“Financial Wellness System” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20160267595)

Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- A patent application by the inventors Rauls, Boris (Larchmont, NY); Sohaili, Sonia (New York, NY); Labe, JR., Russell Paul (Belle Mead, NJ); Altschuler, Stuart (Moorestown, NJ); Laster, David Scott (Airmont, NY); Vrdoljak, Nevenka (New York, NY); Varner, Evelyn (Hopkinton, MA); Suri, Anil (Jersey City, NJ), filed on March 10, 2015, was made available online on September 22, 2016, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents (see also Patents).

This patent application has not been assigned to a company or institution.

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: "Managing expenses and planning for retirement are actions that are becoming more important to people. The more tools a person or company has, and/or the better the tools are for predicting a person's ability to manage finances and plan for retirement, the better a person will be able to manage expenses and plan for retirement and the better a company will be at providing products that accomplish these goals for the person."

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent application: "The following presents a simplified summary of one or more embodiments of the present invention, in order to provide a basic understanding of such embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments, and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all embodiments nor delineate the scope of any or all embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments of the present invention in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

"Generally, systems, computer program products, and methods are described herein for a financial wellness application that provides an overview of the financial well-being of users (e.g., customers of a financial institution, or the like). The financial wellness of the users may be determined by identifying personal characteristics of the users regarding background information about the users and the users' households. The personal characteristics may be determined by the users answering personal characteristic questions or by the finial institution automatically accessing user profile information or user account information to identify the personal characteristics. Based on a user's personal characteristics, financial wellness questions are determined from a plurality of financial wellness questions to present to the user. The user provides financial wellness input regarding the financial wellness questions. The financial wellness input is transformed into a financial situation assessment, day-to-day management assessment, and preparation for the future assessment, which are transformed into an overall wellness score. Moreover, the financial wellness input for the one or more financial wellness questions may also be compared against financial wellness thresholds. As such, when the user's financial wellness input fails to meet the threshold values it may trigger the display of actionable advice for the user. The actionable advice may include suggestions for the user to improve the user's financial wellness, articles related to tips for managing expenses, savings, and investments, and proposed product (e.g., financial services, or the like) offers that may help improve the user's wellness score and the user's management of the user's finances.

"Embodiments of the invention comprise systems, computer program products, and methods for transforming user information into a determination of the financial wellness of a user. The invention comprises presenting personal characteristic questions to the user, wherein the personal characteristic questions comprise financial history information about the user and the user's household, and wherein the personal characteristic questions are presented to the user through a user interface on a user device. The invention further comprises receiving personal characteristic inputs in response to the personal characteristic questions. The invention also comprises determining financial wellness assessment questions to present to the user from a plurality of financial wellness assessment questions, wherein the financial wellness assessment questions are determined based on the personal characteristic inputs received for the personal characteristics questions, wherein the financial wellness assessment questions relate to the user's financial situation, the user's day-to-day financial management, and the user's preparation for the future, and wherein the plurality of financial wellness assessments questions are stored on one or more servers. The invention also comprises presenting the financial wellness assessment questions to the user, wherein the financial wellness assessment questions are presented to the user on the user interface of the user device. Thereafter, the invention comprises receiving financial wellness assessment inputs from the user in response to the financial wellness assessment questions, wherein the financial wellness assessment inputs are received from the user through the user interface on the user device. The invention also comprises transforming the financial wellness assessments inputs from the user into a financial situation score that measures a value of the user's net worth, a day-to-day financial management score that measures how the user handles current finances, and a preparing for the future score that measures how the user plans for long-term financial needs. The invention further comprises transforming the financial situation score, the day-to-day financial management score, and the preparing for the future score into an overall financial wellness score. The invention further identifies one or more rules from a plurality of rules for one or more of the financial wellness questions or the personal characteristic questions, wherein the one or more rules are used to determine actionable advice for the user, wherein the actionable advice is determined when a threshold response for the one or more rules is violated by the financial wellness assessment inputs or the personal characteristic inputs, and wherein the plurality of rules are stored on one or more servers. The invention also comprises presenting the actionable advice to the user on the user interface of the user device, wherein the actionable advice comprises tips, articles, or recommended product offers associated with the one or more rules that were violated by the financial wellness assessment inputs or the personal characteristic inputs, wherein the actionable advice is related to improving the overall wellness score of the user, wherein the actionable advice is stored on one or more servers, and wherein the actionable advice comprises tips, articles, or recommended product offers that are identified from third-party systems or one or more financial institution systems.

"In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the personal characteristic inputs are received automatically through accessing user profile information or user account information stored on the one or more financial institution systems.

"In another embodiment of the invention, the personal characteristic inputs are received from the user through the user interface on the user device.

"In still another embodiment of the invention, at least one of the financial wellness assessment inputs are received automatically through accessing user profile information or user account information stored on the one or more financial institution systems.

"In yet another embodiment of the invention, the financial situation score is based on financial wellness assessment questions related to the user's assets and the user's liabilities.

"In further accord with an embodiment of the invention, the day-to-day financial management score is based on financial wellness assessment questions related to the user's liquidity management, budgeting, debt management, and financial planning.

"In another embodiment of the invention, the preparing for the future score is based on financial wellness assessment questions related to the user's education management, personal development, investing management, retirement planning, insurance management, and estate planning.

"To the accomplishment the foregoing and the related ends, the one or more embodiments comprise the features hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexed drawings set forth certain illustrative features of the one or more embodiments. These features are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of various embodiments may be employed, and this description is intended to include all such embodiments and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

"Having thus described embodiments of the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

"FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a financial wellness system environment, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 2 illustrates a high level process flow of a financial wellness determination method, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 3 illustrates a detailed process flow of a financial wellness determination method, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 4 illustrates a personal characteristic question interface, in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 5A illustrates a financial wellness assessment question interface, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 5B illustrates a continuation of the financial wellness assessment question interface from FIG. 5A, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 6 illustrates a financial wellness assessment scoring block diagram, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 7 illustrates an actionable advice rules diagram, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 8 illustrates an actionable advice rules diagram, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

"FIG. 9 illustrates an actionable advice rules diagram, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention."

URL and more information on this patent application, see: Rauls, Boris; Sohaili, Sonia; Labe, JR., Russell Paul; Altschuler, Stuart; Laster, David Scott; Vrdoljak, Nevenka; Varner, Evelyn; Suri, Anil. Financial Wellness System. Filed March 10, 2015 and posted September 22, 2016. Patent URL: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=2690&p=54&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=20160915.PD.&OS=PD/20160915&RS=PD/20160915

Keywords for this news article include: Patents, Wellness, Investment and Finance.