Patent ID: 8019669

Claim:
A method for a referral program where a financial institution refers investors to a financial advisor that provides asset management services, comprising: establishing, by a processor system, an investor account for an investor, wherein the investor account is linked with information regarding at least one asset held by the investor, and the processor system is operated on behalf of the financial institution; creating, by the processor system, an on-going referral fee sharing agreement, wherein the financial institution and the financial advisor are parties to the on-going referral fee sharing agreement for a referral, the on-going referral fee sharing agreement defines a referral fee, and the referral fee is charged to the financial advisor for the referral as long as the investor account is managed by the financial advisor; storing, by the processor system, data about the on-going referral fee sharing agreement in a database system; referring, by the processor system, the investor to the financial advisor; entering, by the processor system, financial account data into the database system when the investor retains the service of the financial advisor to manage the investor account, wherein the financial account data indicates that the investor has retained the services of the financial advisor, the investor account is a referred financial account, and the investor account is subject to the on-going referral fee sharing agreement; and periodically analyzing, by processor system, the financial account data for the referred financial account; periodically determining, by processor system, a total asset value for the at least one asset held in the referred financial account; and periodically calculating, by the processor system, an amount of the referral fee to charge the financial advisor based on the total asset value.