Granted Patent B1

US 12,282,962 · App. 17/805,800 · Granted Apr 22, 2025

Inventor: Padmavathy Bitragunta (Bengaluru, IN)

Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.

G06Q40/06G06Q20/02G06Q20/04G06Q40/02

Abstract

Claims (85)

1. A group management system for administering transactions between plan participants in a retirement plan, the group management system comprising:

at least one processor unit programed to perform operations comprising:

selecting a plurality of potential plan participants to be included in a participant grouping;

querying the plurality of potential plan participants for consent to be included in the participant grouping;

storing an indication of a set of plan participants that are part of the participant grouping, the set of plan participants having consented to be included in the participant grouping;

accessing public verification keys for the set of plan participants, the public verification keys for the set of plan participants comprising a public verification key for a first plan participant of the set of plan participants;

using the public verification keys for the set of plan participants to monitor transactions involving the set of plan participants at a retirement plan distributed ledger;

using the public verification key for a first plan participant of the set of plan participants to determine that a transaction for the first plan participant indicates a trigger condition for the first plan participant, the trigger condition indicating that the first plan participant has failed to make at least one scheduled contribution to a retirement plan account of the first plan participant, the transaction for the first plan participant having been added to the retirement plan distributed ledger by a second computing system distinct from the group management system;

generating an intra-group transaction, the intra-group transaction being based at least in part on the trigger condition for the first plan participant, the intra-group transaction comprising a contribution to the retirement plan account of the first plan participant from a retirement plan account of a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

sending, via a user interface, an indication of the intra-group transaction to a computing device of the first plan participant and to a computing device of the second plan participant via a user interface;

receiving authorizations for the intra-group transaction from the computing device of the first plan participant and the computing device of the second plan participant via the user interface;

generating a transaction record describing the intra-group transaction, the generating of the transaction record comprising digitally signing the transaction record using a private verification key; and

broadcasting the transaction record to be included in the retirement plan distributed ledger.

2. The group management system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising before accessing the public verification keys for the set of plan participants, determining that the set of plan participants meets at least one participant grouping criterion.

3. The group management system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:

determining that respondent plan participants from the plurality of potential plan participants fail to meet at least one participant grouping criterion; and

querying a plurality of supplemental plan participants for consent to be included in the participant grouping, the set of plan participants comprising at least one plan participant from the plurality of potential plan participants and at least one plan participant from the plurality of supplemental plan participants.

4. The group management system of claim 1 , the intra-group transaction being a loan from at least a second plan participant to the first plan participant, the operations further comprising:

sending, to the set of plan participants, an intra-group transaction description describing the intra-group transaction; and

determining that more than a threshold number of the set of plan participants have indicated consent to the intra-group transaction.

5. The group management system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:

detecting, by the group management system, a trigger condition for a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

generating, by the group management system, a second intra-group transaction, the second intra-group transaction being based at least in part on the trigger condition for the second plan participant, the second intra-group transaction comprising a contribution to a retirement plan account of the second plan participant from at least one of the set of plan participants;

sending, to the set of plan participants, a second intra-group transaction description describing the second intra-group transaction; and

upon failing to receive indications of consent to the second intra-group transaction from more than a threshold number of the set of plan participants, cancelling the second intra-group transaction.

6. The group management system of claim 1 , the intra-group transaction being a loan from at least a second plan participant to the first plan participant, the operations further comprising:

using, by the group management system, a public verification key of the first plan participant and a public verification key of the second plan participant to detect a repayment transaction from the first plan participant to the second plan participant;

determining, by the group management system, that the repayment transaction offsets the intra-group transaction; and

writing an indication that the intra-group transaction is closed.

7. The group management system of claim 6 , the operations further comprising querying at least one of the first plan participant or the second plan participant to confirm that the repayment transaction is associated with the intra-group transaction.

8. The group management system of claim 1 , the operations further comprising:

receiving, from the first plan participant, a tag request indicating a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

using a public verification key of the second plan participant to detect a first transaction involving the second plan participant at the retirement plan distributed ledger; and

sending, to the first plan participant, a description of the first transaction.

9. The group management system of claim 8 , the operations further comprising, before sending the description of the first transaction to the first plan participant, sending a consent request to the second plan participant.

10. A method for administering transactions between plan participants in a retirement plan, the method comprising:

selecting, by a group management system, a plurality of potential plan participants to be included in a participant grouping;

querying, by the group management system, the plurality of potential plan participants for consent to be included in the participant grouping;

storing, by the group management system, an indication of a set of plan participants that are part of the participant grouping, the set of plan participants having consented to be included in the participant grouping;

accessing, by the group management system, public verification keys for the set of plan participants, the public verification keys for the set of plan participants comprising a public verification key for a first plan participant of the set of plan participants;

using, by the group management system, the public verification keys for the set of plan participants to monitor transactions involving the set of plan participants at a retirement plan distributed ledger;

using the public verification key for a first plan participant of the set of plan participants to determine, by the group management system, that a transaction for the first plan participant indicates a trigger condition for the first plan participant, the trigger condition indicating that the first plan participant has failed to make at least one scheduled contribution to a retirement plan account of the first plan participant, the transaction for the first plan participant having been added to the retirement plan distributed ledger by a second computing system distinct from the group management system;

generating, by the group management system, an intra-group transaction, the intra-group transaction being based at least in part on the trigger condition for the first plan participant, the intra-group transaction comprising a contribution to the retirement plan account of the first plan participant from a retirement plan account of a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

sending, via a user interface, an indication of the intra-group transaction to a computing device of the first plan participant and to a computing device of the second plan participant via a user interface;

receiving authorizations for the intra-group transaction from the computing device of the first plan participant and the computing device of the second plan participant via the user interface;

generating a transaction record describing the intra-group transaction, the generating of the transaction record comprising digitally signing the transaction record using a private verification key; and

broadcasting the transaction record to be included in the retirement plan distributed ledger.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising before accessing the public verification keys for the set of plan participants, determining that the set of plan participants meets at least one participant grouping criterion.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

determining that respondent plan participants from the plurality of potential plan participants fail to meet at least one participant grouping criterion; and

querying a plurality of supplemental plan participants for consent to be included in the participant grouping, the set of plan participants comprising at least one plan participant from the plurality of potential plan participants and at least one plan participant from the plurality of supplemental plan participants.

13. The method of claim 10 , the intra-group transaction being a loan from at least a second plan participant to the first plan participant, the method comprising:

sending, to the set of plan participants, an intra-group transaction description describing the intra-group transaction; and

determining that more than a threshold number of the set of plan participants have indicated consent to the intra-group transaction.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

detecting, by the group management system, a trigger condition for a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

generating, by the group management system, a second intra-group transaction, the second intra-group transaction being based at least in part on the trigger condition for the second plan participant, the second intra-group transaction comprising a contribution to a retirement plan account of the second plan participant from at least one of the set of plan participants;

sending, to the set of plan participants, a second intra-group transaction description describing the second intra-group transaction; and

upon failing to receive indications of consent to the second intra-group transaction from more than a threshold number of the set of plan participants, cancelling the second intra-group transaction.

15. The method of claim 10 , the intra-group transaction being a loan from at least a second plan participant to the first plan participant, the method further comprising:

using, by the group management system, a public verification key of the first plan participant and a public verification key of the second plan participant to detect a repayment transaction from the first plan participant to the second plan participant;

determining, by the group management system, that the repayment transaction offsets the intra-group transaction; and

writing an indication that the intra-group transaction is closed.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising querying at least one of the first plan participant or the second plan participant to confirm that the repayment transaction is associated with the intra-group transaction.

17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

receiving, from the first plan participant, a tag request indicating a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

using a public verification key of the second plan participant to detect a first transaction involving the second plan participant at the retirement plan distributed ledger; and

sending, to the first plan participant, a description of the first transaction.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising, before sending the description of the first transaction to the first plan participant, sending a consent request to the second plan participant.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions thereon that, when executed by at least one processor unit, causes the at least one processor unit to perform operations comprising:

selecting a plurality of potential plan participants to be included in a participant grouping;

querying the plurality of potential plan participants for consent to be included in the participant grouping;

storing an indication of a set of plan participants that are part of the participant grouping, the set of plan participants having consented to be included in the participant grouping;

accessing public verification keys for the set of plan participants, the public verification keys for the set of plan participants comprising a public verification key for a first plan participant of the set of plan participants;

using the public verification keys for the set of plan participants to monitor transactions involving the set of plan participants at a retirement plan distributed ledger;

using the public verification key for a first plan participant of the set of plan participants to determine that a transaction for the first plan participant indicates a trigger condition for the first plan participant the trigger condition indicating that the first plan participant has failed to make at least one scheduled contribution to a retirement plan account of the first plan participant, the transaction for the first plan participant having been added to the retirement plan distributed ledger by a second computing system distinct from at least one processor unit;

generating an intra-group transaction, the intra-group transaction being based at least in part on the trigger condition for the first plan participant, the intra-group transaction comprising a contribution to retirement plan account of the first plan participant from a retirement plan account of a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

sending, via a user interface, an indication of the intra-group transaction to a computing device of the first plan participant and to a computing device of the second plan participant via a user interface;

receiving authorizations for the intra-group transaction from the computing device of the first plan participant and the computing device of the second plan participant via the user interface;

generating a transaction record describing the intra-group transaction, the generating of the transaction record comprising digitally signing the transaction record using a private verification key; and

broadcasting the transaction record to be included in the retirement plan distributed ledger.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 19 , the operations further comprising:

receiving, from the first plan participant, a tag request indicating a second plan participant of the set of plan participants;

using a public verification key of the second plan participant to detect a first transaction involving the second plan participant at the retirement plan distributed ledger; and

sending, to the first plan participant, a description of the first transaction.

Assignments (1)

References Cited (46)