Apparatus and method for a financial planning faith-based rules database

• US 8,635,101 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2008
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Daphne A. Wright
• Original Assignee: Daphne A. Wright
• Inventors: Wright, Daphne A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kyle, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chencinski, Siegfried E
• Application Number:
  US12/219,386
• Publication Number:
  US 20090106136A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,010 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10, 705/35, 705/36.R, 705/37
• US Class Current: 705/10
• 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

Abstract

A method for providing financial management and planning in an electronic device according to various exemplary embodiments can include using a faith-based rules database to determine a financial and life purposed plan for a user; draft a vision statement for the user based on the financial and life purposed plan; establish personal goals and priorities based on the vision statement for the user; compile financial statement and reports for the user based on financial data of the user; generate a stewardship evaluation report that provides an analysis of management of finances by the user based on faith-based financial management rules and the purposed plan; develop financial plans for the user based on results of the stewardship evaluation report; prepare a spending and savings plan for the user to facilitate the financial plans; and iteratively monitoring and revising the steps of determining, drafting, establishing, compiling, generating, developing and preparing financial plans.

Claims

1. A method for providing a faith-based financial plan, implemented via a computing device including a processor and a memory, the method comprising:

receiving, from a user, user information comprising financial information and user-selected goals and values and user-selected weighting criteria, the user-selected weighting criteria defining quantitative levels of importance for one or more of user-selected goals and values;

storing the user information in a database;

compiling financial statements and reports for the user based on the financial information of the user;

retrieving faith-based principles and faith-based financial management rules, based upon the financial statements and reports, from a faith-based rules database;

generating, by way of a programmed computer, a behavior model to determine patterns of financial behaviors based upon the compiled financial statements and reports;

extracting key financial behavior information from the behavior model;

generating a behavior profile by comparing the key financial behavior information, the user-selected goals and values, the user-selected weighting criteria and the faith-based rules, the behavior profile identifies trends of financial usage, ranks priorities of financial usage, and assigns quantitative values to the financial usage to determine management of the user'"'"'s finances in comparison to the user-selected goals and values and the user-selected weighting criteria according to the faith-based principles and the faith-based financial management rules;

developing financial plans for the user based on results of the behavior profile;

preparing a spending and savings plan for the user to facilitate the financial plans;

analyzing, by way of the programmed computer, the behavior profile to identify targeted financial areas of improvements and targeted faith-based areas of improvement;

generating faith-based categories based upon the targeted financial areas of improvements and the targeted faith-based areas of improvement, the faith-based categories comprise faith-based scriptures and faith-based examples;

displaying on a display screen at least one of the financial statement and report, the behavior profile, the financial plans, the spending and saving plan, the targeted financial areas of improvement, the targeted faith-based areas of improvement, and the faith-based categories;

displaying on the display screen an update request to the user to revise, based upon the faith-based scriptures and faith-based examples of the faith-based categories, the steps of receiving, storing, compiling, retrieving, generating, extracting, developing and preparing the financial plans;

upon receiving the update request from the user, developing and preparing updated financial plans; and

instructing the faith-based rules database, upon receipt of the update request, to conduct an analysis to determine how the targeted faith-based areas of improvement affect the targeted financial areas of improvement and including the analysis in the updated financial plans.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the database collects and records information in a plurality of electronic data collection forms comprising at least one of:

an Expense Record Log,

a Weekly Spending Report,

a Personal Vision Statement,

a Debt Ledger,

a Debt Tracker,

a Savings Record,

a Loan Transaction Ledger,

a Goal Worksheet,

a Priorities Worksheet,

a Financial Planning Personal Goals and Priorities Worksheet,

a Statement of Financial Position,

a Cash Flow Statement,

a Budget Ratio Analysis, and

a Summary of Financial Findings.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, the user information comprising character information defining core values and characteristics of the user;

assigning quantitative values to the character information;

generating a characteristic profile, based upon the character information, to determine a life purposed plan for the user;

employing a Stewardship Focus Financial Planning Process configured to determine whether the priorities and goals of the user are consistent and to devise a plan detailing targeted tasks to achieve the life purposed plan of the user.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, the user information comprising character information defining core values and characteristics of the user;

assigning quantitative values to the character information;

generating a characteristic profile, based upon the character information, to determine a life purposed plan for the user;

employing a Stewardship Focus Financial Planning Process configured to determine whether the priorities and goals of the user are consistent and to devise a plan detailing targeted tasks to achieve the life purposed plan of the user.

4. A computer program product that can be directly loaded to the memory of a digital computer and which comprises software used to execute the steps of a method for providing a faith-based financial plan when the computer program is run on a computer, the method comprising:

receiving, from a user, user information comprising financial information and user-selected goals and values and user-selected weighting criteria, the user-selected weighting criteria defining quantitative levels of importance for one or more of user-selected goals and values;

storing the user information in a database;

compiling financial statements and reports for the user based on the financial information of the user;

retrieving faith-based principles and faith-based financial management rules, based upon the financial statements and reports, from a faith-based rules database;

generating, by way of a programmed computer, a behavior model to determine patterns of financial behaviors based upon the compiled financial statements and reports;

extracting key financial behavior information from the behavior model;

generating a behavior profile by comparing the key financial behavior information, the user-selected goals and values, the user-selected weighting criteria and the faith-based rules, the behavior profile identifies trends of financial usage, ranks priorities of financial usage, and assigns quantitative values to the financial usage to determine management of the user'"'"'s finances in comparison to the user-selected goals and values and the user-selected weighting criteria according to the faith-based principles and the faith-based financial management rules;

developing financial plans for the user based on results of the behavior profile;

preparing a spending and savings plan for the user to facilitate the financial plans;

analyzing, by way of the programmed computer, the behavior profile to identify targeted financial areas of improvement and targeted faith-based areas of improvement;

generating faith-based categories based upon the targeted financial areas of improvements and the targeted faith-based areas of improvements, the faith-based categories comprise faith-based scriptures and faith-based examples;

displaying on a display screen at least one of the financial statement and report, the behavior profile, the financial plans, the spending and saving plan, the targeted financial areas of improvement, the targeted faith-based areas of improvement, and the faith-based categories;

displaying on the display screen an update request to the user to revise, based upon the faith-based scriptures and faith-based examples of the faith-based categories, the steps of receiving, storing, compiling, retrieving, generating, extracting, developing and preparing the financial plans;

upon receiving the update request from the user, developing and preparing updated financial plans; and

instructing the faith-based rules database, upon receipt of the update request, to conduct an analysis to determine how the targeted faith-based areas of improvement affect the targeted financial areas of improvement and including the analysis in the updated financial plans.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the database collects and records information in a plurality of electronic data collection forms comprising at least one of:

an Expense Record Log,

a Weekly Spending Report,

a Personal Vision Statement,

a Debt Ledger,

a Debt Tracker,

a Savings Record,

a Loan Transaction Ledger,

a Goal Worksheet,

a Priorities Worksheet,

a Financial Planning Personal Goals and Priorities Worksheet,

a Statement of Financial Position,

a Cash Flow Statement,

a Budget Ratio Analysis, and

a Summary of Financial Findings.

7. A system for providing a faith-based financial plan, comprising:

a processor, and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions that are executed by the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a user, user information comprising financial information and user-selected goals and values and user-selected weighting criteria, the user-selected weighting criteria defining quantitative levels of importance for one or more of user-selected goals and values;

storing the user information in a database;

compiling financial statements and reports for the user based on the financial information of the user;

retrieving faith-based principles and faith-based financial management rules, based upon the financial statements and reports, from a faith-based rules database;

generating, by way of a programmed computer, a behavior model to determine patterns of financial behaviors based upon the compiled financial statements and reports;

extracting key financial behavior information from the behavior model;

generating a behavior profile by comparing the key financial behavior information, the user-selected goals and values, the user-selected weighting criteria and the faith-based rules, the behavior profile identifies trends of financial usage, ranks priorities of financial usage, and assigns quantitative values to the financial usage to determine management of the user'"'"'s finances in comparison to the user-selected goals and values and the user-selected weighting criteria according to the faith-based principles and the faith-based financial management rules;

developing financial plans for the user based on results of the behavior profile;

preparing a spending and savings plan for the user to facilitate the financial plans;

analyzing, by way of the programmed computer, the behavior profile to identify targeted financial areas of improvements and targeted faith-based areas of improvement;

generating faith-based categories based upon the targeted financial areas of improvements and the targeted faith-based areas of improvement, the faith-based categories comprise faith-based scriptures and faith-based examples;

displaying on a display screen at least one of the financial statement and report, the behavior profile, the financial plans, and the spending and saving plan, the targeted financial areas of improvement, the targeted faith-based areas of improvement, and the faith-based categories;

displaying on the display screen an update request to the user to revise, based upon the faith-based scriptures and the faith-based examples of the faith-based categories, the financial information to generate the behavior profile, financial statement and reports, financial plans, and spending and savings plan, the targeted financial areas of improvement, the targeted faith-based areas of improvement, and the faith-based categories;

upon receiving the update request from the user, developing and preparing updated financial plans; and

instructing the faith-based rules database, upon receipt of the update request, to conduct an analysis to determine how the targeted faith-based areas of improvement affect the targeted financial areas of improvement and including the analysis in the updated financial plans.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the database collects and records information in at least one of a worksheet, a report, a test, an assignment, a quiz, a ledger, a questionnaire, and a financial statement.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the database collects and records information in at least one of:

an Expense Record Log,

a Weekly Spending Report,

a Personal Vision Statement,

a Debt Ledger,

a Debt Tracker,

a Savings Record,

a Loan Transaction Ledger,

a Goal Worksheet,

a Priorities Worksheet,

a Financial Planning Personal Goals and Priorities Worksheet,

a Statement of Financial Position,

a Cash Flow Statement,

a Budget Ratio Analysis, and

a Summary of Financial Findings.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the database collects and records information in:

an Expense Record Log,

a Weekly Spending Report,

a Personal Vision Statement,

a Debt Ledger,

a Debt Tracker,

a Savings Record,

a Loan Transaction Ledger,

a Goal Worksheet,

a Priorities Worksheet,

a Financial Planning Personal Goals and Priorities Worksheet,

a Statement of Financial Position,

a Cash Flow Statement,

a Budget Ratio Analysis, and

a Summary of Financial Findings.

11. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether financial matters of the user are consistent with principles of financial stewardship and faith-based teachings.

12. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

assessing and assigning quantitative values to character information of the user to determine the life purposed plan of the user.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising identifying and displaying on the display screen corresponding passages within a faith-based text based on results of the step of assessing and assigning quantitative values to character information.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the database stores faith-based rules dealing with money and tangible possessions as prescribed within a faith-based text.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, from the user, the user information comprising character information defining core values and characteristics of the user;

assigning quantitative values to the character information;

generating a characteristic profile, based upon the character information, to determine a life purposed plan for the user;

employing a Stewardship Focus Financial Planning Process configured to determine whether the priorities and goals of the user are consistent and to devise a plan detailing targeted tasks to achieve the life purposed plan of the user.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the database enables the user to assign a financial value to the tangible possessions that the user wishes to acquire and assign a financial value to goals that the user wishes to achieve or that relate to a lifestyle of the user.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the Statement of Financial Position and the Cash Flow Statement are configured to identify and display on the display screen corresponding passages within a faith-based text that relate to financial stewardship practices of the user.

18. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether values, behaviors, and actions of the current financial life of the user are consistent with passages within a faith-based text.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the faith-based categories of at least one of:

(a) Evaluating Earthly Economics,

(b) Reflecting True Values and Priorities,

(c) Disciplining Habits and Tendencies, and

(d) Confronting Attitudes and Motives.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

evaluating an improvement of the faith-based categories for the user with respect to stewardship, by comparing financial, personal and faith-based matters of the user.