder, wherein authorization comprises data including authentication credentials allowing an entity identified by the second account holder to access data of a second account owned by the second account holder, wherein the entity identified by the first account holder and entity identified by the second account holder are the same entity;

in response to an access request from the entity, automatically retrieving current account information from the first account, wherein retrieving comprises using the authentication credentials to access current account information that is automatically collected from an institution associated with the first account, comprising using direct data feeds, XML exchange, and data harvesting scripts;

in response to an access request from the entity, retrieving account information from the second account, wherein retrieving comprises using the authentication credentials to access current account information that is automatically collected from an institution associated with the second account, comprising using direct data feeds, XML exchange, and data harvesting scripts without human input.

16. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the institution associated with the first account and the institution associated with the second account are the same financial institution.

17. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein the institution associated with the first account is a first financial institution and the institution associated with the second account is a second financial institution.

18. A method as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

receiving authorization from the first account holder, wherein authorization comprises data allowing an entity identified by the first account holder to access a third account associated with the first account holder;

automatically retrieving account information from the third account; and

aggregating data from the first account with data from the third account.

19. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein receiving authorization to access the first account includes receiving permission to perform specific activities with respect to the first account.

20. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein receiving authorization to access the first account includes receiving permission to obtain account information via an online source.

21. A method as recited in claim 15 wherein receiving authority to access the first account includes receiving permission to transfer funds into and out of the first account.

22. A method as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

generating a report based on account information retrieved from the first account and the second account, wherein the account information is retrieved automatically via at least one financial institution via at least one network.

23. A method as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

searching for account information that is common to both the first account and the second account.

24. A method as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

automatically generating messages based on account information that is common to both the first account and the second account, wherein the messages comprise electronic messages that are automatically transmitted to at least on recipient.

25. A financial management system, comprising:

at least one computer processor;

computer memory coupled to said at least one computer processor and programmed with at least a financial institution data module, a customer data module, and a communications interface;

wherein the financial institution data module stores financial institution data related to a plurality of financial institutions;

wherein the customer data module stores customer data related to a plurality of customers, wherein the customer data for a customer comprises;

identification information for a plurality of financial accounts owned by the customer at least one of the plurality of financial institutions;

identification information for at least one authorized entity that is authorized by the customer to access data of at least one of the plurality of financial accounts owned by the customer;

authentication credentials that allow access to collected data of a financial institution transparently to the institution via a publicly accessible portal of the institution; and

permission information for the at least one authorized entity, wherein the permission information indicates types of access to at least one of the plurality of financial accounts owned by the customer, comprising one or more of reviewing current account balances, and reviewing account transactions, and reviewing position information, wherein position information comprises amounts of shares and values of shares, wherein the customer data is stored for later use in accessing financial accounts without participation of the customer; and

wherein the communications interface is coupled to at least one network and automatically collects and provides updated data from the plurality of financial accounts to the at least one authorized entity, wherein collecting comprises using direct data feeds, XML exchange, and data harvesting scripts without human input.

26. The financial management system of claim 25, further comprising:

a transaction execution module coupled to the plurality of financial institutions via the at least one network and further coupled to at least one payment network via the at least one network, wherein the transaction module is configurable to execute the transactions involving the at least one of the plurality of financial accounts.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon instructions that when executed in a processor, cause a financial management method to be performed, the method comprising:

automatically receiving, and storing for later us without the participation of an account holder, account data in a financial management system via a network, wherein the account data comprises;

an identification of a plurality of financial institutions;

an identification of a plurality of accounts;

an identification of an account holder; and

identifications of one or more entities to whom the account holder delegates access to the plurality of accounts;

the financial management system receiving the account holder'"'"'s authentication credentials for accessing each of the plurality of financial institutions;

the financial management system using the authentication credentials to automatically collect account data from each of the plurality of financial institutions, wherein collecting comprises using direct data feeds, XML exchange, and data harvesting scripts, wherein automatically collecting account data comprises the financial management system connecting to the plurality of financial institutions without human intervention;

updating the stored account data based on the received updated account data; and

providing access to the stored account data to the one or more entities.