WO2022120555A1

WO2022120555A1 - Investment platform and system and method for investing in financial products

Info

Publication number: WO2022120555A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/134436
Authority: WO
Inventors: Timothy Jones; Lee Wilkins
Original assignee: Smart Save Limited
Priority date: 2020-12-08
Filing date: 2020-12-08
Publication date: 2022-06-16
Also published as: CN117836799A

Abstract

A system and a method for an investment platform comprising a gateway arranged to receive user profile information; and an investment portfolio creation processor arranged to generate an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user.

Description

[Title established by the ISA under Rule 37.2] INVESTMENT PLATFORM AND SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INVESTING IN FINANCIAL PRODUCTS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an investment platform and a system and method for investing in financial products, and particularly, although not exclusively, to a system and method for investing in financial products which uses a customized template created for users to select financial products for the creation and maintenance of an investment portfolio.

BACKGROUND

Investors wanting to create savings for the future will find that there are numerous options available on the market. However, it may be difficult for inexperienced investors to be able to design and manage a suitable investment portfolio to grow their savings over time.

In turn, inexperienced investors wanting to create savings are generally pushed towards the purchase of individual assets without any significant appreciation of the suitability of these individual assets for their individual investment circumstances. This can create two significant problems for the investment industry, the first is that the investors may not receive a strong return on their investment and thus be inclined to turn away from investing altogether or investors may be forced to adjust their financial goal or lifestyle around an investment which may not have been suitable for them in the first instance.

These difficulties saw the growth of the investment services industry where investment managers assisted investors with buying various assets to create an investment portfolio. However, despite the growth of this industry, many operators within it are only offering generic investment portfolios which may not be suitable for each individual investor. The result of these deficiencies has meant poor investment returns and low investor confidence, with many investors potentially avoiding investment managers or even investing completely.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an investment platform comprising:

- a gateway arranged to receive user profile information; and,

- an investment portfolio creation processor arranged to generate an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the platform further includes an investment portfolio maintenance module arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the platform further includes a financial products database arranged to include references to one or more financial products.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the financial products database further includes projection data for each of the one or more financial products.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the financial products include exchange traded funds (ETFs) .

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the platform further includes a clearance module arranged to perform one or more transaction requests with an exchange, wherein the one or more transaction requests are associated with the one or more financial products held in the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the investment template includes a predefined portfolio composition ratio and an investment duration.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the predefined portfolio composition ratio includes a predefined ratio of equity or bond assets.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the predefined portfolio composition ratio further includes a predefined ratio of commodity assets.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the predefined ratio of equity, bond or commodity assets varies with a risk acceptance level of the user.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the investment portfolio maintenance module is further arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio in accordance with the predefined portfolio composition ratio.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the investment portfolio maintenance module maintains the investment portfolio upon an adjustment event.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the adjustment events include a change in the investment template, change in the value of the investment portfolio, new contributions or withdrawals made by the user, reinvestment of dividends or other investment returns or interests of the investment portfolio (herein generally referred to as dividends) , periodic maintenance or any combination thereof.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the projection data includes existing index data and proxy data.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the proxy data is calculated by processing performance results of assets of the index and/or assets associated with a sector associated with the index.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the projection data is processed to provide a projection of the performance of the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the projection of the performance of the investment portfolio is provided as a range of projections over a selected timeframe.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the projection of the performance of the investment portfolio is processed to generate a suitability rating arranged to represent the suitability of the investment portfolio to a user defined investment purpose.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, wherein the suitability rating is generated by comparing the projection of the performance of the investment portfolio with one or more performance indicators associated with the investment purpose.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio is determined by a learning network.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the learning network is a multi-class classification network.

In an embodiment of the first aspect, the learning network is trained with labels associated with the geographic focus of the financial product, the transaction costs of the financial product, sustainability rating of the financial product or any combination thereof.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for investing in financial products comprising:

- a gateway arranged to receive user profile information; and,

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the system further includes an investment portfolio maintenance module arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the system further includes a financial products database arranged to include references to one or more financial products.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the financial products database further includes projection data for each of the one or more financial products.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the financial products include exchange traded funds (ETFs) .

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the system further includes a clearance module arranged to perform one or more transaction requests with an exchange, wherein the one or more transaction requests are associated with the one or more financial products held in the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the investment template includes a predefined portfolio composition ratio and an investment duration.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the investment portfolio maintenance module is further arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio in accordance with the predefined portfolio composition ratio.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the investment portfolio maintenance module maintains the investment portfolio upon an adjustment event.

In an embodiment of the second aspect, the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio is determined by a multi-class classification network trained with labels associated with the geographic focus of the financial product, the transaction costs of the financial product, sustainability rating of the financial product or any combination thereof.

In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for investing in financial products comprising the steps of:

- receiving user profile information from a user; and,

- generating an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the method further includes the step of maintaining the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the method further includes a financial products database arranged to include references to one or more financial products.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the financial products database further includes projection data for each of the one or more financial products.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the financial products include exchange traded funds (ETFs) .

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the method further includes a step of performing one or more transaction requests with an exchange, wherein the one or more transaction requests are associated with the one or more financial products held in the investment portfolio.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the investment template includes a predefined portfolio composition ratio and an investment duration.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the step of maintaining the investment portfolio is further arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio in accordance with the predefined portfolio composition ratio upon an adjustment event.

In an embodiment of the third aspect, the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio is determined by a multi-class classification network trained with labels associated with the geographic focus of the financial product, the transaction costs of the financial product, sustainability rating of the financial product or any combination thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a computing system which may be implemented with software/hardware to operate as an investment platform in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a block diagram of the investment platform of Figure 1;

Figure 3A is a data flow diagram of the investment platform of Figure 2;

Figure 3B are example screenshots of a user interface arranged for users to interact with the investment platform;

Figure 3C are example screenshots of another user interface arranged for users to interact with the investment platform;

Figure 3D are example screenshots of another user interface arranged for users to interact with the investment platform;

Figure 4 is a process flow diagram of a template adjustment process operating in the investment platform of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is a data flow diagram of a portfolio maintenance module operating in the investment platform of Figure 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

With reference to Figure 1, there is illustrated an embodiment of a computer system 100 which may be arranged to be implemented so as to operate as an investment platform or as a system for investing in financial products comprising: a user gateway arranged to receive user profile information; an investment portfolio creation processor arranged to generate an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products for investment by a user. These selected financial products may form an investment portfolio for the user.

Preferably, the platform or system further includes a portfolio maintenance module (also referred to as a maintenance module) arranged to adjust or rebalance the investment portfolio upon a maintenance or adjustment event. In turn, the maintenance module may maintain the investment portfolio for the user by making adjustments to the amount of holdings of the financial products that make up the investment portfolio over time such that the investment portfolio remains consistent to a user′s investment strategy as decided when the investment template was created or last updated.

In this example embodiment, the gateways, interfaces, modules and processors are implemented by a computer, computing device or computer system having an appropriate user interface, processor or communication gateway. The computer or computing device may be implemented by any computing architecture, including stand-alone personal computers (PCs) or computer server, client/server architecture, “dumb” terminal/mainframe architecture, cloud based computing architecture, “smart” devices such as smartphones, smart appliances, smart wearable devices, portable computing devices including Internet of Things (IoT) devices or any other appropriate architecture. The computing device may be appropriately programmed to implement the invention.

Referring to Figure 1, there is shown a schematic diagram of a computing system 100 which may be implemented to operate as an investment platform or a system for investing in financial products. In this embodiment, the computing system 100 is implemented on a computing device, such as a computer server 100 which may communicate with other information servers or data sources to obtain user profile information or financial product information. Such user profile information may include, without limitations, user profiles or user savings details. The server 100 may also be in communication with users via an interface such as a web service or by connecting to a user′s computing or smart devices (e.g. portable electronic or computing devices such as smartphones, smart glasses, smart appliances, Internet of Things (IOT) devices, etc. ) via software such as “apps” or Internet browsers.

In this example, the server 100 comprises suitable components necessary to receive, store and execute appropriate computer instructions. The components may include a processing unit 102, read-only memory (ROM) 104, random access memory (RAM) 106 and input/output devices such as disk drives 108, input devices 110 such as an Ethernet port, a USB port, etc. Display 112 such as a liquid crystal display, a light emitting display, remote displays or any other suitable display and communications links 114 may also be included. The server 100 includes instructions that may be included in ROM 104, RAM 106 or disk drives 108 and may be executed by the processing unit 102. There may also be provided a plurality of communication links 114 which may variously connect to one or more computing devices such as a server, personal computers, terminals, databases 120, wireless or handheld computing devices, smart devices, IoT devices, portable computing devices or to any other devices via a network or cloud based computing system. At least one of a plurality of communications link 114 may be connected to an external computing network through a telephone line or other type of communications link.

The server 100 may include storage devices such as a disk drive 108 which may encompass solid state drives, hard disk drives, optical drives or magnetic tape drives. The server 100 may use a single disk drive or multiple disk drives. The server 100 may also have a suitable operating system 116 which resides on the disk drive or in the ROM of the server 100.

The server 100 may be executing software which has been implemented to provide an example embodiment of a method for investing in financial products comprising the steps of: receiving user profile information from a user; and, generating an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is created and arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user. When instructed by a user via a command or request, the server 100 may then proceed to connect with the user and obtain from the user, their profile information. The user profile information may include various user related information associated with the user including user information such as the user′s identification, user profiles as well as any of the user′s savings preferences or plans. The user profile information may be obtained by querying the user and requesting the user to respond to certain questions, or the user profile information may be obtained via metadata or other user stored profile details accessible via a user′s identification.

In some example embodiments, once certain details of a user is known, such as their identity or profile information, additional user profile information may be devised by use of data mining or machine learning systems so as to determine information relating to the user that may be useful in determining the type of financial products that may be more suitable for this particular user. Factors which may be considered for the determination of which financial products are suitable may include the user′s age, occupation, income levels, geographic locations, family/dependents compositions, investment goal, educations, interests, social opinions or preferences.

Once the user profile information is obtained, the server 100 may then proceed to create an investment portfolio by selecting one or more financial products from a financial products database, list or matrix 120 based on any user information obtained, including the user profile and any savings preferences or plans that may be obtained or otherwise accessible. Once selected, the user may be given an opportunity to review the investment portfolio, including the review of any projections of the portfolio′s performance over time before the user commits to investing in the portfolio by placing transaction requests with an exchange in order to buy (or sell) the selected financial products that make up the investment portfolio. During the review process, the user may also be able to re-select any elements selected within the investment portfolio before deciding to commit to investing in the selected portfolio. Examples of such interfaces where a user may provide their user information, create an investment portfolio and review the investment portfolio before committing to placing a transaction request are described further below with reference to Figures 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 4 and 5.

Preferably, once the investment portfolio has been selected, reviewed and purchased, the user′s investment journey has begun. However, as the user′s personal circumstances and investment goals as well as the value of the investment portfolio are dynamic and therefore subjected to change over time, a rebalancing of the investment portfolio may be required periodically such that the investment portfolio continues to hold financial products which are consistent with the user′s original investment strategy as determined when the investment portfolio was created or as when the investment strategy was last updated by the user. Accordingly, in some embodiments of the investment platform and system for investing in financial products there may also be included a portfolio maintenance module which is arranged to adjust and rebalance the investment portfolio in view of such changes in order to increase the relevance of the investment strategy or savings plan to the investor over time. This module may also be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of both on the computing system 100 so as to provide this function to the user. Examples of the portfolio maintenance module in operation is further described below with reference to Figures 2, 3A and 5.

Embodiments of the investment platform and system for investing in financial products may be advantageous as users (investors) , are able to create a suitable investment portfolio based on an investment plan or strategy which is compatible, or otherwise at least decided as based on their profile and preferences. Furthermore, the platform and system may also allow the users to review the projections of their portfolio′s expected performance into the future before the users commit to the purchase of the financial products which make up their investment portfolio. This provides control to users without the necessity to consult investment advisers who may offer incorrect advice or advice which serves the adviser′s own interest. In embodiments where the investment portfolio is maintained via the rebalancing or adjustments to assets which are held to make up the investment portfolio, the investment portfolio may continue to be adjusted so as to remain on track with the user′s original or most updated investment strategy or plan, and thus increasing its relevance to the user′s goal of building up their savings over the long term.

With reference to Figure 2, there is illustrated a block diagram of an investment platform 200 or a system for investing in financial products comprising:

- a user gateway arranged to receive user profile information;

- an investment portfolio creation processor arranged to generate an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products for investment by a user to create an investment portfolio; and

- a maintenance module arranged to adjust the investment portfolio upon an adjustment event.

Preferably, the one or more financial products are also selected from a database of financial products which may also be referred to as a financial product list or matrix. The financial products matrix may include entries of financial products, together with the financial product′s classification. The classification may include any attributes or characteristics of the financial product, such as their asset class, geographic focus or investment focus. Additionally, the financial product matrix may also include or reference performance data, such as indices or proxy indices data for the financial products arranged for performing any performance projection of each of the financial products.

In this embodiment, the investment platform 200 is arranged to operate on a computing device, such as a computer server or cloud based server and is arranged to communicate with users 202 via an electronic communication network such as the internet. Users 202 may access the investment platform 200 by using an application or “app” on a smart device such as a smartphone or smart device, or via a computer or tablet computer which may access a web interface of the investment platform 200.

Once a user 202 connects to the investment platform 200, the user 202 may firstly begin by providing their

user details

204, 206. This may include their user identity, user profile 204, which may include various information relating to the user such as their age or age group, income status, occupation, location and various interests or concerns as well as their preferences as to savings plans or investment strategies 206. Such preferences may include the purpose of the investment, the amount of money they wish to invest, the duration of their investment, the return they wish to achieve with their investment, their possible level of risk suitable for their individual characteristics, or any other information that may be helpful to determine a suitable investment plan that may in turn be used to create a portfolio for the individual.

Once the user information or

user profile information

204, 206 is obtained from the user 202, the platform 200 is arranged to generate a template for the user based on information that has been obtained. The investment template, which will be described further with reference to Figure 3, outlines the basic structure of an investment plan or strategy for the user as based on the user′s investment preferences and profile and may include, for example, a composition ratio which could be used to determine the ratios of various financial products that should be held in reflection of the user′s investment strategy or savings plan. In turn, an investment portfolio 208 that would be suitable for the user′s investment strategy or plan may be created by including different financial products of different types or classifications in accordance with the composition ratios of this template.

Any type of assets or financial products may be included in the investment portfolio 208. However, in one preferred embodiment, the types of financial products that may make up the portfolio 208 may include, without limitations:

- Equity assets or assets associated with equity related indices;

- Bond assets or assets associated with bond related indices;

- Commodity based assets or assets associated with commodity indices.

Within these types (or asset classes) of financial products, each may be further classified into various classifications, including industry sectors, environmental/sustainability, geographic relevance, transaction costs and fees, etc. Accordingly, the investment portfolio creation processor is arranged to select one or more financial products from a database of financial products to create this investment portfolio 208 as based on a pre-determined investment template that had been created based on an investment strategy or savings plan that is most suitable for the user. As these processes which result in the creation of the investment portfolio 208 originates from the consideration of the user′s profile and

investment preferences

204, 206, the selection of financial products is likely to reflect the user′s choices or preferences. However, where the user wishes to change or override any of suggestions, the user may also manipulate the interface to change the composition of the investment portfolio by altering their investment time frame, amount invested, risk profile or choice of financial products. In turn, the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio 208 is a recommendation for the user, and may be changed as the user sees fit.

Once the investment portfolio 208 has been created, it is provided to the user for review. As part of this review process, the user may be presented with a projection 212 of the investment portfolio′s projected performance into the future. In order to provide these projections 212, the financial products matrix is arranged to reference or include adequate historical data of the performance of the financial products which are available for selection such that a projection 212 of their future performance can be determined. In accordance with financial modelling principles, the projections 212 of the future performance of the selected portfolio may be presented as a range of expected outcomes, which is based on the range of outcomes from the analysis of the historical performance data of the selected financial products in the database. This range of outcomes therefore reflects the range of different probabilities of the different outcomes, so as to offer a range of projections 212 for consideration by the user 202.

In turn, the user 202 may proceed to review the projections 212 and depending on the user′s consideration, the user may have the option of adjusting their investment portfolios 208. Such adjustments may include, without limitation the replacement of suggested financial products which have been selected for inclusion into the investment portfolio 208. In this regard, the user 202 may select alternative financial products for inclusion or exclusion within their portfolio 208. They may also adjust their investment capital or period of investment as required as well as their investment portfolio′s 208 composition between the amount of the different types of assets (e.g. equity, bonds, commodities, etc) which make up the portfolio 208.

Upon any adjustments the user 202 may make on the composition of the investment portfolio 208, once the user 202 approves of the finalized investment portfolio 208, the user 202 may then proceed to execute the trades so as to buy (or sell) the financial products in order to create and hold the investment portfolio 208. The financial products within the investment portfolio 208 will be purchased via an exchange 218. This may be performed directly by the investment platform 200 which would be arranged to place a transaction 214 order with an exchange 218 after securing the necessary funds or credit from the user 202. Once the transaction is cleared, the investment portfolio 208 will be held by the user as his or her investment.

As shown in Figure 2, the platform 200 also includes an investment portfolio maintenance module 210 arranged to rebalance the investment portfolio 208 periodically. As the value of the investment portfolio 208 as well as the predefined portfolio composition ratios may vary over time so as to reflect on a user′s changing approach on their investment goal, it may become necessary to rebalance the portfolio 208 so as to follow the original investment strategy or saving plans as defined by the user 202 when the original investment template or investment portfolio 208 was created. The rebalancing process 210 may take into account of any user profile updates 204, 206 or manual adjustments to the user′s investment strategy as well as any dividends or other investment returns or interests 216 that may be paid for the existing holdings of the financial products such that these may be reinvested into the investment portfolio 208. These adjustments may adjust the holding of the various financial products in the investment portfolio 208 and thus once confirmed by the user 202, further transactions 214 request to purchase or sell financial instruments may in turn be made with the exchange 216 to update the portfolio 208.

With reference to Figure 3A, there is illustrated a data flow process of an operating investment platform 300 similar to the investment platform 200 of Figure 2. As shown in this example embodiment, the investment platform 300 includes a financial product matrix 302 which is a database of financial products that may be suggested and selected for inclusion in a user′s investment portfolio when using the investment platform 300 for investment. In this embodiment, the database 302 may include a listing or matrix of different financial products. Each of these financial products may also be classified into different types and classifications. There are no limits as to the number of types, sub types, classifications or sub-classifications of the financial products, but as an example, the following classification of the financial products may be used in this embodiment of the present invention:

Asset Class	Geographic focus	Investment focus
Equity	Asia	Gold
Commodity	Asia (ex Japan)	Crude oil
Multi-Asset	Brazil	Fixed income -Government Bond
Fixed Income	China	Fixed income -Investment Grade Bond
	China (Globally listed)	Market tracker
	China (Hong Kong listed)	Sector -Real Estate
	China (US listed)	Sector -Technology
	Developed Asia ex Japan	Sector -Consumer good & services
	Developed Europe	MMI
	Emerging Market	Iron Ore
	Emerging Asia	Emerging Asia Titans
	Europe	Theme -AI and Robotics
	Germany	Theme -Banks
	Global	Theme -Biotech & Pharma
	Greater China	Theme -Cloud computing
	Hong Kong	Theme -Gold miners
	Indonesia	Theme-Electric vehicles
	India	Theme -Innovative technology
	Japan	Theme -Internet companies
	Korea	Theme -New economy companies
	Malaysia	Theme -dividend stocks
	Philippines	Theme -Clean Technology
	Singapore	Mixed
	Russia
	Taiwan
	Thailand
	UK
	US

Different financial products may be listed within this matrix 302 and used by users for investments. There are no limits to the number of financial products which may be included into the matrix 302, but the inventors have, through research and trials, found that there is a preference for the financial product matrix 302 to include Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for investments by users of this one example embodiment of the investment platform 300. The choice of ETFs may provide an advantage as ETFs are diversified market/index tracking funds which enable historical analysis as a means to facilitate the creation of long term projections 212. Moreover, because of the diversified nature of ETFs, any risks associated with the purchase of only one or few individual discrete assets, may be somewhat mitigated for the investor without any substantive analysis of market information or performance indicators. In turn, this may reduce the effort required for the investor to actively monitor their investments on a day to day basis and thus offering a more attractive proposition with investors wanting to create savings over the long term.

In this example embodiment, the financial product matrix 302 also includes a dataset of benchmark index performances (ETFs) for both bond, equity and other asset classes such as, but limited to commodities. In this example embodiment, and as the person skilled in the art would appreciate that variations are possible, the data captured for equities, bonds and other assets is as follows:

● Data is captured from January 1990 onwards (i.e. currently 30 years of data and counting) ;

● Data is on a monthly basis; and,

● Data is on a total return and net of tax basis.

For each ETF listed in the financial product matrix 302, which may include equities, bonds or other assets ETFs, it is possible that certain ETFs have only been launched recently and thus would not have the necessary data stretching as far back as 1990. In order to ensure there is sufficient data for projection purposes, and for consistency such that a projection 212 can be formulated with any combination of any (old and new) ETFs, it may be necessary to create proxy data 306 for ETFs which do not have projection data which extends to 1990. For ETFs which had already been launched from before 1990, existing index data 304 can be used.

Accordingly, to create the proxy data 306, the ETFs are split into at least two classifications. These include its sector classification and geographic classification and in turn, for ETFs which had only been launched relatively recently, data relating to financial products in the same classification or geographic classification may be used to create a proxy data 306 for the ETF. Thus for an ETF which had only been launched after 1990 (or from any year in which data is collected for projection) , any pre-launch benchmarks relevant to the ETF may be used as proxy data 306 (e.g. similar benchmarks or a calculation of the benchmark by studying the performance of the underlying assets of the ETF) , or alternatively, by using relating assets within the same sector or geographic classification to create the proxy data. It follows that for all periods after an ETF has been launched, the actual ETF performance 304 may be used instead of the proxy index 306.

In this example, the financial product matrix 302 consists of a monthly index 304 for each ETF from 1990 up until the current time period (hereafter referred to as the ′ETF proxy index′ ) . Preferably, each ETF proxy index 306 may be kept up to date by combining it with the actual monthly performance of the ETF going forward for each month. These proxy indices 306 are advantageous as they are able to provide a data-driven methodology to project a range of expected outcomes to users for each ETF available on the investment platform. The projected range of outcomes 212 presented to users may present a graphical illustration for the user so as to allow the users, including those with minimal investment experience, to appreciate a forecast as to their savings created by the investments in the specific ETFs selected.

As a person skilled in the art would appreciate, where the financial products selected include ETFs, such a selection may be advantageous as ETFs are already diversified investment products themselves (given that each ETF is a composite of all of the company constituents in the index that the ETF tracks) . In turn, as ETFs track a diversified index, a robust methodology may be created in order to provide a meaningful and risk-based projection of the range of outcomes expected for an ETF.

To provide an example of the types of indices that the ETFs would track that have been tested in an example of the investment platform 300, the inventors have found that the following indices may be suitable for the operation of one example of the investment platform 300.

Equity Indices

The following equity stock market indices may be included in the financial product matrix 302:

These cover 80%of the global stock exchanges on a market capitalization basis (as of 2019) .

Preferably, for equities, the data for each market is broken down to a sector level. The sector level may include the following sectors:

● Consumer Discretionary

● Consumer Staples

● Energy

● Financials

● Healthcare

● Industrial

● Materials

● Real Estate

● Technology

● Telecoms

● Utilities

The sector level classification may be helpful in creating proxy data 306, or alternatively, it may be helpful for the process of creating investment templates to select specific equities in which the user has any specific sector preferences.

Bond Indices

The following bond indices may be included in the financial product matrix 302:

Other Asset Indices

The following ′Other Indices′ may be included in the financial product matrix 302:

Index	Details	Country/Region
New York Gold Price	Price of gold	New York

Once the financial products database or matrix 302 is populated with the necessary data and indices for projection 212, the investment platform 300 is now ready to create individual or customizable investment strategy templates for each user.

In order to create an investment strategy template for each user 304, the user′s information, including their profile 204, their savings preferences or any desired investments goals and purposes 206 are firstly obtained or determined to determine a suitable savings plan or preference for the user. The savings plan or preference are in turn used by the platform to determine the composition of the investment portfolio which will be suggested to the user for acceptance to form their investment. Preferably, the composition may make up of different percentages of financial products in different asset classes such as equity, bond or commodity as dependent on the risk tolerance and time frame of the investment plan. The type of ETFs selected within each of the asset classes may be determined based on other user preferences such as sector preferences, geographic preferences, transactions costs or general interests, moral opinions or beliefs.

As shown in Figures 3B (i) to (iv) , a user may interact with the investment platform and provide their profile information and/or saving′s preferences/desired goals. Once the core information are provided, the user may manipulate the interface to “create a plan” 320. The investment platform 300 may then determine an investment plan and in turn, begin the process of building an investment template that is used to select the financial products for inclusion into the investment portfolio for the user.

In this example embodiment, the investment template may be created 303 around the variables which make up the plan of the investors. These variables include, without limitations:

· The total number of months until the end of the savings plan;

· The monthly recurring contributions/withdrawals into the savings plan;

· A one-off contribution for the current month in question;

· The asset-allocation between bonds and equities (which varies across each month of the savings plan and the risk/return demands of the investor)

· The specific ETFs selected for each of the bond and equity portions of the asset allocation strategy

Preferably, to create a systematic way to map such a template onto the ETF proxy indices, the templates are defined by certain characteristics and for each characteristic certain parameters may also be imposed. These parameters may include, without limitations:

· Total plan length: From 1 to 60 years

· Monthly recurring contributions/withdrawals: For example, from HK$0 to HK$10k a month

· One-off contributions: For example, either zero, or from HK$500 to HK$200k

· The bond-equity asset allocation: This can be chosen from 3 pre-set options, each of which is dynamically linked to the number of years remaining in the selected plan period over time

·

The equity portion of the pre-set option is, in this example, made up of four equity ETFs from the range of ETFs available on the platform (i.e. the ETFs in the financial products database) , with each selected ETF taking a 25%allocation of the overall equity portion. A user can choose the same ETF for as many of the 25%allocation blocks (i.e. one ETF could represent 100%of the equity portion if selected four times) .

· The bond asset portion of the pre-set option may be made up of bond ETFs which are auto-populated, and is currently 50%allocated to HK government bonds and 50%allocated to Asia investment grade bonds.

· Other allocation ratios are possible and a user may choose their own desired bonds or equity ETFs to override or replace suggested bond or equity ETFs which have been suggested and auto-populated by the system.

The investment template may be created 303 by various methods which would incorporate the various variables that would be defined and/or adjusted to reflect the investment plan desired by a user. Such methods may include the use of a rule based process which sets out a series of rules that define the transactions that may be made over the investment period as well as the nature of financial products which may be traded as part of the creation and/or maintenance of the investment portfolio. The rules may reflect on the investment strategy or savings plan of the user so as to increase the chances of success in achieving the investment goal desired.

In one example embodiment, the investment templates may be created 303 by selecting an investment purpose which a user may desire and in turn, the platform may use this investment purpose as a starting point to obtain an investment framework of rules which set the parameters of the type of financial products that may be selected for investment, the composition of financial products within an investment portfolio, the payment schedule, the withdrawal schedule and any changes herein over the investment period.

In order to start this process, a user may firstly select an investment purpose as listed on the platform. There may be many different investment purposes but in general the investment purposes may fall into two streams. The first stream relates to the creation of wealth or savings over time and may apply to the younger population looking at creating wealth or retirement funds for the future. The second stream relates to the planned drawdown of savings over time and in turn may be suitable for retirees looking at drawing on their accumulated wealth to maintain a quality of life in retirement. Within these two streams may be a range of other investment purposes such as the short term creation of wealth to finance a house purchase, new car or renovation, or the short term withdrawal of wealth to pay for urgent expenses, business investments, holidays, weddings or career break. These investment purposes may all be selectable by a user upon their first interaction with the platform to create an investment portfolio and once selected by a user, a framework for each of the investment purpose is retrieved from a database so as to allow the platform to create the investment template, although a user, if desired, may choose to not select an investment purpose, in which case a default investment template, such as one which creates savings into a user defined period of time may be used by the platform as a starting point.

In one example, each framework associated with each investment purpose is defined by a set of rules which fall into categories. These categories may related to:

The asset allocation –the composition of the investment portfolio (e.g. how much equity, bonds, commodities) over which time period.

Payment schedule –the amount and when money is paid into the investment plan.

Withdrawal schedule –the amount and when money may be withdrawn from the investment plan.

Within each of these categories there may be rules which define the transactions that must take place in maintaining the investment portfolio over time so as to, at least as best possible, realize the investment purpose. These transactions may be controlled by the rules such that the type of financial products which may be included in the investment portfolio, the time in which payments or withdraws may be made are governed by the rules. The rules may also set out changes to the rules itself over time during the investment process.

Preferably, the rules may also vary for the level of risk tolerated by a user and in this example, a separate set of rules for each category is defined in accordance with a Low, Medium, High risk so as to reflect a more aggressive or conservative strategy as desired by a user.

As an example, the rules an investment purpose referred to as “I want to build up my savings” , which would be the creation of wealth over time may appear as follows:

In this example, a user may wish to create savings and thus select “I want to build up my savings” and the rules are selected for this specific framework. The user may also select the risk that they wish to assume and thus the rules which will apply will depend on the risk that the user selects. These rules may be predefined by experts or operators of the investment platform and would be accessible by the platform when a user desires to define their investment purpose. The rules may be amended periodically in view of market needs and/or performance.

In a similar example, the following rules may also be applicable to an investment purpose of “I want to drawdown my savings” , which would be a manner in which the savings could be drawdown by a retiree or other user to maintain a certain quality of life when they have no other income source.

It is also possible to combine the different options of the “Template categories” that is what defines the “Investment purpose” in the first instance. For example, another “Investment purpose” could be created which is “I want to build up and then withdraw my savings” , and with three respective options created as follows:

Once a user selects the investment purpose, the user may then proceed to set the time period of the investment. This may take the form of the number of months or years in which the investment is to be made. In turn, this time period is then applied to the framework as selected earlier. This process therefore translates the generic template framework onto an actual set timeframe.

In the above example where a user selected the “Investment purpose 1 option B” , if they then selected “12 years” , the generic template framework categories would then be specifically customised as follows:

And if for example a user selected “12 years” for “Investment purpose 3” and had selected “option c” within that above, the customised schedules would be as follows:

The final step is for a user to then populate their customised schedules with their selected investment and withdrawal amounts per specific time period (e.g. per month) . It could be that these are the same amount per month, as shown in the two examples below, or it could be that a user decides to set a different amount for each period.

In the above example where a user selected the “Investment purpose 1 option B” , and they then selected “12 years” , a user could then opt to invest HK$2 k per month in order to create the following uniquely personalised investment template:

In the above example where a user selected the “Investment purpose 3 option C” , and they then selected “12 years” , a user could then opt to invest HK$10k per month for their payment schedules and for their withdrawal amounts to be HK$5k a month, in order to create the following uniquely personalised investment template:

At this point, a user has their “uniquely personalised investment template” . This is a user′s “uniquely customised investment template” as it is a template unique to them, and which at this point does not contain any investment funds or financial products. In turn, the next step is to enable the user to select their financial products within their “uniquely customised investment template” , and in doing so to create their “personalised investment portfolio” .

It follows that by applying the historical performance of the “selected funds /financial products” in conjunction with the “personalised investment portfolio” (as defined by all specific parameters within the corresponding uniquely customised investment template) , historical performance of the “personalised investment portfolio” on a whole portfolio basis can be conducted.

The investment platform 300 may then also have to select financial products from a large possible list of financial products for inclusion into the investment portfolio. In some embodiments, the platform may use machine learning methodologies to suggest financial products for the user, although certain popular financial products based on the general selections made by the user may also be suggested. In examples where machine learning is used, the user may have already provided some user preferences or user profiles and thus allowing the platform 300 to obtain additional data regarding the user via other sources. The additional data may then be used to determine if specific financial products are likely to be chosen by the user.

In one example, a multi-class classification learning network (such as multi-class neural networks; Signmoid/Softmax functions) may be used to determine if a specific user may more likely have preferences of specific financial products over others. Such learning networks may be created and trained with previous user cases whereby the classifications of financial products, which may also be learnt and not previously labelled, may be associated with each financial product based on their previous user selections. In turn, this information may be combined with user profiles within a learning network to predict user interests.

As shown in Figure 3C (i) to (vi) , the platform may present to the user a list of the financial products as selected for inclusion into the portfolio. However, the user may be able to select different financial products by use of a customization tab 330 which would offer various options that may be of interest to the user. Once any of these options are selected via manipulation of the interface by the user, the portfolio composition is updated to reflect the changes entered by the user.

Once a user has completed their selection and amendments of the portfolio composition 332, the platform 300 is arranged to perform projections of the performance of the investment portfolio in the future 305. As shown in Figures 3D (i) to (vi) , the user interface of the platform 300 may present the

projections

340, 342, 344 for the user to review. Various information relating to the portfolio, including its composition, projection and a suitability rating (such as an automated assessment of the range of the projections) may be presented to the user. The user may review these

projections

340, 342, 344 and decide if further changes should be made to the investment portfolio, or if the user needs to amend or change their investment strategy or savings plan.

The presentation of the

projections

340, 342, 344 and other suitability ratings to the user may be advantageous as the

projection

340, 342, 344 and the suitability rating framework provides a holistic view of the entire portfolio against a user′s risk preference and investment goal/purpose rather than assessing the suitability of each product in isolation. In turn, this arrangement may not only reduce the effort required by a user to appreciate the performance of their investment portfolio as a whole whilst avoiding the necessity for an investor to analyse each individual asset within their investment portfolio, but it may also enable the impact of the correlation of the historical performances between the different financial products selected in the portfolio to be taken into consideration when projecting the expected performance of the portfolio as a whole.

In one example embodiment of the user review process, a diagram showing the flow of information between the platform 300 and the user is shown in Figure 4. As shown, a user may customise their investment template based on their savings plan 402 which would reflect a user′s investment purpose or goal. The platform 300 may then proceed to perform a projection of the investment template 404. These projections allow a suitability scoring analysis 406 to be performed for the projected performance of the investment template. The suitability score is provided to the user together with the projection 408. In turn, a user may review the projections and the suitability score and decide if further changes are necessary to the investment template 410. The process repeats until the user is satisfy with the projection or suitability rating.

The suitability rating of an investment solution from an investment risk perspective may be assessed across a number of different metrics. For example, the ratings may provide a score which reflects:

· Average expected return;

· Lowest expected return;

· Highest expected return;

· Range of expected return;

● Complete range (i.e. the total range from lowest expected return to the highest) ;

● Specific range (e.g. the range of ′95%of expected outcomes′ or ′2/3rds of expected outcomes′ ) .

· Average expected return relative to total contributions;

· Lowest expected return relative to total contributions; or

· One or more combination thereof.

In one embodiment, the range of the projections which is presented for the projection performance for the selected investment portfolio is assessed through a suitability framework which illustrates the up or downside investment risk across the expected range of projections. Preferably, the suitability framework is previously defined for each specific investment purpose or plan which has been selected by a user. As described earlier with reference to Figures 3A to 3D, a user may select a desired investment purpose when they first use the platform to compose their investment portfolio. In turn, each of these investment purposes may have specific performance indicators which would be predefined separately by an expert or a skilled person. As an example, an investment purpose of “short term savings for a deposit on a house” may expect that the savings would generate a return of a range of 4%to 8% annually. In turn, a rating may be able to be provided for the user′s selected investment portfolio by comparing the projections of the selected investment portfolio with these performance indicators. Various performance indicators may apply to different investment purpose, including return ranges, risk ranges, drawdown rates, drawdown in reminder, etc.

This suitability framework may also be presented as a 3-star rating framework, with increasing stars to reflect the suitability of the investment portfolio in reaching the investment purpose. In one example, below, a 3-star rating may be provided to illustrate a representation of the risk that a user might get back less than their total contributions over their savings plan period:

Three Star (Most Suitable)

· 95%or higher chance that the user will get back more than their total contributions

· 0 -5%chance that the user will back less than their total contributions.

Two Star (Very Suitable)

· 90 -95%chance that the user will get back more than their total contributions

· 5 -10%chance that the user will get back less than their total contributions.

One Star (Suitable)

· 80 -89%chance that the user will get back more than their total contributions

· 11 -20%chance that the user will get back less than their total contributions.

If an investment portfolio falls below the 1-star benchmark (i.e. lower than what would normally recommend for a long-term savings plan) then users may still proceed if they are comfortable with the projected outcome. However, the user may be required to specifically confirm as such before they are allowed to proceed with purchasing the financial products of the investment portfolio. Other ratings, relating to rate of returns only or for any specific performance indicators, may also be provided.

Embodiments of the investment platform and system for investing in financial products 300 may be advantageous as the client-product suitability process has been designed to be simpler and requires less effort. This process is in part achieve by applying a user′s specific savings plan template (i.e. the outcome of the ′customised savings plan template′ once they have customised it) to the relevant ETFs in our financial product matrix directly. In turn, this removes the need for an invasive questioning process to act as an intermediary step to map between a client and a product.

As a result, users of the investment platform 300 may be presented with a personalised risk-based projection of the specific financial products (ETFs) that they are considering for their specific savings plan (or ′plan projections′ ) , and as such they can assess the suitability of these financial products directly. This is more advantageous than examples which require risk-profiling questionnaire that require investors to answer hypothetical questions on what options they might choose in the face of pre-fabricated situations.

Once a user confirms that they wish to proceed with the investment portfolio, the investment platform may then “apply” the investment template by making the necessary transaction requests 308 with an exchange 309 to purchase the necessary financial products for the user. Once the transactions are cleared, the user becomes an investor of the investment portfolio and therefore, the intention is that the investment portfolio will grow over time to increase the savings of the investor.

However, as the circumstances of the investor changes, either as expected and in line with the dynamic schedules in the customised savings plan template and /or any unplanned and underlying change in circumstances of the investor, together with the changes in the value of the investment portfolio over time, the investment portfolio will need to be adjusted or rebalanced 310 periodically so as to maintain the portfolio to reflect the intentions of the investment strategy or plan. In this regard, the rebalancing process 310 involves the necessary actions, periodically, to buy and/or sell financial products within the investment portfolio. As an example, when there is a bull market, the value of the equity indices may increase more so than the bond indices held in the portfolio. This may cause the balance of equity and bonds in the portfolio to become unbalanced as the equity assets are now worth more than the bond assets, meaning there is a large equity portion in the overall portfolio. In order to address this, it may be necessary to reduce the value of the equity assets by selling some of the assets, and using the proceeds to purchase more bond assets. Similar, the opposite may take effect when there is a bear market.

It follows that there may be other rebalancing or maintenance events which may also see the necessity for the rebalancing or adjustments to take place. The operation of the maintenance module which performs the rebalancing 310 is further described below with reference to Figure 5.

With reference to Figure 5, there is illustrated a block diagram illustrating the operation of an embodiment of the investment portfolio maintenance module 500 of the investment platform. In this embodiment, the investment portfolio maintenance module 500, or maintenance module is arranged to perform adjustments or rebalancing of the assets held in the investment portfolio of the investor. The module 500 may be implemented as part of the system for investing in financial products and

investment platform

200, 300 or may be implemented to operate as part of a service which serves the system for investing in financial products and

investment platform

200, 300.

The steps of adjustments or rebalancing of the assets within the investment portfolio is an advantageous process due to the changing nature of investments over time. As investor′s personal circumstances changes, it is necessary to make adjustments to their investment portfolio to accommodate or to take advantage of these changes. As an example, a customer′s uniquely customised investment template varies by definition over time, and so as each new month /time period comes through then the rebalancing process will need to be conducted. To illustrate the example -the investor may have reached the age of 60 years old, and therefore, on their 60 ^th birthday, the investor′s investment window may change from 6 years in remaining to 5 years in remaining (until they reach the retirement age of 65) . In turn, as the investment window is now smaller, the investment strategy or plan may change and therefore the investment composition of equity/bonds/commodities may have to change to reflect the smaller investment window. Alternatively, in another example, an investor may choose to change some of their selections in their template –for example, an investor may choose to delay their planned retirement date, in which case their investment period may lengthen. Alternatively, in another example, a user may also have come into an inheritance or a large bonus and in turn, wishes to increase their investment holdings.

In all of these circumstances, it may therefore be necessary to re-evaluate the user′s savings plan upon personal circumstances or events. In some instances, for example those relating to the pre-defined aspects of the template schedules such as new contributions, withdrawals the age of the investment and the time in remaining, the maintenance module may be able to automatically calculate the changes required for the investment plan as this can be determined based on a calculation of the investment template. For other personal events, the user may proceed to access the investment platform and make any modifications to their investment plan as they see fit.

In addition to these events which relates to the circumstances of each investor or investment portfolio, other events such as geographical, political or economic events may also affect the value of the investment portfolio over time. Bull or Bear markets, or the general growth or decline in specific industries or geo-markets may also affect the value of the portfolio. In turn, adjustments may be necessary to see that the value of the investment portfolio remains consistent with the investment strategy as determined by the investor, either at the onset of the creation of the investment portfolio, or since a last update by the investor.

In situations where the assets held in the investment portfolio pays any dividends or other investment returns/interests, the dividends may also be reinvested into the portfolio. Preferably, the dividends or other investment returns/interest payments when reinvested into the portfolio are tracked such that they are reinvested with the asset which had paid them. However, this may also change the composition of the investment portfolio based on value, and therefore further rebalancing is required.

As shown in Figure 5, any of these events discussed above may be considered a rebalancing or adjustment event 502. They may be triggered by personal changes that change the investment strategy or plan, time progression of the savings strategy plan 502b, payment of dividends or other investment returns/interest 502a, changes to the market value of the portfolio 502d, new contributions or withdrawals made by the users 502e. In additional, a rebalancing event may also include the periodic update or maintenance of the investment portfolios 502c that may be triggered due to major political, geographical or economic events (stock market crashes) , or it may not be triggered by any event, but simply performed periodically for the sake of maintenance.

Upon the occurrence of any such rebalancing events 502 or triggers for maintenance, the maintenance module 500 may then proceed to determine if adjustments needs to be made to the portfolio 504. In this regard, the first step required is to determine if there are any changes to the investment plan or strategy, either by user intervention or due to the timely progression of an existing strategy. In turn, the investment template may also need be updated.

Once the investment template is updated or if it is confirmed that there are no changes, the value of the portfolio is determined. In this process, any dividends or other investment returns/interest or additional contributions or withdrawals may be considered, and a recalculation process takes place to determine the value of the portfolio. Once this is completed, the composition of the portfolio must then be considered such that the correct ratio of equity, bonds or commodities (or other assets) are applied. In turn, transaction requests to buy or sell assets are made with an exchange to update the investment portfolio 506.

Although not required, the embodiments described with reference to the Figures can be implemented as an application programming interface (API) or as a series of libraries for use by a developer or can be included within another software application, such as a terminal or personal computer operating system or a portable computing device operating system. Generally, as program modules include routines, programs, objects, components and data files assisting in the performance of particular functions, the skilled person will understand that the functionality of the software application may be distributed across a number of routines, objects or components to achieve the same functionality desired herein.

It will also be appreciated that where the methods and systems of the present invention are either wholly implemented by computing system or partly implemented by computing systems then any appropriate computing system architecture may be utilised. This will include stand alone computers, network computers and dedicated hardware devices. Where the terms “computing system” and “computing device” are used, these terms are intended to cover any appropriate arrangement of computer hardware capable of implementing the function described.

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.

Any reference to prior art contained herein is not to be taken as an admission that the information is common general knowledge, unless otherwise indicated.

Claims

An investment platform comprising:

- a gateway arranged to receive user profile information; and,

- an investment portfolio creation processor arranged to generate an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 1, wherein the platform further includes an investment portfolio maintenance module arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 1 or 2, further including a financial products database arranged to include references to one or more financial products.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 3, wherein the financial products database further includes projection data for each of the one or more financial products.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 4, wherein the financial products include exchange traded funds (ETFs) .
An investment platform in accordance with any one of the preceding claims further including a clearance module arranged to perform one or more transaction requests with an exchange, wherein the one or more transaction requests are associated with the one or more financial products held in the investment portfolio.
An investment platform in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein the investment template includes a predefined portfolio composition ratio and an investment duration.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 7, wherein the predefined portfolio composition ratio includes a predefined ratio of equity or bond assets.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 8, wherein the predefined portfolio composition ratio further includes a predefined ratio of commodity assets.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 8 or 9, wherein the predefined ratio of equity, bond or commodity assets varies with a risk acceptance level of the user.
An investment platform in accordance with any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the investment portfolio maintenance module is further arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio in accordance with the predefined portfolio composition ratio.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 11, wherein the investment portfolio maintenance module maintains the investment portfolio upon an adjustment event.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 12, wherein the adjustment events include a change in the investment template, change in the value of the investment portfolio, new contributions or withdrawals made by the user, reinvestment of dividends of the investment portfolio, periodic maintenance or any combination thereof.
An investment platform in accordance with any one of the claims 4 to 14, wherein the projection data includes existing index data and proxy data.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 14, wherein the proxy data is calculated by processing performance results of assets of the index and/or assets associated with a sector associated with the index.
An investment platform in accordance with any one of claims 4 to 15, wherein the projection data is processed to provide a projection of the performance of the investment portfolio.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 16, wherein the projection of the performance of the investment portfolio is provided as a range of projections over the selected timeframe.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 16 or 17, wherein the projection of the performance of the investment portfolio is processed to generate a suitability rating arranged to represent the suitability of the investment portfolio to a user defined investment purpose.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 18, wherein the suitability rating is generated by comparing the projection of the performance of the investment portfolio with one or more performance indicators associated with the investment purpose.
An investment platform in accordance with any one of the preceding claims, wherein the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio is determined by a learning network.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 20, wherein the learning network is a multi-class classification network.
An investment platform in accordance with claim 21, wherein the learning network is trained with labels associated with the geographic focus of the financial product, the transaction costs of the financial product, sustainability rating of the financial product or any combination thereof.
A system for investing in financial products comprising:

- a gateway arranged to receive user profile information; and,

- an investment portfolio creation processor arranged to generate an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user.
A system in accordance with claim 23, wherein the system further includes an investment portfolio maintenance module arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio.
A system in accordance with claim 23 or 24, further including a financial products database arranged to include references to one or more financial products.
A system in accordance with claim 25, wherein the financial products database further includes projection data for each of the one or more financial products.
A system in accordance with claim 26, wherein the financial products include exchange traded funds (ETFs) .
A system in accordance with any one of claims 23 to 27 further including a clearance module arranged to perform one or more transaction requests with an exchange, wherein the one or more transaction requests are associated with the one or more financial products held in the investment portfolio.
A system in accordance with any one of claims 23 to 28, wherein the investment template includes a predefined portfolio composition ratio and an investment duration.
A system in accordance with claim 29, wherein the investment portfolio maintenance module is further arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio in accordance with the predefined portfolio composition ratio.
A system in accordance with claim 30, wherein the investment portfolio maintenance module maintains the investment portfolio upon an adjustment event.
A system in accordance with any one of claims 23 to 31, wherein the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio is determined by a multi-class classification network trained with labels associated with the geographic focus of the financial product, the transaction costs of the financial product, sustainability rating of the financial product or any combination thereof.
A method for investing in financial products comprising the steps of:

- receiving user profile information from a user; and,

- generating an investment template with the user profile information; wherein the investment template is arranged to be used for selecting one or more financial products to create an investment portfolio for investment by a user.
A method in accordance with claim 33, wherein the method further includes the step of maintaining the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio.
A method in accordance with claim 33 or 34, further including a financial products database arranged to include references to one or more financial products.
A method in accordance with claim 35, wherein the financial products database further includes projection data for each of the one or more financial products.
A method in accordance with claim 36, wherein the financial products include exchange traded funds (ETFs) .
A method in accordance with any one of claims 33 to 37 further includes a step of performing one or more transaction requests with an exchange, wherein the one or more transaction requests are associated with the one or more financial products held in the investment portfolio.
A method in accordance with any one of claims 33 to 38, wherein the investment template includes a predefined portfolio composition ratio and an investment duration.
A method in accordance with claim 39, wherein the step of maintaining the investment portfolio is further arranged to maintain the investment portfolio by adjusting the composition of the financial products held in the investment portfolio in accordance with the predefined portfolio composition ratio upon an adjustment event.
A method in accordance with any one of claims 33 to 40, wherein the selection of the financial products to create the investment portfolio is determined by a multi-class classification network trained with labels associated with the geographic focus of the financial product, the transaction costs of the financial product, sustainability rating of the financial product or any combination thereof.