The May 2002 disk update will be processed Thursday, April 25th and Friday, April 26th. Disks will be shipped Monday, April 29th. You should have the May Update in your office Wednesday, May 1st.

The May 2002 Internet monthly update will be posted to our five monthly update websites on Friday, April 26th.

Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your "April disks" ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed the May 2002 Update. April disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the February edition.

For those of you who still obtain disks each month, and who do not want to return disks, there are two ways to eliminate the problem. Please go to the end of this bulletin for full details.

When we release new software that adds such a radical change as our recently introduced internet updating (without you using a browser), we worry about how many problems folks may encounter. All things considered, the transition was remarkably smooth and we have had very few problems with the new program.

To sum it up, our software goes and gets its own updates on the Internet, and also monitors our websites to see if newer information is available.

Once again, as those who run our Windows program noticed in March, the new Windows program now automatically and periodically checks to see if there are newer mid-month updates available on the Internet. It compares the date posted on the website, with the date of your last download, and if the website has a newer date the program will advise you and ask if you want to download the update.

Midmonth updates can occur ANYTIME. There are many who thought that these only happen on the 15th of the month. This has never been the case. Changes are posted as changes occur.

Previous to the automatic update you had to visit the website and manually click on and download the update files. Those files were found at the end of a bulletin which described the changes that had occurred to the program. If you didn't see anything you needed you could skip the download.

Because the program will get the update files without viewing any bulletin on the Internet, we are now placing the list of changes in the download files themselves. Once the Compulife program has processed the update files the midmonth bulletin will be found in your \COMPLIFE folder and is called:

MIDMONTH.TXT can be viewed using the View/Print File option on the Red Master menu.

For those who still wish to review the changes before downloading, you can still manually download the mid-month update.

UPDATE1.CMP is a very, very small update file which now contains the MIDMONTH.TXT file. By manually downloading UPDATE1.CMP (that will download almost instantly) and then by running and processing that file with the Compulife program (that will process instantly), you can review the MIDMONTH.TXT file using the View/Print File option on the Master menu. If you want the changes, you can then download the rest of the UPDATE files manually or automatically.

Compulife has improved the software which we send to those requesting trials by Internet. The new trial programs is now less than 100K in size and so shipment by e-mail is very fast and simple.

To request a trial for a colleague, simply e-mail or call in their name, address, phone number and e-mail address to Compulife. Make sure we know that you are the source of that referral as you are entitled to 6 free months of service should they decide to purchase. (referral credit does not apply to those who purchase through our bulk buying discounts).

The e-mail addresses for a trial are:

The Windows program has been further improved this month. Single product printouts now permit you to select the maximum number of premiums which are put on a page. Previously, if the client was very young, and there were a lot of premiums, the software would select a very tiny font in order to place all premiums on one pages. The fonts could get pretty tiny.

To set the number of year per page, select "Print Options" which is found at the top of the single product display window.

You can also check off and add a second renewal premium page if you want to show more than the maximum premiums you have allotted to a single page.

a) Medical Underwriting is almost complete for Windows. This will allow those who have to go the the DOS program for that information, to obtain the information from within the Windows program.

b) Pick 12 will be modified to allow the filing of multiple life quotes reflecting discounts for companies which offer multi-life options. You will be able to print pages showing total premiums for all lives and then subsequent pages for each individual life. Discounts, where available, will be noted. As the Pick 12 features become available, they will be posted to our mid-month update site.

c) Pick 12 will allow the quotation of modal premiums together with waiver of premium. Currently, when you click on waiver of premium, the spreadsheet defaults to annual premium. If you switch to another premium mode, the waiver of premium is dropped.

d) Printouts in French will be the next work done on the program. Unlike the DOS version, which offers both screens and printouts in French, the Windows version will concentrate on producing printouts and quotations in French. The user interface (the screens) will be English only. Given the fact that Quebec represents less than 5% of our North American volume, we cannot afford to invest significant time in making a fully bilingual program.

For those who update by Internet, Compulife has gone to great lengths to provide you with redundancy in our websites. Our main website is:

However, we keep another completely separate website, on a completely different server, in a completely different country, at:

Whatever we update to compulife.com, we also update to compulife.cc. If one website goes down, for whatever reason, the other is ready to serve you. That includes both monthly and mid-month updates.

For those not wanting to return disks there are two ways to eliminate the problem.

1. Switch to obtaining monthly updates by Internet.

Not only will you eliminate the expense and hassle of returning disks, you will save $80 per year in subscription fees.

To switch to Internet monthly updates, call us at (800) 567-8376. We will send you an agreement called the "Internet Update Endorsement". Read it carefully, especially the part where you agree that you have successfully downloaded and processed our "mid-month updates". If you haven't done that before, call us and we'll be happy to take you through the procedure. It's easy.

2. Disk Purchase Program

The other way to avoid returning the disks and the disk box each month is to pre-purchase them for $21 per year ($1.75 per month). Once you do that you can keep them for future reference, throw them away or return them for a credit (once each year) when you are invoiced for the following year. $21 costs you less than mailing back disks each month.