Patent Issued for Financial management system with account guardian oversight (USPTO 11295313): United Services Automobile Association

2022 APR 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Russell, Ryan Thomas (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on December 30, 2019, was published online on April 5, 2022.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11295313, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “For families with teens and/or college-age members, it may be desirable for guardians of such youth to have some oversight when it comes to use of bank accounts and other financial concerns. Similarly, an employer may also have similar concerns with respect to a corporate account that may be used by an employee. That is, the employer may wish to serve as guardian over that account with some oversight and control over what it is used for. However, such oversight is generally not available in real time, i.e., at point of sale. The oversight currently available comes after purchases are already made. Guardians of family and corporate accounts do not have real time right of refusal to prevent an undesired purchase. In addition, there may be a desire to encourage good lifestyle habits with monetary incentives. However, when a person is away from home, such as at college, it is difficult to track their daily activity.

“The present disclosure addresses one or more of the issues discussed above.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a financial management system, comprising a device processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions, executable by the processor. The computer readable medium may include instructions for receiving purchase information regarding a pending purchase of a system user using an account; sending the purchase information, along with a request for approval of the purchase, to one or more personal electronic devices of a guardian of the account; receiving a response selected by the guardian; and selectively permitting the purchase based on the response selected by the guardian.

“In another aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a method of financial management. The method may include executing, with a device processor, the following steps stored in a non-transitory computer readable medium: receiving purchase information regarding a pending purchase of a system user using an account; sending the purchase information, along with a request for approval of the purchase, to one or more personal electronic devices of a guardian of the account; receiving a response selected by the guardian; and selectively permitting the purchase based on the response selected by the guardian.

“In another aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a financial management system. The system may include a device processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium including instructions, executable by the processor. The computer readable medium may include instructions for receiving information regarding the actions of a system user and sending the information regarding the actions of the user to a guardian of the user, along with a proposal to send the user a financial award based on the information regarding the actions of the user.

“Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the disclosure will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the disclosure, and be protected by the following claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A purchase authorization and communication system, comprising: a controller computing device, the controller computing device being in electronic communication with a smartphone; the controller computing device being configured to: receive purchase information regarding a pending purchase of a system user using an account; send the purchase information, along with a request for approval of the purchase, to the smartphone, the smartphone being associated with a guardian of the account; wherein the smartphone is configured to receive an input from the guardian indicating whether the request for approval is approved or denied; receive a response selected by the guardian from the smartphone; selectively permit the purchase based on the response selected by the guardian; and send to the smartphone an option for the guardian to match funds of the pending purchase by contributing an equal amount to an account associated with the system user.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller computing device is further configured to receive different levels of authentication for different types of purchases.

“3. The system of claim 2, wherein the controller computing device is further configured to receive different levels of authentication for purchases of different amounts.

“4. The system of claim 2, wherein the controller computing device is further configured to receive different levels of authentication for purchases of different things.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller computing device is further configured to: categorize a pending purchase; determine one or more guardians having authorization to approve the category of purchase that is pending; and send a request for approval to all guardians determined to have authorization to approve the category of purchase that is pending.

“6. The system of claim 5, wherein the controller computing device is further configured to: receive responses from more than one guardian regarding the pending purchase; and determine, based on the received responses, whether the pending purchase is approved.

“7. The system of claim 5, wherein the controller computing device is further configured to limit approval authority differently for different guardians.

“8. The system of claim 1, wherein the smartphone is configured to receive the input from the guardian in the form of one or more of: voice recognition, facial recognition, a retinal scan, and a fingerprint scan.

“9. A method of purchase authorization and communication, comprising: receiving purchase information regarding a pending purchase of a system user using an account; sending the purchase information, along with a request for approval of the purchase, to a smartphone associated with a guardian of the account; receiving a response selected by the guardian and inputted into the smartphone by the guardian; selectively permitting the purchase based on the response selected by the guardian; and presenting the guardian with an option to match the funds of the pending purchase by contributing an equal amount to an account of the system user.

“10. The method of claim 9, further including receiving different levels of authentication for different types of purchases.

“11. The method of claim 10, further including receiving different levels of authentication for purchases of different amounts.

“12. The method of claim 10, further including receiving different levels of authentication for purchases of different things.

“13. The method of claim 9, further including: categorizing a pending purchase; determining one or more guardians having authorization to approve the category of purchase that is pending; and sending a request for approval to all guardians determined to have authorization to approve the category of purchase that is pending.

“14. The method of claim 13, further including: receiving responses from more than one guardian regarding the pending purchase; and determining, based on the received responses, whether the pending purchase is approved.

“15. The method of claim 13, further including limiting approval authority differently for different guardians.

“16. The method of claim 9, wherein the smartphone is configured to receive the input from the guardian in the form of one or more of: voice recognition, facial recognition, a retinal scan, and a fingerprint scan.”

For more information, see this patent: Russell, Ryan Thomas. Financial management system with account guardian oversight. U.S. Patent Number 11295313, filed December 30, 2019, and published online on April 5, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11295313.PN.&OS=PN/11295313RS=PN/11295313

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