Use Case: Personal and Family Financial Dashboards
Holistic, actively maintained AI-enhanced view of personal and family assets and finances fully under personal control
Overview
How people and families can leverage AI and modern data management tools to build their own financial dashboard.
And then use that to gain access to ongoing expert guidance and advice to optimise their financial position according to their preferences and evolving context.
Context
Open Finance has great promise; it could generate the same buzz and Fintech growth that Open Banking achieved. But beyond retail banking, financial services are more complex and less engaging. Only a small proportion of people who would benefit from financial guidance and advice. We believe the root to moving beyond that is to empower individuals and households with tools that are structurally on their side. And make those tools freely available and easy to use.
Challenge
But to date progress has been narrow and slow, the long sought ‘pensions dashboard’ has been 15 years in planning and is still barely in place. Ultimately that is because the industry does not want data to be freed up, because that makes it easier for people to move their money to get better deals and performance. There is no equivalent plan in, for example, the massive insurance sector.
To put that simply, it is currently very difficult for an individual or household to pull together a complete, up to date view of their financial position in tools that they control.
Solution
DataPal ‘Open Finance Plus Me’ is just that, a tool that enables an individual or household to pull together a complete, up to date view of their financial position in tools that they control.
There is merit in having friction in financial services processes to protect people from making hasty decisions or without appropriate guidance or advice. For that reason our solution brings together a ‘view only’ dashboard; with then the ability to escalate to guidance, advice or action when required.
How It Works (Flow)
The tools use the DataPal fiduciary role, modern API technology and open data schemas to connect to financial assets and services within their existing suppliers or intermediaries. And then use the ‘view only’ data to collate the overview across pensions, investments, insurances, mortgages and other financial products and services.
DataPal members list the organisations with whom they have financial services products, and any additional assets they wish to log. They do so in their own private data vault being run for them on that fiduciary basis.
The financial services providers are invited to connect to DataPal on a two-way, mutually beneficial data sharing relationship. This is a data portability request.
Data Cleaning & Parsing: DataPal automatically standardises formats, matches related transactions, and fills in missing context.
AI-Based Augmentation: External data sources and machine learning enrich transaction records with product, merchant, and contextual metadata.
Human-in-the-Loop Review: Users can review and enhance records — adding personal notes, receipts, or clarifications.
Presentation of the assets, products and services in a range of helpful dashboards and customisable reports.
Then, an optional range of additional organisations, applications, agents and data services is available should the individual or household wish to engage to consolidate, augment or divest of assets and services.
Actors
Individual / Household Data Owner: Enters, ingests, enriches, and manages their asset, product and service data and permissions. Adds and curates their financial objectives, attitudes and any other relevant context.
Organisation / Current Financial Service Provider: Existing financial service provider to an individual/ household
Potential Financial Service Provider or intermediary: potential financial service provider to an individual/ household
DataPal Platform: Provides ingestion, cleaning, AI augmentation, and permission management under the IEEE 7012 MyTerms model.
AI Agent / Developer: Builds value-added services — such as financial guidance or advice — using DataPal’s APIs.
Benefits
Individuals and households gain a useful assets and financial dashboard running independently of any financial service provider. And the ability to run analysis and projections anytime they wish.
Asset and financial service providers gain access to a new communication channel to their customers; and two-way data exchange capabilities. Longer term lower compliance risk, improved customer trust, better service personalisation and new product innovation.
Developers / Ecosystem can design new products and services based on safe, secure access to personal finance data.
Society / Regulators Demonstrates practical privacy innovation and ethical data sharing around financial services. This acts as a platform for safe, governed financial service Guidance propositions to enable far more people than currently take/ can afford advice. Longer term this encourages transparent, compliant data ecosystems aligned with public trust.
Outcomes
Many more people and households can easily build their own financial dashboard without being locked into and dependent on a financial advisor or other financial services provider for their data.
Therefore, many more people are able to take regulated guidance and advice with less friction than would otherwise be the case.
Significant opportunity for new product development in financial services through having access to much broader and deeper permissioned personal data than in the current model