Computerized method and system for processing data related to a financial instrument having guaranteed benefit payments

• US 8,229,830 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2011
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Talcott Resolution Life Insurance Co. (DSG)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tatro, Charles D., Weiss, Joseph M.
• Primary Examiner(s): TINKLER, MURIEL S
• Application Number:
  US13/340,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20120101961A1
• Time in Patent Office: 208 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/37, 705/38
• 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 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A computerized financial instrument management system has a data storage device storing data indicative of an account balance based on deposits, withdrawals and changes in value of investments selected by an owner, a payment base value, a guarantee of availability of benefit payments for a term, during time periods during the term, without reduction of the payment base value; and withdrawal factor values correlated with dates after a first of the benefit payments and increasing after the first of the benefit payments. A processor is configured to determine, for any of the time periods, an available amount of the benefit payment, based on data indicative of a withdrawal factor value and at least one of a payment base value and either the payment base value or the account value.

Claims

1. A computerized financial instrument management system, comprising:

a data storage device storing data indicative of;

an account having an account balance, the account balance being initially based upon an amount deposited to the financial instrument and subsequently based on changes in value of one or more funds selected by a financial instrument owner, withdrawals made by the financial instrument owner, and subsequent deposits to the financial instrument;

a payment base value based initially upon the amount deposited to the financial instrument;

a guarantee of availability of benefit payments for a term, during each of a plurality of time periods during the term, without reduction of the payment base value; and

a plurality of withdrawal factor values, the withdrawal factor values being greater than zero and increasing after the first of the benefit payments; and

a processor in communication with the data storage device and associated non-transitory computer-readable medium, the computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

determine, for any selected one of the time periods during the term, an available amount of the benefit payment, the determining comprising;

accessing from the data storage device data indicative of a withdrawal factor value and at least one of a payment base value and an account balance value; and

based on the accessed data indicative of the withdrawal factor value and either the payment base value or the account balance value, determining an available amount of the benefit payment; and

store the determined available amount in the data storage device and communicate with an associated display device for display of the determined available amount together with other data associated with the financial instrument.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable instructions further cause the processor to:

access a date value associated with the selected time period; and

access from the data storage device a value of the withdrawal factor corresponding to the accessed date value.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the financial instrument is a deferred variable annuity during the accumulation phase.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data stored in the data storage device further includes a data indicative of a plurality of ages of a relevant life, and data correlating the stored withdrawal factor values to the stored plurality of ages.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the data indicative of a plurality of ages comprises at least one multi-year age range and data correlating the at least one multi-year age range to a single one of the stored withdrawal factor values.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the data indicative of a plurality of ages further comprises data indicative of a plurality of multi-year age ranges, and data correlating each multi-year age range with data indicative of a withdrawal factor value, the withdrawal factor value increasing with increasing age reflected in the data indicative of the multi-year age ranges.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the data indicative of a withdrawal factor value comprises data indicative of a withdrawal percent value, and wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine an available amount of the benefit payment by multiplying the accessed withdrawal percent value by either the payment base value or the account value.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a payment module in communication with the processor for receiving data indicative of an amount of a benefit payment and for making the benefit payment to a relevant life.

9. A computer-implemented method for management of data related to financial instruments, comprising:

accessing by a processor data related to a financial instrument from a data storage device in communication with the processor, the data storage device storing data indicative of;

an account having an account balance, the account balance being initially based upon an amount deposited to the financial instrument and subsequently based on changes in value of one or more funds selected by a financial instrument owner, withdrawals made by the financial instrument owner, and subsequent deposits to the financial instrument;

a payment base value based initially upon the amount deposited to the financial instrument;

a guarantee of availability of benefit payments for a term, during each of a plurality of time periods during the term, without reduction of the payment base value; and

a plurality of withdrawal factor values, the withdrawal factor values being greater than zero and increasing after the first of the benefit payments;

determining by the processor, for any selected one of the time periods during the term, an available amount of the benefit payment, based on data accessed from the data storage device indicative of a withdrawal factor value and at least one of a payment base value and an account value;

storing by the processor the available amount in the data storage device; and

communicating by the processor with an associated display device for display of the determined available amount of the benefit payment together with other data associated with the financial instrument.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the financial instrument is a deferred variable annuity during the accumulation phase.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the data stored in the data storage device further comprises data indicative of the term for which the benefit payments are guaranteed being a lifetime of a relevant life.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving by the processor during one of the time periods via a communications device data indicative of an amount of a requested withdrawal from the financial instrument;

accessing by the processor from the data storage device data indicative of a cumulative amount of withdrawals, prior to the requested withdrawal, during the time period;

determining by the processor data indicative of a total amount of withdrawals during the time period based on the data indicative of the amount of the requested withdrawal and the data indicative of the cumulative amount of prior withdrawals during the time period;

comparing by the processor the data indicative of the determined total amount of withdrawals to the data indicative of the determined amount of the benefit payment available during the time period; and

responsive to determining via the comparison that the determined total amount of withdrawals is not greater than the determined amount of the benefit payment available during the time period, providing by the processor data for display on the associated display device indicative that the payment base value will not be reduced as a result of the requested withdrawal.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving by the processor during one of the time periods via a communications device data indicative of an amount of a requested withdrawal from the financial instrument;

accessing by the processor from the data storage device data indicative of a cumulative amount of withdrawals, prior to the requested withdrawal, during the time period;

determining by the processor data indicative of a total amount of withdrawals during the time period based on the data indicative of the amount of the requested withdrawal and the data indicative of the cumulative amount of prior withdrawals during the time period;

comparing by the processor the data indicative of the determined total amount of withdrawals to the data indicative of the determined amount of the benefit payment available during the time period; and

responsive to determining via the comparison that the determined total amount of withdrawals is greater than the determined amount of the benefit payment available during the time period, providing by the processor data for display on the associated display device indicative that the payment base value will be reduced as a result of the requested withdrawal.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, further comprising accessing by the processor from the data storage device data indicative of a current age of a relevant life, data correlating ages to values of withdrawal factors, and selecting a value of the withdrawal factor corresponding to the current age of the relevant life.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the data indicative of withdrawal factor values comprises data for determining a current withdrawal factor value based on data including a current age of a relevant life.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium for management of data relating to financial instruments, the medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon, which instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

responsive to receipt of data indicative of a request to determine an available amount of a benefit payment, from a financial instrument, during a time period of a term of a guarantee of available benefit payments, access from a data storage device;

data indicative of a withdrawal factor value, the data storage device storing data indicative of withdrawal factor values, the withdrawal factor values being greater than zero and increasing after the first of the benefit payments; and

at least one of;

a balance of an account of the financial instrument, the account balance being initially based upon an amount deposited to the financial instrument and subsequently based on changes in value of one or more funds selected by a financial instrument owner, withdrawals made by the financial instrument owner, and subsequent deposits to the financial instrument; and

a payment base value based initially upon the amount deposited to the financial instrument, benefit payments in accordance with the guarantee not reducing the payment base value;

based on the accessed data indicative of the withdrawal factor value and the account balance or payment base value, determine an available amount of the benefit payment during the time period;

store the available amount in the data storage device; and

communicate with an associated display device for display of the determined available amount of the benefit payment together with other data associated with the financial instrument.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the financial instrument is a deferred variable annuity during the accumulation phase.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the time period is a year in duration commencing on an anniversary of an issue date of the financial instrument.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to:

responsive to receipt of data indicative of a request for a withdrawal, determine data indicative of a total amount of withdrawals during the time period including the amount of the requested withdrawals and any prior withdrawals during the time period;

compare the data indicative of the determined total amount of withdrawals to the data indicative of the determined available amount of the benefit payment during the time period;

responsive to determining via the comparison that the determined total amount of withdrawals is not greater than the determined amount of the benefit payment available during the time period, provide data for display on the associated display device indicative that the payment base value will not be reduced as a result of the requested withdrawal; and

responsive to determining via the comparison that the determined total amount of withdrawals is greater than the determined amount of the benefit payment available during the time period, providing by the processor data for display on the associated display device indicative that the payment base value will be reduced as a result of the requested withdrawal.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the data indicative of the guarantee comprises data indicative that the benefit payments are available for a term commencing upon a minimum age of a relevant life and continuing for a lifetime of the relevant life.