Consolidated Mailbox for "Paperless" Documents

Every company now wants us to "go paperless" which saves paper, postage, and, in some ways is better for customers to find the documents.  However, the companies do not actually send the statements in e-mail, but require customers to go to their web sites to view the documents. My "paperless" companies include brokerages, utilities, banks, insurance companies, credit cards, travel affinity point systems, and web services.  There are a lot of problems with this process, it works well when we have only one or two companies sending us "paperless" statements.  But when we get a bunch of companies, it becomes a big problem.  .

The Problem:

1. Each company requires a log-on and password, using different rules for creation of them both.  Some require numbers in log on, some don't. Some use special symbols, some don't. Security advisers tell us to use different passwords for each site, so we have hundreds of passwords.  Passwords on some sites "expire" after a while.  So consumers now need a bizarre array of log-ons and passwords in order to manage their "paperless" services.
2. Meanwhile, I receive e-mail from each company that floods my inbox with distracting messages telling me I have a statement on their web site.  Some statements require actions, such as paying a bill.  Others are simply monthly "status" statements for bills that are automatically paid. Many statement notifications are the CYA notices that some policy has changed, such as "privacy policy."   Even worse, other "statements" are simply advertising "spam" from the company, since they have our e-mail address, and they want to sell us on other products.  
3. Companies don't guarantee to keep statements forever, but often delete statements after so long.   If several years later, I need a copy of a stock purchase confirmation for tax purposes, will that statement still be there?  If I need utility bills to prove a tax deduction on a a rental home I no loger own, with the water company still have my bill statements?
4. Even if a company does maintain copies of statements, will I still have access to it?  If I change stockbrokers, would I be able to still log on to the "old" stockbroker account that I no longer do business with?  Would I still remember the log-on and password?  
5. In order to view and maintain those statements, I will have to log on to 30 or 40 web sites on a regular basis, and download all of the applicable statements.  Then I have to file those statements so I can find them again years later.
6. Where do I file those statements?  I could keep them on my computer hard drive, but what happens if the computer crashes?  I could save up each year of statements and burn them all onto  a CD.  That takes time, and then I have to keep the CD somewhere safe.  Why not simply keep them in "the cloud?"
7. Keeping statements in "the cloud" works well, but it, also, is time-consuming.  I have to download the documents first, usually rename the documents to something that is easy to remember, then I have to upload them to a folder in my Google Drive.  

A solution:

We need a "statement consolidation service"  which I will call "SCS" to pick up all of our statements, file them in an orderly manner in our Google Drive, and keep them as long as we might need to keep the documents.  I believe Google is in a unique market position to create and operate such a service. 

How Statement Consolidation Service (SCS) Works:  

1. Customer maintains a database on SCS that has their log-on and password for each company or service. Customer uses their Gmail address for statement alert mailings.
2. SCS creates an agreement with companies to allow SCS to download the statements from their site,  Agreement may also include a more direct, encrypted download system, that would bypass the user's original log-on and password.  Otherwise, SCS will have to assist customer with password management, by notifying customer if/when passwords need to be changed etc.  
3. E-mail from those companies that announce that a statement is ready is flagged by Gmail (as a filter) and could trigger SCS to go to the company's web site to download the statement.  Otherwise the e-mail will be maintained in a "statement alert" folder in Gmail
4. Downloaded statements will be filed in a special folder in Google Drive, and be tagged appropriately. Tag for each company, type of document, and whether or not action is required
5. SCS will create one automated e-mail that will summarize the statements received.  User can opt to receive the summary daily, weekly or monthly.  User could opt to have statements that require immediate action sent immediately
6. The SCS summary statement will have hyperlinks so user could simply click on the link to see the statement in Google Drive
7. SCS could keep track of which statements customer has already seen, by color change of hyperlink, for example

FUTURE UPGRADES

SCS could make improvements that would help customer, and the associated companies.

1. Work with companies to convert from pdf statements to xml statements, so SCS software could more easily sort and organize data.
2. Allow user to quickly create tables and graphs showing expenditures, such as utility consumption
3. Allow user to categorize expenditures and produce statements, such as: how much did I spend on utilities for my rental property in Oceanside CA?  Summarize all of my travel affinity "points" in all of my accounts right now.
4. Could link Google Finance with the brokerage accounts and bank accounts to enable combined financial statements like Quicken does, but would always be current to latest statements.  Google Finance could then allow customers to chart net worth, and maybe even predict cash flow for the next few months. 

BENEFIT FOR GOOGLE

1. Service will be very sticky -- after setting up such a service, customers will not want to leave their Google Service.  Customers will want to have all of those SCS files available
2. Google will know more about each customer:  Where they travel, which point services they use, who they bank with,  which utilities they use, etc
3. Google may be able to tap those customers to use Google wallet to pay for some of those utilities

BENEFITS TO COMPANIES

1. Companies will not be obligated to maintain records for their current, or previous customers, since SCS will be maintaining them

Single, Universal Internet Security Token

I now have two key chain "tokens" made by RSA for use in signing on to secure web sites.  It provides a new 6 digit number every minute which in concatenate with my pin/password to sign on.  As far as I can tell, this system is one of the most secure forms of sign-on currently used on the internet.    I also use an application called "VIP" on my IPOD which provides a similar capability for my USAA aaccount.  Paypal & Ebay also provided me with a card that looks like a credit card but has a button that I push to get a new, unique 6-digit token key that I use to sign on with. I have a different app on my phone to generate a unique token for Google.   My wife and I also have other banking, financial or other web sites that need to have very secure sign-ons.  Most of those other sites use a combination of multiple passwords, and usually go through other special steps if I sign on using a different computer for the first time.  Many of them require answers to challenge questions, such as mother's maiden name, first car, favorite singer, where I met my wife etc.  None of those techniques are as secure as the "token" system.  If all of these accounts used tokens, I would have to carry a ring of 10 or 20 tokens, or need to keep 10 or 20 different apps updated on our ipod and iphone.

I now have over 300 different web sites where I need log-on and passwords.  Some are sites like Facebook, Myspace, Plaxo, utility accounts and e-mail accounts.  Other accounts are subscriptions to newspapers, and magazines.  I would like all of those sites to also be somewhat secure to protect my privacy.  I believe the web sites would also like to have a secure connection to make sure that I am whom I say I am.  I have been able to use a very good password manager to help me generate very complex, long passwords, and keep them straight. However these password managers don't work properly for all sites, and clearly don't work on web sites using the tokens.

One of the other problems is that the tokens are assigned to an account and not an individual.  For example, when I sign on to an e-trade account, I must use a log-on and only one token.  If my wife wants to sign on to the same account, she needs to use the token I have.  If I have an account joint with my brother, I would need to use a different token.  He would need to have that token to sign on.  Instead, the token/password should be identified with an individual, not an account.  That way when I sign on, I use my token. If my wife signs on, she uses her token.

I believe we need a more universal token that we can connect to any web site we want to.  We could pay a small annual fee for that service.  

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

Warren Buffet wrote this editorial:

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich - NYTimes.com

I agree that the tax laws should be rewritten to make sure that the super-rich don't pay less taxes than everyone else. It probably would be fair if they paid a higher percentage, in fact.

New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - MIT News Office

If this works, this is what the world needs now! New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - MIT News Office

If DRACO can be shown to "cure" any viral disease, our only problem will be control of human population!

International Assisted Living for baby-boom generation

As we baby-boomers get older, and need more care and assisted living, it might make sense to provide incentives for us to move to countries where there is lots of relatively inexpensive labor, instead of importing help into the US. There are a lot of countries with plenty of people with experience in care-giving. It is very labor-intensive to care for sick and disabled.  I don't think the US will have enough labor available to properly care for "my generation" as we get into our 80s -- we will have to import labor. Does it make sense to import care-givers into the US?  Or more sense to move the patients to other countries?  

We're already recruiting (stealing) nurses and doctors from countries all over the world (particularly English-speaking countries).  I think it is disgusting that the US doesn't have enough nursing schools or medical schools, and that we end up taking them from poorer countries that have put up their resources and tax money to train medical practitioners to help their own country.  

Mexico, South Africa, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Philippines would be good locations.  It could be a win-win situation:  The US reduces the overall medical cost, and the other country picks up labor-intensive jobs.   I can envision beautiful assisted living buildings along the Mexico coast, with views, pools, therapy/exercise facilities, and dining facilities.  If the places had excellent internet (Skype), relatives could easily make daily virtual visits, view medical charts, talk to caregivers etc.  A big screen TV in every room equipped with camera/microphone (many now have those features) would allow that to work very easily. 

Tourism to those areas might also increase, since families may travel to "visit grandma" and make it a vacation. 

Before anyone would do that, I believe US citizens would want the facilities to be certified to close to US standards.  The doctors, nurses and caregivers would need to meet standards, and the finances would have to be properly accounted to be able to accept US gov't Medicare payments.  Probably the facility employees would all need to meet a minimum English language proficiency.  I would expect the facilities and employees to be inspected and audited by local government, and also have an annual inspection and audit by US experts as well.  Rankings and scores from inspections would need to be made available to US public for use when choosing facilities and comparing costs. 

However, I think it will take a serious Government-to-Government agreement to lay the necessary groundwork and plan for implementation in the next 10 years.  Once the baby-boom dies off, the population demographic will be more "smooth" --so some of those facilities may be converted to hospitality/recreation/vacation homes. Other countries and businesses will not want to make the huge investment in training, construction etc, without a committment from the US that business will come their way if they meet the necessary certifications.  


Here's an article: The Price of Aging: Will It Break National Budgets? - DailyFinance

On-Line Appointment & Reservation Service

So many businesses and services need a reservation service to help manage queues. It seems that a company such as Yahoo, AOL or Google would be able to develop a site that would allow everyone--including small businesses, to book reservations for appointments or services. People trying to make appointments should be able to search and find open time slots, and make confirmed appointments using their PC or Smart Phone. Service providers would have to upload their availability, and should be able to choose options on how appointments should be made: For example: they could require people to use their credit card to make the appointment subject to a "no-show" fee, if the service provider desires. They may want to provide a logo for customer to see, they may require "new customers" to do something different than "repeat customers" The appointment length might be different depending upon the service selected etc.

I could see the service be used by doctors, therapists, lawyers, hair salons, barbershops, tax preparers, CPAs, escrow & title companies, financial advisors, engineering consultants, city services (building permits, for example), auto inspection & repair, etc.

Obviously, the scheduling button should be located on the businesses web site, but it could also come up with searches. For example, If I want to have my car smog-tested on Thursday at 1PM--could the search engine find the nearest business that has an opening at that time slot? Right now, there is no way of doing that search, that I know of.

Eventually, it could be operated similar to "pay per click" in that businesses would pay per appointment made & confirmed. Businesses would eventually save money because they could eliminate a administrative task.

Website for Homeowner Association Balloting

It amazes me how easy it is to vote my common stock proxies via proxyvote.com. The system seems very secure, so that corporations don't fear that ballots could be forged or altered. Millions of shares are voted daily with confidence.

However, for homeowner associations--particularly in California, we are saddled with a complex "double envelope" system that requires signatures on the outside of the first envelope etc. Depending upon the CC&Rs and Bylaws, many associations are required to hire outside experts to act as "Inspector of Election" and oversee the counting of ballots. It seems to me that we badly need a good, secure web site, operated similarly to proxyvote, where an association could operate an election.

I envision the web site to allow an association to upload a list of owner's names, addresses, and e-mail addresses -- current as of the "cut off" date for the election. The association would pay a fee --per owner, and then upload the ballot issues. The web service would mail & e-mail ballots to all owners, and accept both e-mail and snail mail ballots. Hopefully most owners would vote via e-mail.