AU2005200162A1 - A computerised support platform for financial advisers - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 NATIONAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT

SERVICES

LIMITED

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title.

A computerised support platform forfinancial advisers The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to us:- Title A Computerised Support Platform for Financial Advisers Field of Invention This invention concerns a computerised support platform for financial advisers.

In other aspects the invention may appear as a server-based application system or a system incorporating both a client or browser platform and a server-based system.

Background of the Invention Financial advisers use financial tools to assist them to deliver a broad range of financial advice (holistic) to their customers, that is, investment, insurance, debt, estate planning, tax and cashflow advice. Each tool is dedicated to perform a portion of the financial planning task, for example, assessing risk or wealth creation. Advisers are faced with selecting the tools appropriate for the circumstances and lifestyle objectives of their customers, entering their customer's data into those tools, then using each of the tools to produce components of the financial plan that form the basis for the advice that is given to their customers. It is important that the tools are not limited to recommending only particular types of financial planning strategies, but that the customer is able to receive and consider recommendations extending over a broad range of types of financial planning strategies. It is also important that the tools help the adviser consider the clients full financial position and lifestyle goals whose achievement is dependent on their financial position. When the financial adviser is able to achieve both these aims their advice is considered to have been provided through a holistic approach.

Summary of the Invention In a first aspect, the invention is a computerised support platform for financial advisers, the platform comprising: a range of financial tools for advisers to use in connection with customer sessions to generate financial plans for customers based on their circumstances and lifestyle objectives; a process-driven interface to present the range of financial tools to the advisers for selection and use; an internal integration component for sharing financial data between the financial tools, and an external integration component to receive external financial data for distribution to the internal integration component; wherein, in use, external financial data received by the external integration component is automatically made available to the tools via the internal integration component, and customer data entered by the adviser into one financial tool as a result of a session with a customer is automatically made available to other tools via the internal integration component.

Such a support platform enables the production of financial plans based on current market data. It also supports efficient generation of the plans, and compliance with statutory requirements and organisational standards. The support platform is also able to demonstrate the value of an holistic approach to financial advice.

The financial tools may include a Financial Planning Tool, a Lifestyle Modeller, Risk Manager, Cash-Flow Manager, Tax Manager, Portfolio Manager, Debt Manager, Estate Management, Strategy Filter, Debt Calculator and Budgeting Tool.

The Lifestyle Modeller may compute for a customer, a Life Path Wealth Graph, Aspiration Rating and Confidence Level, Expected Return, Total Expenditure, Expected Retirement Expenses and Date, Probability of Running Out of Wealth and Pension Amount.

The Strategy Filter may assist an adviser, in the selection of potential financial planning strategies to meet a customer's lifestyle goals by identifying eligible strategies for the customer, for which the adviser can then determine the most reasonable and appropriate mix.

The Debt Calculator may model the debt position of a customer, and illustrate the impact of potential debt strategies.

The Risk Manager may evaluate a customer's risk needs and help the adviser recommend a suitable risk product, such as life or income protection insurance.

The adviser interface may represent the financial tools as an array of icons in a launch window. The tools may be logically labelled and arranged in the launch window for easy selection and use. A process-driven interface is contrasted to a tooldriven interface by presenting functionality in a way that relates to the life cycle of sessions an adviser will have with a client during holistic financial planning. This interface not only enables a single sign-on process to all the tools, but also simplifies and accelerates access to the appropriate tool.

The adviser interface may be provided by an Internet browser, for example, Microsoft Internet ExplorerTM or Netscape NavigatorTM. Data input from advisers may be keystrokes or mouse movement. Data output from the adviser interface may further include graphical data for visual presentation, text formatting and pictures.

The internal integration component may include adaptors for the financial tools to allow them to interact with each other. There may be a tool specific adapter for each financial tool. The adaptors match each tool's preferred interface communications, and transform data from a tool independent data format into a tool specific data format for each financial tool. The tools can be added or replaced with impact only on the adaptor for that tool.

The internal integration component may transfer data between the tools using a tool independent data format. The internal integration component may include a database to store data in a tool independent data format. The tool independent data format may be eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

The XML data may be packaged into 'documents' for storage and transport in the internal integration component. In this way the internal integration component does not need to understand the data encapsulated in the documents. The documents are adaptor, and therefore tool, independent. The documents are not related to each other.

The adaptors operate to retrieve, revoke and publish documents, and transform the tool independent information in them back and forth between their tool specific format.

The financial data may include the external financial data, customer data, account data and financial product data.

The data sharing provided by the internal integration component minimises data re-key and ensures data consistency and data integrity.

The external integration component may communicate with a remotely located aggregation server. The external financial data may be collected, and then stored in a database connected to the aggregation server.

The external integration component may be scheduled and executed as a background process to collect data from the aggregation server. The external integration component issues a request for data, and proactive agents in the aggregation server respond by identifying data waiting to be sent and sending it one item at a time.

Reactive agents in the external integration component process and deliver the items of data to the internal integration component. The external integration component continues to issue requests for data until the aggregation server has no more data waiting to be sent.

The external integration component also operates to collect data from the platforms at adviser sites and export it. The external integration component has proactive agents which collect data from the platform. These agents are interrogated while communications are established with the aggregation server to see whether they have data ready for export. If so, then the data is transmitted to reactive agents in the aggregation server where reactive agents process it for storage or onward transmission.

Any type of external data may be collected and new types of data may be accommodated as they become available by adding new agents.

The aggregation database may have a status table to track message delivery, agent specific tables to track what data has been sent to advisers, tables for storing templates and tables for tracking adviser subscription to specific external financial data.

The external financial data may include market data from financial markets, pricing data, market research and market recommendations. The external financial data may include transaction data from financial products, for example, managed funds or superannuation. Part of the external financial data may be transmitted to the aggregation database directly from financial institutions, for example, the Australian Stock Exchange, Sydney Futures Exchange or brokerage houses.

The external integration component is able to deliver the data to several different computers upon initiation by a single user, for instance an entire networked office could receive the data simultaneously through the external integration component.

The external integration component allows advisers to provide an accurate snapshot of a customer's current financial position.

The internal integration component may distribute the external financial data received by the external integration component to predetermined financial tools. The use of both components of integration in the distribution of external data makes the external integration component independent of the tools.

The adviser interface may be implemented as if it were a financial tool, and integrated with the other financial tools using the external and internal integration components.

The platform may be installed on a desktop computer of an adviser. The platform may be a thin-client that reduces computer hardware costs for advisers since they do not require high-powered computer desktop hardware to deliver holistic financial advice to their customers.

In a second aspect, the invention is an aggregation server to support financial adviser platforms, the server comprising: a processor to collect external financial data and to store it in an aggregation database; proactive agents to identify respective types of external financial data from predetermined data sources; and, a web service to receive requests for external financial data from a platform; wherein, in use, a request for external financial data from the platform causes the proactive agents, in turn, to identify any item of respective data in the aggregation database waiting to be sent and, if such a data item is identified, also causes the web service to send that data item to a reactive agents in the platform that correspond to the proactive agent that identified it.

The predetermined data sources may be external or internal. An external data source may include the Australian Stock Exchange, Sydney Futures Exchange or brokerage houses.

Brief Description of the Drawings An example of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a logical model of the advice interface independent of the financial planning tool.

Figure 2 is a physical infrastructure diagram of the strategic advice platform.

Description of the Best Modes of the Invention Referring to Figure 1, the strategic advice platform 50 is a computerised support platform for financial advisers. The platform 50 includes a range of financial tools 53, an adviser interface 51, and internal and external integration components 52, 55 cooperating with the financial tools 53 to deliver data integration and environment services to the platform The financial tools 53 are used by advisers in connection with customer sessions to generate financial plans for customers based on their circumstances and lifestyle objectives. The tools 53 also monitor the status of existing financial plans of a customer. The financial tools include Lifestyle Modeller, Risk Manager, Cash-Flow Manager, Tax Manager, Portfolio Manager, Debt Manager, Estate Management, Strategy Filter, Debt Calculator and Budgeting Tool. The Lifestyle Modeller computes for a customer, a Life Path Graph, Aspiration Rating and Confidence Level, Expected Return agreed, Total Expenditure, Expected Retirement Expenses and Date, Probability of Running Out of Wealth and Pension Amount. The Strategy Filter assists an adviser, in the selection of potential strategies to meet a customer's lifestyle goals by identifying eligible strategies for the customer, for which the adviser can then determine the most reasonable and appropriate mix of these strategies for the customer. The Debt Calculator models the debt position of a customer. The Risk Manager lists protection strategies available to a customer, for example, insurance.

The adviser interface 51 is a process-driven interface for advisers that presents the range of financial tools 53 for selection and use. In contrast to a tool-driven interface, the adviser interface 51 presents the tool functionality in a way that relates to the life cycle of sessions an adviser has with a customer during holistic financial planning. The adviser interface 51 represents each financial tool 53 as an icon in a launch window. The tools 53 are logically labelled and arranged in the launch window for easy selection and use. Financial tools 53 can also be launched via command line.

This interface 51 enables a single sign-on process to all the tools 53 and simplifies and accelerates access to the appropriate tool 53. It also eliminates the need to support multiple adviser interfaces for each financial tool 53 reduces support costs.

The external integration component 55 receives external financial data 70 for distribution to the internal integration component 52. The external financial data includes market data from financial markets, pricing data, market research and market recommendations. The external financial data 70 also includes transaction data from financial products, for example, managed funds or superannuation. Part of the external financial data 70 is transmitted from a consolidated database 71 and also directly transmitted from product systems of financial institutions 72. By distributing the external financial data 70 to the internal integration component 52, the external integration component 55 allows advisers to provide an accurate snapshot of a customer's overall current financial position. In use, the external financial data received by the external integration component 55 is automatically made available to the tools 53 via the internal integration component 52. The use of both integration components 52, 55 in the distribution of external financial data 70 enables the external integration component 55 to be independent of the tools 53.

The external integration component 55 centrally maintains and distributes managed fund information, ASX Listed Securities information and the latest rates.

Advisers download the following managed fund information: daily unit prices, end of month and end of year prices, distribution details, and listed securities information.

Advisers download the following listed securities information: end of day prices, end of month and end of year prices, dividend details and rates. Advisers download and keepup-to date the following rates: tax rates, Centrelink rates, Rebates; and Consumer Price Index.

The internal integration component 52 shares financial data between the financial tools 53. Data is transferred by the internal integration component 52 between tools 53 in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format. Data in XML format is packaged into document form for storage and transport in the internal integration component 52. By doing so, the internal integration component 52 does not need to understand the data encapsulated in the documents. The documents are adapted, and are therefore tool 53 independent. The documents are not related to each other. The adaptors operate to retrieve, revoke and publish documents, and transform the tool independent information in them back and forth between their tool specific format. The data sharing provided by the internal integration component 52 minimises data re-key and ensures data consistency and data integrity. This data includes external financial data 70, customer data, account data and financial product data. Regarding customer data, the internal integration component 52 shares the following information between financial tools 53: customer personal details, customer financial details including their objectives, and customer retirement details. In use, customer data entered by an adviser into one financial tool 53 as a result of a session with a customer is automatically made available to other tools 53 via the internal integration component 52. The internal integration component 52 includes adaptors for the financial tools 53 to allow them to interact with each other. One adapter is provided for each financial tool 53. The adaptors match each tool's 53 preferred communications, and transforms data from XML into a tool specific data format for each financial tool 53. Tools 53 can be added or replaced with impact only on the adaptor for that tool 53.

When an adviser logs into the platform 51, the adviser interface 51 enables the internal integration component 52 to allow data sharing between the financial tools 53.

The login is via a single user ID and password. The internal 52 and external integration components are disconnected upon closing the adviser interface 51. The last date/time a successful connection was made using external integration component can be determined. If a successful connection was not made, an explanation is provided. The adviser interface 51 allows the adviser to add, remove or clear custom links to personal applications, tools or web sites.

The external integration component 55 of each platform 50 communicates with a remotely located aggregation server 21. The aggregation server 21 is connected to an aggregation database 22. The external financial data 70 is collected by a collector 24 and stored in the aggregation database 22. The aggregation database 22 has a status table to track message delivery, agent specific tables to track what data has been sent to advisers, tables for storing templates and tables for tracking adviser subscription to specific external financial data The external integration component 55 includes an external integration client 56 to retrieve external financial data 70 from the aggregation server 21 which is stored at the aggregation database 22. The external integration client 56 is executed as a background process and can be scheduled to collect the data from the aggregation server 21. Service agents 57, 58 are invoked by the external integration client 56 to collect and process the external financial data 70. Two types of service agents exist on the platform 50: proactive agents 57 to periodically collect external financial data and reactive agents 58 to process external financial data 70 received from the aggregation server 21. Reactive agents 59 and proactive agents 60 also exist on the aggregation server 21 which are instructed by the service agents 57, 58 of the external integration component 55 to collect and process the external financial data Proactive agents 60 specifically identify respective types of external financial data from predetermined data sources including the Australian Stock Exchange, Sydney Futures Exchange or brokerage houses. Typically, the external integration component 55 issues a request for data 70, and a proactive agent 60 in the aggregation server 21 responds by identifying data 70 waiting to be transmitted. The proactive agent 60 then transmits this data 70 across one item at a time.

The aggregation server 21 includes a web service (not shown) built using Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) to receive requests for external financial data 70 from strategic advice platforms 50. Once a data item has been identified, the web service transmits the data item to a reactive agent 58 in the platform 50 corresponding to the proactive agent 60 which identified it. Reactive agents 58 in the external integration component 55 of the platform 50 process and deliver the data items to the internal integration component 52. The external integration component 55 continues to issue requests for data 70 until the aggregation server 21 has no more data 70 awaiting transmission.

The external integration component 55 also operates to collect data from platforms 50 installed at adviser offices 3, 4, 5 and export it. Proactive agents 57 of the external integration component 55 collect data from the platform 50. These agents 57 are interrogated while communications are established with the aggregation server 21 to see whether they have data ready for export. If so, the data is transmitted to reactive agents 59 in the aggregation server 21 to be processed and stored for onward transmission. New agents 57, 58, 59 60 can be added to accommodate new types of external data The external integration component 55 is able to deliver data to several different computers upon initiation by a single user. For example, an entire networked office could receive data simultaneously through the external integration component Referring to Figure 2, in a distributed system, the platform 50 is installed at the client side 1 on adviser workstations 11. Adviser workstations 11 are located at internal offices 4, 5, external offices 3 or in Local Area Network (LAN) configurations.

Microsoft Office XP/2000TM is installed on workstations 11 for word processing and spreadsheet applications. Workstations 11 also locally store limited customer related data.

At the server side 2, server-based adviser services are managed and provided by a cluster of web servers, application servers 21, a database server 22 and LDAP server 23.

Adviser workstations 11 connect to the server side 2 via the Internet 13 or a corporate intranet 14. At external 4 or adviser's offices 5, adviser file and SQL servers 12 are provided to enable data to be efficient shared between workstations 11. When data is temporarily stored for offline usage, any changes made are replicated and imported back to the adviser file server 12.

It is envisaged that in an alternative, the strategic advice platform could deliver advice tools online over the Internet to advisers. This may be provided by Internet based financial planning tools, a CRM tool, calculators and modellers. Tools 53 can also be downloaded as smart-customer applications that are refreshed automatically when the adviser or user is online.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims (25)

1. A computerised support platform for financial advisers, the platform comprising: a range of financial tools for advisers to use in connection with customer sessions to generate financial plans for customers based on their circumstances and lifestyle objectives; a process-driven interface to present the range of financial tools to the advisers for selection and use; an internal integration component for sharing financial data between the financial tools, and an external integration component to receive external financial data for distribution to the internal integration component; wherein, in use, external financial data received by the external integration component is automatically made available to the tools via the internal integration component, and customer data entered by the adviser into one financial tool as a result of a session with a customer is automatically made available to other tools via the internal integration component.

2. A computerised support platform according to claim 1, wherein the financial tools include one or more of a Financial Planning Tool, a Lifestyle Modeller, a Risk Manager, a Cash-Flow Manager, a Tax Manager, a Portfolio Manager, a Debt Manager, an Estate Manager, a Strategy Filter, a Debt Calculator or a Budgeting Tool.

3. A computerised support platform according to claim 2, wherein the Lifestyle Modeller computes for a customer one or more of a Life Path Wealth Graph, an Aspiration Rating and Confidence Level, an Expected Return, a Total Expenditure, an Expected Retirement Expenses and Date, a Probability of Running Out of Wealth or a Pension Amount.

4. A computerised support platform according to claim 2, wherein the Strategy Filter assists an adviser in the selection of potential financial planning strategies to meet a customer's lifestyle goals by identifying eligible strategies for the customer, for which the adviser can then determine the most reasonable and appropriate mix. i A computerised support platform according to claim 2, wherein the Debt Calculator models the debt position of a customer, and illustrates the impact of potential debt strategies.

6. A computerised support platform according to claim 2, wherein the Risk Manager evaluates a customer's risk needs and helps the adviser recommend a suitable risk product, such as life or income protection insurance.

7. A computerised support platform according to any preceding claim, wherein the adviser interface represents the financial tools as an array of icons in a launch window.

8. A computerised support platform according to claim 7, wherein the tools are logically labelled and arranged in the launch window for easy selection and use.

9. A computerised support platform according to any preceding claim, wherein the adviser interface is provided by an Internet browser. A computerised support platform according to any preceding claim, wherein the internal integration component may include adaptors for the financial tools to allow them to interact with each other.

11. A computerised support platform according to claim 10, wherein there is a specific adapter for each financial tool.

12. A computerised support platform according to claim 11, wherein the specific adaptor matches a tool's preferred interface communications, and transforms data from the tool's independent data format into the tool's specific data format.

13. A computerised support platform according to any preceding claim, wherein the internal integration component transfers data between the tools using a tool independent data format.

14. A computerised support platform according to claim 13, wherein the internal integration component includes a database to store data in a tool independent data format. A computerised support platform according to claim 12, 13 or 14 wherein the tool independent data format is eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

16. A computerised support platform according to claim 15, wherein the XML data is packaged into 'documents' for storage and transport in the internal integration component.

17. A computerised support platform according to any preceding claim, wherein the external integration component communicates with a remotely located aggregation server.

18. A computerised support platform according to claim 17, wherein the external financial data is collected, and then stored in a database connected to the aggregation server.

19. A computerised support platform according to claim 18, wherein the external integration component is scheduled and executed as a background process to collect data from the aggregation server.

20. A computerised support platform according to claim 19, wherein the external integration component issues a request for data, and proactive agents in the aggregation server respond by identifying data waiting to be sent and sending it one item at a time.

21. A computerised support platform according to claim 20, wherein reactive agents in the external integration component process and deliver the items of data to the internal integration component.

22. A computerised support platform according to claim 21, wherein the external integration component continues to issue requests for data until the aggregation server has no more data waiting to be sent.

23. A computerised support platform according to any one of claims 17 to 22, wherein the external integration component also operates to collect data from the platforms at adviser sites and export it.

24. A computerised support platform according to claim 23, wherein the external integration component has proactive agents which collect data from the platform. A computerised support platform according to claim 24, wherein the agents are interrogated while communications are established with the aggregation server to see whether they have data ready for export; if so, then the data is transmitted to reactive agents in the aggregation server where reactive agents process it for storage or onward transmission.

26. A computerised support platform according to claim 25, wherein the aggregation database has a status table to track message delivery, agent specific tables to track what data has been sent to advisers, tables for storing templates and tables for tracking adviser subscription to specific external financial data.

27. A computerised support platform according to any preceding claim, wherein the internal integration component distributes the external financial data received by the external integration component to predetermined financial tools.

28. A computerised support platform substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

29. An aggregation server to support financial adviser platforms according to any preceding claim, the server comprising: a processor to collect external financial data and to store it in an aggregation database; proactive agents to identify respective types of external financial data from predetermined data sources; and, a web service to receive requests for external financial data from a platform; wherein, in use, a request for external financial data from the platform causes the proactive agents, in turn, to identify any item of respective data in the aggregation database waiting to be sent and, if such a data item is identified, also causes the web service to send that data item to a reactive agents in the platform that correspond to the proactive agent that identified it. Dated this fourteenth day of January 2005 National Wealth Management Services Limited Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: F B RICE CO