Patent ID: 8874656

Claim:
A funds comparison tool embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising: a presentation tier executing on a first processor that provides a plurality of interfaces for interacting with a plurality of client applications, the presentation tier allows the client applications to send requests for a plurality of analytics to be performed regarding comparing the performance of one or more funds or portfolios as well as allowing mobile-based client applications and web-based client applications to communicate with the funds comparison tool; and an application tier executing on a second processor that includes a web services component that processes the requests sent by the client applications by providing the data used by the client applications, storing and retrieving of session data, said web services component includes an interface for the analytics information captured during sessions so as to allow a visualization of the analytics used in the comparison of the one or more funds or portfolios, said client applications interact with said application tier through said web services component, the visualization of the analytics includes providing the user a plurality of reporting tools to assess the comparison of the portfolios selected by the user, the application tier includes an analytics package that allows comparisons between the one or more funds or portfolios selected by the user by capturing a snapshot of data for analysis and providing its results to the reporting tools, the snapshot of data includes fund-specific performance data associated with the performance and risk of funds, the application tier uses the snapshot of data and fund-specific performance data to compute relevant fund specific comparison information or portfolio specific comparison information using the analytics package and provides the fund specific comparison information or portfolio specific comparison information to the reporting tools to display the information in a platform independent format selected by the user, the user is presented a user interface including descriptions to create a new session that associates the user with an advisor or instantly start fund-to-fund comparison without associating the user with the advisor.