Method and system for assisting a client in the transfer of usage of accounts at one or more financial institutions
A system and method of assisting a client transfer financial services using a first account to a second account collects relevant information and authorization from the client. The system and method maintains a database of counterparties providing services to clients of financial institutions and uses the information provided by the client and information in the database of counterparties to schedule and effect the transfer of the services. The system and method creates the necessary transfer information for each service to be transferred and dispatches the completed transfer information to each counterparty with a desired date for the transfer to be effected, the desired dates being selected in accordance with a cashflow analysis performed by the system and method of both the account at the previous financial institution and the account at the new financial institution.
1. A method of assisting a client to transfer financial services using a first account to use a second account via a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
(i) registering authorization from the client to effect the transfers on the behalf of the client;
(ii) registering an identification of the services to be transferred and the counterparty which provides each identified service;
(iii) performing a cashflow analysis for the first account and a cashflow analysis for the second account using a processor to determine for each counterparty and each service the desired date to effect the transfer to avoid undesirable cashflow spikes or interruptions in both accounts; and
(iv) for each counterparty, preparing a suitable transfer document to effect transfer of the respective service, each transfer document identifying the service to be transferred, the client, the second account, the desired date for the transfer and providing authorization from the client.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (iii) further comprises the step of maintaining and using a database of counterparties. the database inc hiding a definition of the information and forms required by the counterparty and an indication of any lead time required by the counterparty to effect a transfer.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the cashflow analysis further provides an expected cashflow report to the client to allow the client to manage the first and second accounts during the transfers.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of having the cashflow analysis determine a date by which all services wilt he transferred from the first account and effecting a transfer of the balance of the first account to the second account after the determined date.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
(v) dispatching each prepared transfer document to the respective counterparty.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first account is offered by a first financial institution and the second account is offered by a second financial institution.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first account is offered by a first branch of a financial institution and the second account is offered by a second branch of the financial institution.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second accounts are offered by the same financial institution, the first account being a different type of account than the second account.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization from the client in at least one transfer document is a digital reproduction of the signature of the client.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization from the client in at least one transfer document is a confirmation of a PIN identifying the client.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the authorization from the client in at least one transfer document is an audio recording of the client authorizing the transfer.
12. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of identifying, any client who commences the method but does not complete step (ii) within a selected time period and providing information to a representative of the financial institution offering the second account to allow the representative to contact the identified client.
13. A system for assisting a client to transfer financial services using a first account to a second account, comprising:
a data cross referencing system operable to receive and maintain information identifying the client, the first account, the second account, the services to be transferred and the authorization of the client to effect the desired transfers;
a counterparty database operable to maintain and provide counterparty information regarding the counterparties providing each service to be transferred for the client, the counterparty information identifying the information required by the respective counterparty to effect a transfer and an indication of any mandatory lead time required by the counterparty to effect a transfer, the data cross referencing system accessing the counterparty database to verify information received from the client relating to each service to be transferred;
a cashflow engine stored on a computer operable to examine each service to be transferred and the date the service debits or credits the account of the client, the cashflow engine determining for each service to be transferred a desired date for the transfer to be effected, the determined date being selected to avoid undesirable cashflow spikes or interruptions in both the first account and the second account; and
a transfer engine stored on a computer operable to create the transfer information required by each respective counterparty to effect the desired transfers, the transfer information being populated by the transfer engine with the appropriate information from the data cross referencing system and the desired date determined by the cashflow engine and the authorization received by the data cross referencing system from the client, and to dispatch the created transfer information to the respective counterparties.
14. The system of claim 13 wherein the transfer information comprises a paper form.
15. The system of claim 13 wherein the transfer information comprises an electronic dataset.
16. The method of claim 5 wherein at least one transfer document is an electronic document and is forwarded to the counterparty via electronic delivery.