AU2006230764B2

AU2006230764B2 - A method and system for providing document management

Info

Publication number: AU2006230764B2
Application number: AU2006230764A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Michael Hallinan
Original assignee: CONGAMAN Pty Ltd
Current assignee: CONGAMAN Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2005-12-23
Filing date: 2006-10-23
Publication date: 2007-09-06
Anticipated expiration: 2026-10-23
Also published as: AU2006230764A1

Description

P001 Section 29 Regulation 3.2(2)

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Application Number: Lodged: Invention Title: A method and system for providing document management The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us:

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0 A METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT FIELD OF THE INVENTION c The present invention relates to systems and methods for providing document management.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF) are a prime example of where document management can prove to be a complex issue. A trustee of an 0SMSF, when setting up a fund, initially executes a trust deed which sets out, Namong other things, the governing rules according to which the fund will operate.

The trust deed, as a physical document, can prove complex and difficult to manage when changes to the governing rules are made, especially when these rule changes are caused by mandatory changes due to new legislation or regulatory rules. Trustees often find managing voluntary changes to their governing rules an onerous task. However, where changes are required due to new legislation or regulatory rules, the management task becomes more onerous as the trustee must be constantly aware that such mandatory changes need to be effected. Typically, changes to the governing rules are made by deed amendments to the original trust deed. As a consequence, after only a few amendments are made, the document becomes quite difficult to comprehend, as the governing rules of the fund are set out in the original deed as amended by subsequent amendments which, in turn, may amend previous amendments to the governing rules.

Trustees often use agents or advisors to professionally assist in dealing with the complexities of managing their governing rules. However, for advisors managing a large portfolio of trust deeds, when new legislation or regulatory changes require changes to be made to each fund's governing rules, the task of individually amending each trust deed in their portfolio can be a very time consuming task. Similar issues arise in many other situations, where multiple amended documents can become difficult to understand.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method which reduces the time and effort involved in document management for the purposes of document amendment.

7- 2 O SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION SAs a premise for the present invention it has been found that types of individual documents can be carefully created so as to include content, specific to a particular individual document, and common content, which is common to all documents of that type. Taking SMSF trust deeds as an exemplary example, such trust deeds could be created with fund rules common to all funds. Individual trust deeds can be carefully drafted to incorporate, at least by way of reference, Othe common fund rules. In such a way, anticipated changes could be effected to N the common fund rules which, due to its communality, would allow one 10 amendment to have bearing on all appropriately drafted SMSF trust deeds.

SAccording to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for providing document management, said method including: creating a document, said document including document specific content and common content, which is common with other created documents, said common content including content which is potentially amendable; providing at least said document specific content to a document holder party; electronically storing document record details in a document record database; electronically storing said common content in a common content memory, said common content memory being accessible by said document holder party via a management server; wherein, if said common content is amended, electronically storing said amended common content in said common content memory; notifying said document holder party of the amended common content; and requesting whether said document holder party rejects said amended common content; wherein, if a rejection is received from said document holder party, altering the respective document record details to reflect that said document is noncompliant for any future common content amendment.

Preferably, the document record details includes document holder party contact information. In this case, the notifying step includes retrieving the document holder party contact information from the document record database and using the contact information to notify the document holder party. The contact information may be an email address to allow notification by email.

In exemplary embodiments, the management server is a web server and the document holder party can access the common content memory by instigating an internet communication with the management server.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a document management system for managing a plurality of created documents, each created document including document specific content and current common content, said current common content being content which is common to all created documents and includes content which is potentially amendable, said system including: an electronic common content memory for storing said current common content; a document record database for storing document record details for each created document; and a management server connected to said common content memory and said document record database, said server including: receiving means for receiving a request for said current common content from a document holder party; providing means for providing said requested current common content to said requesting document holder party; amending means for amending said current common content stored in said common content memory and storing said amended common content in said common content memory as current common content; and notifying means for notifying each document holder party when said current common content is amended and for requesting each document holder party whether said amended common content is rejected; indication receiving means for receiving an indication whether said amended common content is rejected from any document holder party; and document record altering means for altering the document record details in said document record database for a particular created document to indicate that said particular document is non-compliant with said system when said indication receiving means receives a rejection from the respective document holder party.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a document management system.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The present invention lends itself to many different implementations, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The following example is intended purely to illustrate one possible implementation. In the following implementation, the method and system are applied to SMSF trust deeds as an exemplary example of a suitable type of document. However, it will be appreciated that the method and system could be readily adapted for applied use with a wide variety of documents.

The first step in the preferred method is the creation of an SMSF trust deed. The deed is created so that it consists of two main parts.

O The first part of the deed is common content, being content which is Scommon to all deeds created for the purpose of the document management c system 10. The common content will include the current version of fund rules

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which provide the current governing rules for the fund.

The second part of the deed is specific content, which will be content unique to the particular SMSF fund. Such specific content will include information Isuch as the identity of the trustee and the name of the fund, etc. Additionally, the r"specific content will include amendment provisions. The amendment provisions will, as normal, confer an amendment power on the trustee. However, additionally, the amendment provisions will confer an amendment power upon a content management party 18. The content management party 18 may be the administrator of the document management system 10. Alternatively, the administrator may be a third party that grants the content management party 18 access to the system 10 for the purposes of effecting amendments. Ideally, the amendment power conferred upon the content management party 18 is limited to amending only the common content or, more specifically, the fund rules. The specific content will also include incorporation provisions which incorporate the common content into the deed and provide that future superseding amended versions of the common content will be incorporated into the deed.

Typically, the deed will be created by the content management party 18.

When the deed is created, it is executed by the fund's trustee or a party authorised by the trustee under power of attorney. A copy of at least the document specific content is made available to a document holder party 12 as a physical hard copy or possibly as an electronic document, eg an attachment to an email. The document holder party 12 may be the trustee. However, the document holder party 12 could be an agent or fund advisor for the trustee. The document holder party 12 will also be given a reference to the common content which is stored in a common content memory 20 associated with a management server 16. Ideally, the management server 20 is a web-server which can be accessed by the document holder party 12 via the internet 14. Thereby, the document holder party 12 can access the common content at any time by initiating an internet communication with the management server 16. The document specific content may also be electronically stored for intemet access by

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O the relevant document holder party 12 via the management server 16. It will be Sappreciated that the common content need not be stored only in one place the o server contents may be held or replicated at various sites. However, the content management party 18 remains in control of effecting amendments to the common content.

It is anticipated that trustees having existing deeds may wish to use the Isystem 10, in which case, as a first step, the content management party 18 may r- 0need to amend the existing deed so that the amended deed is compliant with the Nnecessary two part format.

When a compliant deed is created, an entry is created in a document record database 22 associated with the management server 16. The entry will ideally include details concerning the relevant deed, the deed's trustee and document holder party 12. Essentially, the entry will include contact information for the relevant document holder party 12, for example, an email address. In this way, when the common content stored in the common content memory 20 is amended, the server 16 can access the contact information in order to communicate the fact that the amendment has occurred to all relevant document holder parties 12 for example, by emailing a notification to each document holder party 12.

Any amendment to the common content is preferably performed by the content management party 18 in accordance with their conferred amendment power. The amendment may be a mandatory amendment as required according to changes in legislation or industry regulations. Potentially, the amendment may be a voluntary change recommended by the content management party 18. In any case, when the common content is amended, the notification to the document holder parties 12 would ideally include an explanation for the amendment and a query as to whether each document holder party 12 accepts or rejects the amendments. The serverl6 may ideally receive a reply to the query from each document holder party 12 by way of email. Alternatively, the document holder party 12 may be provided with a certain time period in which to reject the amendments or else the amendments are taken to be accepted. Where the notification is by way of electronic means, eg email, a link may be provided which

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allows the document holder party 12 to indicate their rejection of the amendments.

c If a document holder party 12 accepts or does not reject the amendments, the respective trust deed is taken to be amended and the document holder party 12 can access the amended common content as before.

If a document holder party 12 rejects the amendments, the respective Nunamended trust deed, although valid, is taken to be non-compliant with the r"document management system 10. In which case, the relevant entry in the (Ni document record database 22 can be deleted so that any further amendments to INO the common content is not notified to the document holder party 12. Alternatively, the document record database 22 entries could include a document status having a default active status. In which case, the server 16 may be programmed so that, upon an amendment to common content, notification is sent to a document holder party 12 only when the relevant status is active. If a document holder party 12 rejects an amendment, the relevant status could be changed to inactive so that notifications of further amendments are not sent to the relevant document holder party 12.

In preferred embodiments, superseded versions of common content are retained in the common content memory 20. Document holder parties 12 may access and search for superseded versions of common content by way of internet access with the management server 16. A search could be conducted according to a number of different parameters including time of amendment, time when a version was current, nature of amendments, etc.

The management server 16 could be any common computing platform (eg PC, Apple, IBM, Sun, HP), utilising commonly known operating systems (eg Windows, HPUX, Solaris, Linux, BSD Unix, Mac OS) and in common programming languages (eg Visual Basic, C, Pascal, Java).

While the present invention has been described with reference to a specific embodiment, it will be appreciated that various modifications and changes could be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In particular, although SMSF trust deeds have been referred to in the description as an exemplary type of document, the system and method can be adapted for other types of documents which can be drafted in the necessary two part form. Examples of \7 O other types of documents include: managed investment scheme deeds, c compliance plans for managed investment schemes, unit trust deeds, o discretionary trust deeds, family trust deeds, franchise agreements, franchise Cc disclosure documents, financial services dealer agreements, authorised representative agreements, commercial leases, company constitutions, and derivative agreements (including interest rate swaps, currency swaps, forward IDrate agreements and difference contracts).

Claims

1. A method for providing document management, said method including: creating a document, said document including document specific content and common content, which is common with other created documents, said common content including content which is potentially amendable; providing at least said document specific content to a document holder party; electronically storing document record details in a document record database; electronically storing said common content in a common content memory, said common content memory being accessible by said document holder party via a management server; wherein, if said common content is amended, electronically storing said amended common content in said common content memory; notifying said document holder party of the amended common content; and requesting whether said document holder party rejects said amended common content; wherein, if a rejection is received from said document holder party, altering the respective document record details to reflect that said document is non- compliant for any future common content amendment.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said document record details includes document holder party contact information; wherein said notifying step includes retrieving said document holder party contact information from said document record database and using said contact information to notify said document holder party.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein said document holder party contact information includes an email address and said notifying step includes sending an email to said email address.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said management server is a web server and said document holder party can access said common content memory by instigating an internet communication with said management server.

5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said document record details include document status, said status being active as a default, wherein said step of altering the respective document record details includes changing said status to inactive; wherein said notifying step is conditional upon said document status being active.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said step of altering the respective document record details includes deleting the respective document record details from said document record database.

7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, further including the step of retaining common content which has been superseded by amendment in said common content memory as superseded common content.

8. The method according to claim 7, further including the step of allowing said document holder party to access said superseded common content.

9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein, in said notifying step, providing an explanation for said amended common content.

The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein said document is a self-managed superannuation fund trust deed and said common content includes fund rules.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said document holder party is the trustee of the self-managed superannuation fund.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein said document holder party is an agent of the fund trustee.

13. A document management system for managing a plurality of created documents, each created document including document specific content and current common content, said current common content being content which is common to all created documents and includes content which is potentially amendable, said system including: an electronic common content memory for storing said current common content; a document record database for storing document record details for each created document; and a management server connected to said common content memory and said document record database, said server including: receiving means for receiving a request for said current common content from a document holder party; providing means for providing said requested current common content to said requesting document holder party; amending means for amending said current common content stored in said common content memory and storing said amended common content in said common content memory as current common content; notifying means for notifying each document holder party when said current common content is amended and for requesting each document holder party whether said amended common content is rejected; indication receiving means for receiving an indication whether said amended common content is rejected from any document holder party; document record altering means for altering the document record details in said document record database for a particular created document to indicate that said particular document is non-compliant with said system when said indication receiving means receives a rejection from the respective document holder party.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein said document record details including document holder party contact information for use by said notifying means.

The system according to claim 14, wherein said notifying means includes an email application and said document holder party contact information includes an email address.

16. The system according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein said management server is a web server; and said receiving means and said providing means are incorporated into a connection to the internet.

17. The system according to any one of claims 13 to 16, wherein said document record details include document status, said status being active as a default; wherein said document record altering means changes said status to inactive when said indication receiving means receives a rejection from the respective document holder party; wherein said notifying means is conditioned to notify a document holder party only if said document status is active.

18. The system according to any one of claims 13 to 16, wherein said document record altering means deletes respective document record details from said document record database when said indication receiving means receives a rejection from the respective document holder party.

19. The system according to any one of claims 13 to 18, wherein said electronic common content memory stores common content which has been superseded by amendment as superseded common content.

The system according to claim 19, wherein said server includes means for allowing a document holder party access to said stored superseded common content.

21. The system according to claim 19 or 20, wherein said server includes a search engine accessible by a document holder party for searching stored superseded common content.

22. The system according to any one of claims 13 to 21, wherein said plurality of created documents are self-managed superannuation fund trust deeds and said common content includes fund rules.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein a document holder party is a trustee of a self-managed superannuation fund.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein a document holder party is an agent of a trustee of a self-managed superannuation fund. CONGAMAN PTY LTD WATERMARK PATENT TRADE MARK ATTORNEYS P26110AU00