Method and apparatus for delegating authority

Abstract

A delegated authority system allows an account holder to delegate authority to one or more individuals, such as financial advisors through a third party service. An individual receives authority to access financial accounts and/or access aggregated financial data. The individual may then retrieve account information from the individual accounts or from the aggregated financial data. In on exemplary system, the account information is accessed via the Internet or another data communication network.

1 .- 44 . (canceled) 
     
     
         45 . A method, comprising:
 receiving from a user, by a financial management system comprising one or more computers, first information identifying one or more financial accounts associated with the user;   receiving, by the financial management system and from one or more financial institutions responsive to receiving the first information, second information comprising data associated with the one or more financial accounts;   storing, by the financial management system, third information corresponding to the received second information;   receiving, by the financial management system and from the user, a delegation of financial authority, wherein the delegation of financial authority comprises an identification of an entity to be allowed to perform one or more functions associated with the one or more financial accounts, and wherein the one or more functions comprises viewing at least a portion of the data associated with the one or more financial accounts;   receiving, by the financial management system and from the identified entity subsequent to receiving the delegation of financial authority, a request to view financial data associated with the user; and   transmitting, by the financial management system to the identified entity and responsive to receiving the request to view the financial data associated with the user, a presentation corresponding to the stored third information.   
     
     
         46 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the second information is received without human interaction. 
     
     
         47 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the second information is received without interaction with the user. 
     
     
         48 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more financial accounts comprise at least one of a savings account, a checking account, a certificate of deposit account, a home equity account, a mortgage account, a money market account, an equities account, a mutual fund account, a bond account, a credit card account, an overdraft protection account, or a loan account. 
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more financial institutions comprise a bank, a savings and loan, a credit union, a mortgage company, a lending company, or a stock broker. 
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the identified entity comprises a financial advisor, a spouse, an accountant, an assistant, or a lawyer. 
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the second information is received via a direct data feed, via an Extensible Markup Language (XML) exchange, or via a data harvesting script. 
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 51 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the financial management system and from the user, an access credential associated with a first account of the one or more financial accounts; and   providing, by the financial management system and prior to receiving the second information, the access credential to a financial institution associated with the first account of the one or more financial accounts when the second information is received via a data harvesting script.   
     
     
         53 . The method of  claim 45 , further comprising generating, by the financial management system, the third information based at least in part on the received second information. 
     
     
         54 . The method of  claim 53 , wherein generating the third information comprises normalizing data of the second information to a standard format. 
     
     
         55 . The method of  claim 53 , wherein at least first data of the second information is in a different format than at least second data of the second information, and wherein generating the third information comprises normalizing the at least first data and the at least second data to a standard format. 
     
     
         56 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more functions further comprises accessing at least a portion of the data associated with the one or more financial accounts, accessing only predefined portions of the data associated with the one or more financial accounts, accessing all of the data associated with the one or more financial accounts, accessing only a summary of the data associated with the one or more financial accounts, generating reports based at least in part on the data associated with the one or more financial accounts, or generating messages to the user based at least in part on the data associated with the one or more financial accounts. 
     
     
         57 . The method of  claim 45 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the financial management system and from the identified entity, an alert condition;   determining, by the financial management system, that the data associated with the one or more financial accounts satisfies the alert condition; and   transmitting, by the financial management system, an alert to the user when the data associated with the one or more financial accounts satisfies the alert condition.   
     
     
         58 . The method of  claim 45 , wherein the presentation corresponding to the stored third information comprises a summary of the stored third information or transaction data associated with the stored third information. 
     
     
         59 . A system, comprising:
 at least one memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and   at least one processor configured to access the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:   receive, from a user, first information identifying one or more online accounts;   receive, from one or more service providers, second information comprising data associated with the one or more online accounts;   store third information corresponding to the received second information;   receive, from the user, a delegation of authority, wherein the delegation of authority comprises an identification of an entity to be allowed to access, view, or generate a report or a message based at least in part on at least a portion of the data associated with the one or more online accounts; and   provide, for presentation to the identified entity and after receipt of the delegation of authority, a presentation corresponding to the stored third information.   
     
     
         60 . The system of  claim 59 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
 receive, from the user, an access credential associated with the one or more online accounts; and   provide, prior to receiving the second information, the access credential to the one or more online accounts when the second information is received via a data harvesting script.   
     
     
         61 . The system of  claim 59 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to generate the third information based at least in part on the received second information, and wherein generating the third information comprises normalizing the received second information to a standard format. 
     
     
         62 . One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, configure the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
 receiving, from a user, first information identifying one or more online accounts;   receiving, from one or more service providers, second information comprising data associated with the one or more online accounts;   storing third information corresponding to the received second information;   receiving, from the user, a delegation of authority, wherein the delegation of authority comprises an identification of an entity to be allowed to access, view, or generate a report or a message based at least in part on at least a portion of the data associated with the one or more online accounts; and   preparing, for presentation to the identified entity and responsive to receipt of the delegation of authority, a presentation corresponding to the stored third information.   
     
     
         63 . The one or more computer-readable media of  claim 62 , wherein the one or more online accounts comprise a savings account, a checking account, a certificate of deposit account, a home equity account, a mortgage account, a money market account, an equities account, a mutual fund account, a bond account, a credit card account, an overdraft protection account, or a loan account. 
     
     
         64 . The one or more computer-readable media of  claim 62 , further comprising:
 receiving, from the identified entity, an alert condition;   determining that the data associated with the one more online accounts satisfies the alert condition; and   transmitting an alert to the user based at least in part on determining that the data associated with the one more online accounts satisfies the alert condition.