System and method for automating financial document compliance

• US 8,073,735 B2
• Filed: 05/25/2007
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Phoenix Licensing, LLC
• Inventors: Libman, Richard Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Alvarez, Raquel
• Application Number:
  US11/754,088
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,656 Days
• Field of Search: 705/17.47, 705/4, 705/14.25, 705/14.4, 705/14.49, 705/14.53, 206/232, 229/70
• US Class Current: 705/14.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06314 Calendaring for a resource
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0265 Vehicular advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0271 Personalized advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0276 Advertisement creation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 : Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 : Accounting

Abstract

An automated system determines appropriate compliance information for documents pertaining to financial products or services. The compliance information can vary on each document depending on the particular financial product and/or financial service, and based on both company and jurisdictional requirements.

Claims

1. A method of preparing personalized communication documents for a plurality of clients, the method comprising:

storing in one or more memories information concerning a set of financial product and/or financial services for the personalized communication documents;

executing operations via a processor programmed with software instructions to perform the steps of;

automatically determining variable compliance and/or regulatory information associated with said set of financial products and/or financial services to be offered to said plurality of clients;

automatically preparing a personalized communication document for each client, said personalized communication document comprising personalized content for said client relating to an offering for one or more financial products and/or services, wherein said personalized content includes said variable compliance and/or regulatory information associated with one or more jurisdictions;

automatically generating and without human intervention successive personalized communication documents that include different compliance and/or regulatory information based on the one or more financial product and/or financial service identified in the personalized communication documents and/or requirements of respective jurisdictions associated with recipients of such successive customized communication documents; and

sending each personalized communication document to a respective one of the plurality of clients.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step comprises using decision information programmed as software instructions to select said variable compliance and/or regulatory information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said decision information is calculated or derived prior to and/or during determination of said compliance and/or regulatory information.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said compliance and/or regulatory information is based on an address maintained for each of said recipients.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized communication documents comply with federal and state laws concerning sales of said set of financial products and/or financial services.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized communication documents comply with policy constraints of an issuer of said set of financial products and/or financial services.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said variable compliance and/or regulatory information is presented in one or more footnotes within said personalized communication documents.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized content includes at least some personal data associated with such client that is in addition to but does not exclude a name, account identifying information, address, age information, tobacco habits, and/or marital status information available for such client.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein a placement of at least said personalized content can be varied for different clients within said successive personalized communication documents.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein a first set of separate descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications including separate respective word sentences are used for said variable compliance and/or regulatory information.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized communication documents include a footnote section with one or more variable content footnotes which are associated with said at least first financial product and/or financial service, and such that first variable content footnotes in a first personalized communication document to a first client differ from second variable content footnotes in a second personalized communication document to a second client for such particular financial product.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized communication documents are provided as part of an ongoing service provided by a sender of such communication to said client.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said successive personalized communication documents can also pertain to two or more different products or services.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein said variable compliance and/or regulatory information included in said personalized content comprises at least one of textual components, alphanumeric components, and graphical components/data/information that is varied between clients.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said personalized content further includes pricing information that is varied between clients.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein each personalized communication document consists of a single page.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein each personalized communication document has a plurality of pages.

18. The method of claim 1, further including a step:

selecting one or more delivery mediums that will be used to deliver each personalized communication document to said respective one of the plurality of clients.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the selecting said one or more delivery mediums is based on at least one of information related to said corresponding client and client preferences.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using a format for said personalized communication documents suitable for a delivery medium that is to be used to deliver said personalized communication documents to said clients.

21. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized communication documents include a separate response section with instructions informing a client on how to respond to said offering.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said separate response section also includes personalized content specific to said client.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

executing operations on a second processor programmed with software instructions to automatically generate one or more subsequent personalized communication documents to a specific client based on a set of predetermined criteria.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the predetermined criteria are applied as a result of a response or non-response made within a predetermined time by said client to said personalized communication documents.

25. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

executing operations on a second processor programmed with software instructions to automatically generate one or more subsequent personalized communication document(s) to such client based on at least one of;

(a) information obtained in the past from a client;

(b) information purchased from a third party;

(c) information obtained via an existing client relationship.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein said personalized content is further determined for a client by said processor programmed with a software routine that analyzes personal data for each client and evaluates which of a first set of a plurality of descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications should be used in presenting said at least first financial product and/or financial service to such client.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least first financial product and/or financial service is selected by the processor from a plurality of separate financial products and/or financial services considered for each client.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining, preparing, and generating steps are controlled by a single automated process.

29. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of said personalized content is generated during a composition process for said personalized communication documents.

30. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one personalized communication document contains personalized content that is adapted for two or more clients identified within in such personalized communication document.

31. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using said processor to select a subset of clients from a database of available clients; and

performing said storing, determining, generating, and sending steps for only said selected subset of clients.

32. The method of claim 1, wherein determining step further comprises:

selecting one or more financial products or financial services to offer to said plurality of clients.

33. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of said storing, determining, generating, and sending steps (a)-(d) are performed by a first computing system, and at least one of said storing, determining, generating, and sending steps (a)-(d) is performed by a second computing system at a location remote from said first computing system.

34. The method of claim 1, wherein said variable compliance and/or regulatory information can be the same for some of said recipients of such successive personalized communication documents.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein said personalized content includes variable information pertaining to non-compliance and/or regulatory information.

36. A method of preparing personalized communication documents for a plurality of clients which includes appropriate compliance and/or regulatory information, the method comprising:

storing in one or more memories financial product and/or financial service content for the personalized communication documents, said financial product and/or financial service content includes a first set of separate descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications associated with a first set of compliance and/or regulatory requirements for at least a first financial product and/or financial service;

executing operations via a processor programmed with software instructions to perform the steps of;

automatically preparing a personalized communication document for each client, said personalized communication document including an identifying section adapted to present identifying content to identify said client, and a separate personalized compliance section adapted to present at least some personalized compliance content relating to an offering for said client of said first financial product and/or financial service, wherein said personalized compliance content presented for said offering includes at least one or more of said first set of separate descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications associated with said first set of compliance and/or regulatory requirements for said at least first financial product and/or financial service; and

automatically generating successive personalized communication documents that include different personalized compliance content with respect to at least said first financial product and/or financial service for different clients.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein said compliance and/or regulatory information is based on an address maintained for each of said recipients.

38. The method of claim 36 wherein said personalized communication document complies with federal and state laws concerning sales of financial products and/or financial services.

39. The method of claim 36 wherein said personalized communication document complies with policy constraints of an issuer of said set of financial products and/or financial services.

40. The method of claim 36, wherein said personalized compliance section is presented in one or more footnotes within said personalized communication document.

41. The method of claim 36 wherein said personalized content presented in said personalized section includes at least some personal data associated with such client that is in addition to but does not exclude a name, account number, address, age information tobacco habits, and/or marital status information available for such client.

42. The method of claim 36 wherein a placement of at least said personalized compliance section on said personalized communication documents for said at least first financial product and/or financial service can be varied for different clients.

43. The method of claim 36 wherein said first set of separate descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications include separate respective word sentences.

44. The method of claim 36 further including a step:

sending each personalized communication document to a respective one of the plurality of clients.

45. The method of claim 36 wherein said personalized communication document is provided as part of an ongoing service provided by a sender of such communication to said client.

46. The method of claim 36, wherein said successive personalized communication documents pertain to two or more different products or services.

47. The method of claim 36, wherein information included in said personalized compliance section comprises at least one of textual components, alphanumeric components, and graphical components/data/information that is varied between clients.

48. The method of claim 36 wherein each personalized communication document consists of a single page.

49. The method of claim 36 wherein each personalized communication document has a plurality of pages.

50. The method of claim 36, further including a step:

selecting one or more delivery mediums that will be used to deliver the personalized communication document to said client.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the delivery medium is the Internet.

52. The method of claim 36, further comprising:

using a format for said personalized communication document suitable for a delivery medium that is to be used to deliver such document to said client.

53. The method of claim 36 wherein said personalized communication document includes a separate response section with instructions informing a client on how to respond to said offering.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein said separate response section also includes personalized content specific to said client.

55. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

executing operations via a second processor programmed with software instructions to automatically generate one or more subsequent personalized communication documents to such client based on a set of predetermined criteria applied as a result of a response or non-response made by said client to said personalized communication document.

56. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

executing operations via a second processor programmed with software instructions to automatically generate one or more subsequent personalized communication documents to such client based on at least one of;

(a) information obtained in the past from a client;

(b) information purchased from a third party;

(c) information obtained via an existing client relationship.

57. The method of claim 36, wherein said at least first financial product and/or financial service is selected by the processor from a plurality of separate financial products and/or financial services considered for each client.

58. The method of claim 36, wherein said preparing and generating steps are controlled by a single automated process.

59. The method of claim 36 wherein additional personalized content is generated during a composition process for said personalized communication document and included therein.

60. The method according to claim 36 wherein at least one personalized communication document contains personalized content that is adapted for two or more clients identified within such personalized communication document.

61. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

using said processor to select a subset of clients from a database of available clients; and

performing said storing, preparing, and generating steps for only said selected subset of clients.

62. The method of claim 36, wherein said preparing step b) further comprises:

determining one or more financial products or financial services to offer to said client.

63. The method of claim 36, wherein one or more of said storing, preparing, and generating (a)-(d) are performed by a first computing system, and at least one of said storing, preparing, and generating steps is performed by a second computing system at a location remote from said first computing system.

64. A method of preparing personalized compliance adapted communication documents for a plurality of clients, the method comprising:

storing in one or more memories financial product and/or financial service content for the personalized communication documents, said financial product and/or financial service content includes a first set of descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications for a corresponding first set of compliance/regulatory requirements associated with at least a first financial product and/or financial service;

executing operations via a processor programmed with software instructions to perform the steps of;

automatically preparing a personalized communication document for each client, said personalized communication document comprising both a general offer portion and a personalized offer portion including personalized compliance information derived from said first set of compliance and/or regulatory requirements, wherein said general offer portion includes general content communicated to each of the plurality of clients for said at least a first financial product and/or financial service, and further wherein said personalized offer portion includes personalized content for said client including at least one or more of said first set of separate descriptions, characteristics and/or identifications for a corresponding compliance and/or regulatory requirements associated with said at least first financial product and/or financial service presented in the offering; and

(c) generating successive personalized communication documents for the plurality of clients that include different personalized content with respect to at least said first financial product and/or financial service for different ones of said plurality of clients.

65. A method of preparing specific communications for a plurality of clients residing in a plurality of jurisdictions, by use of a computing system comprising a programmed processor and one or more associated databases with stored information, the method comprising the steps of:

storing in one or more memories information concerning a set of financial product and/or financial services for the specific communications;

automatically determining with the computing system specific compliance and/or regulatory information associated with said set of financial products and/or financial services to be offered to said plurality of clients in said plurality of jurisdictions from compliance and/or regulatory information stored in the memory;

automatically preparing a specific communication for each client with the computing system, said specific communication comprising specific content for said client relating to an offering for one or more financial products or services in a jurisdiction associated with said client;

wherein said specific content includes variable compliance information, such that said computing system generates automatically successive customized communications that include different compliance and/or regulatory information based on requirements of respective jurisdictions associated with recipients of such successive customized communication; and

sending each customized communication to a respective one of the plurality of clients.

66. A system for preparing personalized communication documents for a plurality of clients comprising:

a computing system;

one or more electronic databases coupled to the computing system;

one or more software routines executing on the computing system which are adapted to;

a) provide information concerning a set of financial product and/or financial services for the personalized communication documents;

b) automatically determine applicable variable compliance and/or regulatory information associated with said set of financial products and/or financial services to be offered to said plurality of clients;

c) automatically prepare a personalized communication document for each client with a computing system, said personalized communication document comprising personalized content for said client relating to an offering for one or more financial products or services;

wherein said personalized content includes said variable compliance and/or regulatory information associated with one or more jurisdictions, such that said computing system can generate automatically and without human intervention successive personalized communication documents which can include different compliance and/or regulatory information based on a financial product or financial service identified in the personalized communication document and/or requirements of respective jurisdictions associated with recipients of such successive personalized communication document.

67. A system for preparing customized communications containing information data specific to a plurality of clients comprising:

a computing system;

one or more electronic databases coupled to the computing system;

one or more software routines executing on the computing system which are adapted to;

(a) provide data for the customized communications to the one or more electronic databases, including financial product and/or financial service information;

(b) provide variable compliance and/or regulatory information related to said at least first financial product and/or financial service;

(c) automatically generate a customized communication for each client with a computing system containing information data specific to the client, said customized communication comprising customized specific content for said client relating to an offering for one or more financial products and/or financial services;

wherein said personalized content includes variable compliance information associated with one or more jurisdictions, such that said computing system can generate automatically and without human intervention successive customized communications which can include different compliance and/or regulatory information based on a financial product or financial service identified in the personalized communication and requirements of respective jurisdictions associated with recipients of such successive customized communication.