Method and System for Building an Investment Portfolio

• US 20120054121A1
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Edward D. Jones & Company LP (The Jones Financial Cos. LLLP)
• Original Assignee: Edward D. Jones & Company LP (The Jones Financial Cos. LLLP)
• Inventors: Fiala, William Elliott, Harris, Scott David, Mikula, Matthew James
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/36.R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

Methods and systems are disclosed that enable the leveraging of financial instrument research at an individual financial instrument level but across multiple classifications of financial instruments to efficiently build an investment portfolio for an investor based on a desired portfolio objective through a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Claims

1. A system for building a recommended investment portfolio, the system comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of data structures, each data structure corresponding to a financial instrument product and being associated with (1) at least one of a plurality of financial instrument classifications and (2) at least one of a plurality of portfolio objectives, wherein the plurality of data structures are associated in the aggregate with a plurality of different financial instrument classifications and a plurality of different portfolio objectives;

a processor in communication with the memory, the processor configured to (1) determine a portfolio objective for an investor in response to user input, (2) interact with the memory by processing at least a plurality of the stored data structures based at least in part on their associations with the determined portfolio objective to determine a plurality of financial instrument products for recommendation for inclusion in the portfolio, the plurality of financial instrument products for recommendation corresponding to a plurality of financial instrument classifications, and (3) determine an investment amount for each determined financial instrument product for recommendation based at least in part on the determined portfolio objective.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to, for each of a plurality of financial instrument classifications, provide a graphical user interface (GUI) corresponding to that financial instrument classification for display to a user, wherein that GUI is configured to display (i) data that identifies each determined financial instrument product for recommendation that is associated with that financial instrument classification and (ii) the determined investment amount for each displayed financial instrument product for recommendation that is associated with that financial instrument classification.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the data structures comprise a suitability category field that is indicative of whether the corresponding financial instrument product is recommended according to a particular category of investment, and wherein the data structures are indirectly associated in the memory with the at least one portfolio objective based on the suitability category field.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the memory is further configured to store a plurality of portfolio objective data structures, each portfolio objective data structure being associated with a portfolio objective and defining a plurality of target allocations with respect to a plurality of different financial instrument classifications, and wherein the processor is further configured to (1) retrieve the portfolio objective data structure associated with the determined portfolio objective, and (2) determine the financial instrument products for recommendation based on the target allocations defined by the retrieved portfolio objective data structure.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the processor is further configured to (1) receive input through any of the GUIs corresponding to the financial instrument classifications to modify the portfolio, (2) determine whether the portfolio modification causes the portfolio to fall outside a threshold defined by the determined portfolio objective, and (3) notify a user through a GUI in response to a determination being made that the portfolio modification causes the portfolio to fall outside the threshold.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the plurality of financial instrument classifications comprise stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the plurality of financial instrument classifications further comprise unit investment trusts (UITs).

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the data structures corresponding to stocks are further associated with an industry sector such that the memory stores data structures corresponding to stocks of a plurality of industry sectors, and wherein the processor is further configured to select stocks for recommendation for inclusion in the portfolio based at least in part on a plurality of thresholds for each industry sector defined by the determined portfolio objective.

9. The system of claim 6 wherein the processor is further configured to receive input that defines a plurality of investment parameters for the determined portfolio objective, the parameters including an identification of a total investment amount for the portfolio.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the processor is further configured to (1) determine an investment amount for each of a plurality of financial instrument classifications based at least in part on the determined portfolio objective and the total investment amount and (2) provide a GUI for display that is configured to (i) display the determined investment amounts for the plurality of financial instrument classifications, (ii) receive input corresponding to a modification of the determined investment amounts for the financial instrument classifications, and (iii) determine the investment amounts for individual financial instrument products for recommendation based thereon.

11. The system of claim 2 wherein the processor comprises a server in communication with the memory and a plurality of user computers, the server configured to provide the GUIs to the user computers for display thereon to permit users of the user computers to generate portfolios for a plurality of investors.

12. A computerized method comprising:

creating an association in a database between data representative of a financial instrument product and data representative of at least one portfolio objective, the data representative of a financial instrument product further having an association with data representative of a financial instrument classification;

repeating the creating step for financial instrument products of a plurality of different financial instrument classifications;

receiving input from a computer that identifies a total investment amount and a portfolio objective for an investor; and

interacting with the database to automatically determine an investment portfolio at an individual financial instrument product level based on the received input, wherein the portfolio comprises a plurality of financial instrument products that in the aggregate fall within a plurality of financial instrument classifications.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the method steps are performed by a processor.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising the processor providing a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for display to a user that are configured to interact with the user to define any modifications to the investment portfolio, wherein at least each of a plurality of the GUIs correspond to investments at an individual financial instrument product level with respect to different financial instrument classifications.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the different financial instrument classifications comprise stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the different financial instrument classifications further comprise unit investment trusts (UITs).

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising the processor (1) determining a plurality of rules based on the received portfolio objective input, wherein at least a plurality of the rules define a target investment threshold for each of the plurality of financial instrument classifications, and (2) determining a recommended investment amount for each financial instrument product in the portfolio based on the determined rules.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the processor providing a notice through at least one of the GUIs in response to receiving input that causes the portfolio to fall outside any of the recommended investment amounts.

19. A system for building a recommended investment portfolio, the system comprising:

a memory configured to store a plurality of data structures, each data structure corresponding to a financial instrument product and being associated with at least one of a plurality of financial instrument classifications and with at least one of a plurality of portfolio objectives, wherein the memory is configured to store data structures for financial instrument products associated with a plurality of different financial instrument classifications and a plurality of different portfolio objectives;

a server in communication with the memory, the server further in communication with at least one user computer over a network, the server configured to (1) receive an input from the at least one user computer corresponding to a portfolio objective for an investor, (2) provide a first graphical user interface (GUI) to the at least one user computer for display thereon, the first GUI configured to receive input from the user that comprises (i) a total investment amount for the portfolio, and (ii) a plurality of parameters for the portfolio with respect to investments in a plurality of different financial instrument classifications, (3) determine a recommended investment amount for each of a plurality of the different financial instrument classifications based on the received investment strategy input, the received total investment amount input and the received parameter input, (4) provide a second GUI to the at least one user computer for display thereon, the second GUI configured to display the determined recommended investment amounts for the different financial instrument classifications and permit the user to modify at least one of those recommended investment amounts, (5) determine a plurality of individual financial instrument products for inclusion in the recommended portfolio and an investment amount for each of those individual financial instrument products based on the received portfolio objective input, the received total investment amount input, the received parameter input, and any received modification input via the second GUI, (6) provide a third GUI to the at least one user computer for display thereon, the third GUI configured to (i) display each of the determined individual financial instrument products corresponding to a first financial instrument classification together with its determined investment amount, and (ii) permit the user to modify at least one recommended investment amount therefor, (7) provide a fourth GUI to the at least one user computer for display thereon, the fourth GUI configured to (i) display each of the determined individual financial instrument products corresponding to a second financial instrument classification together with its determined investment amount, and (ii) permit the user to modify at least one recommended investment amount therefor, and (8) provide a fifth GUI to the at least one user computer for display thereon, the fifth GUI configured to (i) display each of the determined individual financial instrument products corresponding to a third financial instrument classification together with its determined investment amount, and (ii) permit the user to modify at least one recommended investment amount therefor.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the first, second and third financial instrument classifications comprise stocks, bonds and mutual funds.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the server is further configured to provide a notice to the at least one user computer in response to any modification input for the portfolio that causes the portfolio to fall outside of a boundary threshold for the portfolio'"'"'s portfolio objective.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein the portfolio objective corresponds to a plurality of investment rules for a plurality of stocks with respect to a plurality of industry sectors such that the portfolio objective defines a target investment threshold for each of a plurality of industry sectors, and wherein the server is configured to select stocks for inclusion in the portfolio based on (1) which industry sector each stock belongs to and (2) the target investment thresholds.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the GUI corresponding to stocks is further configured to display stock recommendations for each of the plurality of industry sectors.

24. A method comprising:

creating a database that associates a plurality of different financial instrument products with a plurality of different financial instrument classifications and a plurality of different portfolio objectives;

receiving into a software application executed by a processor an identification of a portfolio objective for an investor; and

leveraging the database through the executed software application to build a portfolio on behalf of the investor by automatically populating the portfolio with individual financial instrument products of a plurality of different financial instrument classifications for which data is stored in the database according to a plurality of rules defined at least in part by the received portfolio objective identification, the received portfolio objective identification corresponding to one of the portfolio objectives associated with financial instrument products in the database.