The June 2002 disk update will be processed Tuesday, May 28th and Wednesday, May 29th. Disks will be shipped Wednesday, May 29th. You should have the June Update in your office by Friday, May 31st.
The June 2002 Internet monthly update will be posted to our four monthly update websites on Wednesday, May 29th.
Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your "April disks" ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this May 2002 Update. April disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the May edition.
This section of the bulletin is for less than half of our subscribers. That's right, the majority of Compulife's subscribers now obtain their monthly updates by Internet.
With the new Internet updating feature built into our software, technical support calls requesting assistance in processing Internet updates have fallen dramatically.
To sum it up, Internet updates are easier, faster and cheaper.
For those of you who still obtain disks each month, and who don't wish to switch over to getting updates by Internet, there are two ways to eliminate the problem of having to return disks. Please go to the end of this bulletin for full details.
During April it was brought to Compulife's attention that there are some subscribers of our services who have been overstating the total number of companies which we include in Compulife Quotation System database. Such overstatements have occurred in advertising material, particularly webpages on the Internet.
A careful check was performed on April 13th and the total number of unique companies in the software was found to be 30. However, Zurich Life has been removed for May and so the number is now 29.
As you will appreciate, the number of companies, due to mergers and acquisitions, has been in steady decline over the past few years. As a result, we can assume that this number will continue to fall.
Therefore, I urge you to amend your literature and website material to say that you compare insurance products from a database which includes "OVER 25 Life Insurance Companies". Should that number fall below 26 we will try to remember to advise you.
Our thanks to the individual who pointed this error out to us.
The Compulife Lite Windows software, updated by internet, will be replaced in June or July with a modified version of the program under a new name called "Term4Sale - Agent Edition".
Compulife Lite will continue to be the name given to the DOS version of the software which is distributed by disk. There will be some minor changes to that version but it will remain much as before.
Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" will have the following software modifications and conditions attached to it:
1. Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" is ONLY available by Internet. It is the Windows version of Compulife's comparison program.
2. Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" will be sold for:
NOTE: There are no wholesale discounts for this version of our software. Subscribers can receive 50% of the one year subscription price as a referral fee credit to their account should they refer a new "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" customer to Compulife.
Also NOTE: Compulife recognizes the decline in the total number of companies included in our comparison system. The total number of Canadian life insurance companies has dropped sharply in the past 20 years. At the peak in the 1980's, there were over 60 life companies quoted in our software. This month the number drops to 29.
Given that to be the case, we have elected to cut our term comparison software pricing dramatically. At $99 Canadian ($79 per year for a 2 year subscription) Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" is priced very competitively.
3. Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" entitles the purchaser to one free listing at Compulife's www.term4sale.com website.
4. Those purchasing Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" will NOT be permitted to purchase additional postal codes at the www.term4sale.com website. If you wish to do that you must upgrade to a personal use or agency use version of the Compulife Quotation System.
5. Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" will have the exact same product categories that appear at Compulife's public "Term4sale" website. This means that we will be removing the following categories from the current Compulife Lite database:
1 Year Level Term
Other Level Term
Whole Life Adjustable Life Pay
Term to 100 Adjustable Life Pay
NOTE: This change in the database will also affect the Compulife Lite DOS version which is shipped by diskettes. For those who use the DOS version of our Compulife Lite, we recognize this represents a cut back in service but we would encourage you to switch to the Windows version updated by Internet. This is much lower in cost and we would be happy to bonus your current subscription with additional months of service. Call Bob Barney at (800) 798-3488 for more specific information.
6. Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" will not permit you to have term quotes added to your website by one of our authorized website providers. To access that option, you must upgrade to at least a personal use version of the Compulife Quotation System ($199 per year).
7. Compulife's "Term4Sale - Agent Edition" is being further streamlined for the purpose of making this software as simple as possible. This new low price assumes that our technical support is kept to a minimum. We frequently have our time consumed by questions about program options that are not the main function of the software. Therefore, the following changes will remove some of the less used functions. However, these functions will continue to be available in the personal use version of the "Compulife Quotation System":
Master Menu will be simplified and shortened:
"View/Print File Option" will be replaced by "Compulife Bulletins". The only files which can be displayed from this option will be:
"List or Modify Product Database" following options removed:
"List All Companies in System" - This option is rarely used. The list of companies can be displayed by pressing F2 (Display a Single Product).
"List all Products by Company" - This option is rarely used.
"List all Products for a Single Company" - This option is rarely used. The list of products for a company is displayed by pressing F2 (Display a Single Product), selecting a company and when that window is displayed, pressing the down button next to the name of the product.
"List all Products in a category" - This option is rarely used.
Important NOTE: Two of the three deletion functions are being removed. This will leave the function "Select a Group of Companies to Quote". Of the three deletion options this is the easiest to explain and understand. You check off those companies you want in your comparisons and the system remembers your list from update to update. It is the easiest company selection option to explain and understand.
The Master Menu will also be altered to remove any reference to DOS program options. This will be a Windows only program in all respects.
In addition to the changes outlined above, Compulife is completing important work on several upgrades to our Windows software. These upgrades will be available to all subscribers who use our Windows version of the program.
The most important of these changes is a new modification to the "Category" button which is found on a single product window/display. The single product window appears when you press the F2 button (Display a Single Product). It is also the window that appears when you double click on a product from within a comparison.
In the top right hand part of the header there is a "Category" button which displays a list of premium categories for that product. The name that the company uses to describe the category is displayed together with Compulife's short form classification. These are as follows:
P+Ns - Preferred Plus Non-Smoker P+SM - Preferred Plus Smoker
PfNs - Preferred Non-Smoker
R+Ns - Regular Plus Non-Smoker
RgNs - Regular Non-Smoker
PfSM - Preferred Smoker
R+SM - Regular Plus Smoker
RgSM - Regular Smoker
Once again, these are Compulife's short forms for our own internal categorization system for products. Regardless of how we classify the products you can display ALL the categories for that product, and see what the company categories are, by pressing the "Category" button.
The new feature will add the premium to the right of the company category description. Categories will then be sorted by premium in their respective non-smoking and smoking groups.
This will do two things for the user:
1. If you are trying to match a premium to one given to you by a consumer or another agent, you will be able to quickly see which category that premium is for.
2. Categories will sorted by premium. Previously, for companies with multiple P+ categories, there were occasions where a lower priced category might follow a higher priced category on the list. That proved a little confusing and had to do with the order categories appeared in product entries.
We apologize to our Canadian subscribers for the delay in completing medical underwriting. The feature is not in our U.S. software and we have no plans to introduce it there at this point. To put it simply, the problem we have had with this feature in Canada would be magnified tenfold in the U.S.
The problem with respect to medical underwriting is having the companies remember to tell us about it when they make changes. When they make a rate change they tend to remember that Compulife does term rates and we are usually on the list of people to notify. The same does not hold true when they make a change to medical underwriting requirements. That list is typically the paramedical companies and we are not on it.
In times past this has meant that we have had outdated information in our software. That has been the source of embarrassment when an agent uses outdated information to order too much or too little by way of paramedical or other services.
When we first introduced the feature into our software, the plan was to work together with a paramed company and have them supply us with the data for multiple companies. However, when we asked companies to give the paramed company the authorization to supply us with those medical underwriting requirements, the life companies turned the paramed company down. That's when we introduced the date system on requirements, so you could have an idea of just how old or new that information was.
Having explained all that, it was one of the last windows functions to be completed and that new version of the windows program will be introduced next month or the month after.
Another problematic area for Compulife has been the French version of our software. Having spent inordinate amounts of time and money expanding our DOS version to do both English and French, no one ever seemed content with the efforts. The big complaint was the translations themselves. Added to that was the failure of our French speaking customers to advise us when they were unhappy with those translations. Sometimes its easier to complain to someone else than it is to complain to the people who can do something about it.
For the windows version we have concentrated our work on placing French in our printouts. Those who wish to make their presentations to consumers in French, will be able to select the French print option and do the printouts in French instead of English.
Alternately, for those wanting to show the consumer the product information on screen (in French) they will be able to do so using the "Print Preview" option.
Apart from the printouts, all other program screen functions will be in ENGLISH only. We apologize to our French customers but the reality of low software pricing, and the relatively low volume of French speaking buyers of software, do not permit us to spend anymore time to expand the French language capability in our software.
What we have done reflects our ongoing commitment to our French language subscriber base. If you would like to see the French language features expanded then I urge you to help us to expand our French subscriber base. Remember, you can receive 6 free months of service for referring a new Compulife subscriber to us (3 months if they buy Compulife Term4sale - Agent Edition or Compulife Lite).
And finally, we again stress that translation of printed material for French is based upon the information and advice that we are given. We mostly depend on our subscribers. Therefore, if you see something which is not translated, or translated poorly, and you are not happy with it, please let us know.
Once again, as those running our Windows program noticed in March and April, 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.
IMPORTANT: Midmonth updates can occur ANYTIME between monthly updates. These are placed on our website as changes occur, when they occur.
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 program is now less than 100K in size and 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. (the referral credit does not apply to those who purchase through our bulk buying discounts).
The e-mail addresses for a trial are:
a) 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.
b) 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.
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) 798-3488. 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.