Asset planning and tracking

• US 8,527,382 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2003
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: FMR LLC
• Original Assignee: FMR LLC
• Inventors: McDonough, John, Elterich, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): Hammond, III, Thomas M
• Application Number:
  US10/740,159
• Publication Number:
  US 20050137953A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,548 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 40
• US Class Current: 705/35
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A asset planning and tracking system plans and tracks progress towards a savings goal and analyzes the consumption of assets that are being used to satisfy the savings goal. The system may further be configured to analyze a user'"'"'s periodic (e.g., monthly, quarterly, yearly) transactions and provide suggested transactions if the user has excess income for the period. An asset planning and tracking system may be implemented in the context of a retirement planning system to aid a non-retired user in planning for his or her retirement and to aid a retired user in tracking the consumption of retirement assets.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a retirement planning system, the method comprising:

accessing, by one or more computer systems, information indicative of a current amount of financial resources in one or more retirement accounts of a user, an estimated rate of return on the one or more retirement accounts, and a retirement goal of an amount of financial resources to be saved in the one or more retirement accounts over a predetermined period of time;

periodically determining, by the one or more computer systems, a recommended amount of financial resources to be added to the one or more retirement accounts to meet the retirement goal based on the current amount of financial resources in the one or more retirement accounts and the estimated rate of return, by;

accessing, by the one or more computer systems, information indicative of transactions that debit and credit financial resources from other financial accounts of the user;

determining, by the one or more computer systems, that an aggregate balance of the other financial accounts exceeds the recommended amount of financial resources, based on the information accessed about the transactions; and

causing a transfer, by the one or more computer systems, of the recommended amount of financial resources to at least one of the one or more retirement accounts based on determining that the aggregate balance exceeds the recommended recurring amount of financial resources; and

generating, by one or more computers, a suggested transaction with a suggested amount, the suggested transaction being selected from a group comprising a purchase of a product or a service and a payment to a debt product of the user, wherein the suggested amount is based on an amount of financial resources in excess of the aggregate balance minus the recommended amount that is periodically determined.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for purchasing the product or the service;

wherein generating the suggested transaction is at least partly based on the information received indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for purchasing the product or the service.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information indicating a desire of the user to save a certain amount of financial resources by a certain future date; and

computing a periodic savings goal based on the received information indicating the desire to save a certain amount of financial resources the certain future date.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining that the user has not met the periodic savings goal based on the information indicative of the transactions that debit and credit financial resources from the other financial accounts; and

generating another suggested transaction for saving at least a portion of the amount of financial resources in excess of the aggregate balance minus the recommended amount to meet the periodic savings goal.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, from a device used by an operator, the information indicating the desire of the user to save the certain amount of financial resources by the certain future date.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, to a device used by the user, a message that comprises information indicative of the suggested transaction.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

selecting the message transmitted to the user to be one or more of an electronic mail message, an SMS message, and an SMTP message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

posting a webpage on a server accessible by the user, the webpage comprising information indicative of the suggested transaction.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request from the device used by the user to execute the suggested transaction.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing the one or more computer systems to execute an event that performs the suggested transaction.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

netting the transactions that debit and credit the financial resources from the other financial accounts of the user.

12. A computer system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer program product embodied on a computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing the processor to perform operations comprising;

accessing information indicative of a current amount of financial resources in one or more retirement accounts of a user, an estimated rate of return on the one or more retirement accounts, and a retirement goal of an amount of financial resources to be saved in the one or more retirement accounts over a predetermined period of time;

periodically determining a recommended amount of financial resources to be added to the one or more retirement accounts to meet the retirement goal based on the current amount of financial resources in the one or more retirement accounts and the estimated rate of return, by;

accessing information indicative of transactions that debit and credit financial resources from other financial accounts of the user;

determining that an aggregate balance of the other financial accounts exceeds the recommended amount of financial resources, based on the information accessed about the transactions; and

causing a transfer of the recommended amount of financial resources to at least one of the one or more retirement accounts based on determining that the aggregate balance exceeds the recommended recurring amount of financial resources; and

generating a suggested transaction with a suggested amount, the suggested transaction being selected from a group comprising a purchase of a product or a service and a payment to a debt product of the user, wherein the suggested amount is based on an amount of financial resources in excess of the aggregate balance minus the recommended amount that is periodically determined.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for purchasing the product or the service;

wherein generating the suggested transaction is at least partly based on the information received indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for purchasing the product or the service.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information indicating a desire of the user to save a certain amount of financial resources by a certain future date; and

computing a periodic savings goal based on the received information indicating the desire to save a certain amount of financial resources by the certain future date.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the user has not met the periodic savings goal based on the information indicative of the transactions that debit and credit financial resources from the other financial accounts; and

generating another suggested transaction for saving at least a portion of the amount of financial resources in excess of the aggregate balance minus the recommended amount to meet the periodic savings goal.

16. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from a device used by an operator, the information indicating the desire of the user to save the certain amount of financial resources by the certain future date.

17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting, to a device used by the user, a message that comprises information indicative of the suggested transaction.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

selecting the message transmitted to the user to be one or more an electronic mail message, an SMS message, and an SMTP message.

19. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

posting a webpage on a server accessible by the user, the webpage comprising information indicative of the suggested transaction.

20. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from the device used by the user to execute the suggested transaction.

21. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

causing the processor to execute an event that performs the suggested transaction.

22. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise:

netting the transactions that debit and credit the financial resources from the other financial accounts of the user.

23. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing a processor to perform operations comprising:

accessing information indicative of a current amount of financial resources in one or more retirement accounts of a user, an estimated rate of return on the one or more retirement accounts, and a retirement goal of an amount of financial resources to be saved in the one or more retirement accounts over a predetermined period of time;

periodically determining a recommended amount of financial resources to be added to the one or more retirement accounts to meet the retirement goal based on the current amount of financial resources in the one or more retirement accounts and the estimated rate of return, by;

accessing information indicative of transactions that debit and credit financial resources from other financial accounts of the user;

determining that an aggregate balance of the other financial accounts exceeds the recommended amount of financial resources, based on the information accessed about the transactions; and

causing a transfer of the recommended amount of financial resources to at least one of the one or more retirement accounts based on determining that the aggregate balance exceeds the recommended recurring amount of financial resources; and

generating a suggested transaction with a suggested amount, the suggested transaction being selected from a group comprising a purchase of a product or a service and a payment to a debt product of the user, wherein the suggested amount is based on an amount of financial resources in excess of the aggregate balance minus the recommended amount that is periodically determined.

24. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for purchasing the product or the service;

wherein generating the suggested transaction is at least partly based on the information received indicating the user'"'"'s preferences for purchasing the product or the service.

25. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving information indicating a desire of the user to save a certain amount of financial resources by a certain future date; and

computing a periodic savings goal based on the received information indicating the desire to save a certain amount of financial resources by the certain future date.

26. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the operations further comprise:

determining that the user has not met the periodic savings goal based on the information indicative of the transactions that debit and credit financial resources from the other financial accounts; and

generating another suggested transaction for saving at least a portion of the amount of financial resources in excess of the aggregate balance minus the recommended amount to meet the periodic savings goal.

27. The computer program product of claim 25, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving, from a device used by an operator, the information indicating the desire of the user to save the certain amount of financial resources by the certain future date.

28. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting, to a device used by the user, a message that comprises information indicative of the suggested transaction.

29. The computer program product of claim 28, wherein the operations further comprise:

selecting the message transmitted to the user to be one or more an electronic mail message, an SMS message, and an SMTP message.

30. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

posting a webpage on a server accessible by the user, the webpage comprising information indicative of the suggested transaction.

31. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a request from the device used by the user to execute the suggested transaction.

32. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

causing the processor to execute an event that performs the suggested transaction.

33. The computer program product of claim 23, wherein the operations further comprise:

netting the transactions that debit and credit the financial resources from the other financial accounts of the user.