U.S. Update News August 2003
The September 2003 disk update will be processed Tuesday, August 26th and Wednesday, August 27th.
Disks will be shipped Wednesday, August 27th. You should have the September Update in your office by Friday, August 29th. Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your July disks ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this August 2003 Update. July disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the June edition.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Subscribers who are receiving disks can save up to $80 per year by switching to updates by Internet. Please read the last part of this bulletin for full details. Don’t wait for your next subscription invoice to make the change. Compulife will bonus your subscription renewal deadline for switching from disks to internet.
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: For disk update subscribers renewing after January 1, 2004 the annual subscription price for receiving monthly updates by disk will be $20 per year higher. Prices for internet updates will be unchanged, and will be $100 per year less.
Last month Compulife president Bob Barney was interviewed by CNN with respect to the coming 2001 CSO tables. The majority of states are slated to introduce these new tables in January 2004.
The resulting CNNfn news story ended up being almost 4 minutes in length and we very pleased with its message and content. A windows media version is available for viewing at the above mentioned “Term4Sale – In the news” web page. Term4sale received a very honorable mention and for a couple of days after the segment aired we could see the traffic counter roll faster.
IMPORTANT: You are NOT automatically listed at the site. You must request your listing.
We do not assume all subscribers want to be listed because we know that there are those who do not want to be listed, for a variety of reasons. Therefore, please check to make sure you have a listing if you want to be listed.
At some point we plan to add some testimonial letters at our www.compulife.com web site where you can see the favorable experiences a number of our subscribers have had by being listed. While no one is inundated with telephone calls, a consumer calling a Compulife subscriber is generally a pretty good insurance prospect. Some agents have called to say they have sold sizable policies.
For Immediate Release
Term4Sale Improves Term Insurance Comparisons for Consumers
NICHOLASVILLE, KY (July 16, 2003) — Term4Sale, Inc. has recently introduced new comparison features to its www.term4sale.com website. Consumers have two new options for comparing term life insurance policies.
www.term4sale.com now lets a consumer instantly compare the lowest cost level term insurance products for multiple categories at the same time. Before this a consumer would have to compare one category at a time. With the new option the consumer can select a 10 versus a 20 year comparison where they will see the lowest priced 10 year products followed by the lowest priced 20 year products all on the same page.
Term4Sale, Inc. president Bob Barney said, “Many consumers don’t appreciate the difference between a 10 and 20 year level term policy. Our new comparison makes it much easier for the consumer to understand those differences.”
The second new option makes it easy to see the year by year difference in cost between those lowest priced 10 and 20 year products. By clicking a single button the consumer can display a side-by-side spreadsheet comparison of the 6 least expensive products. In the case of the 10 versus 20 year term comparison, the first 3 products in the spreadsheet are the 3 lowest priced 10 year products followed by the 3 lowest priced 20 year policies.
The spreadsheet gives accumulated premium costs at 5 year intervals. This allows the consumer to see how much more they would pay for a 20 year policy for the first 10 years but how much they would save after that.
www.term4sale.com offers a variety of multiple category comparisons allowing consumers to compare a variety of different level term period combinations. If a consumer wants, they can compare a total of 6 different level term categories on the same page.
As background a 10 year level term policy offers a premium which remains level for 10 years. At the end of 10 years most 10 year level premium policies permit a consumer to continue to buy the life insurance but the premiums beginning in year 11 are substantially higher. By contrast a 20 year level term policy starts off more expensive than a 10 year policy but the premiums continue level for the full 20 years.
Future premiums for level term life insurance policies, often referred to as renewal premiums, increase because the risk of death increases with age. The initial level period, whether 10, 20 or 30 years, lets the consumer choose how much time will pass before the increases kick in. The longer the level period, the higher the level premium.
Barney stressed, “Most consumers should match the level period to the time they will need the insurance. Most people need term insurance until they retire and stop working. A 45 year old should be looking at term insurance for 20 years. A person who is 35 should probably buy a 30 year policy. While the initial costs for these products are higher than a shorter level term period the consumer avoids renewal premiums which can skyrocket out of sight.”
Some consumer advocates disagree with Barney and suggest that consumers buy cheaper 10 year products and then shop for new 10 year term at the end of 10 years. While that theoretically could save over paying the renewal premiums the problem is whether the consumer’s health will permit that new purchase in 10 years.
The future health of a consumer does not affect the renewal premiums guaranteed in an existing term policy. On the other hand, to buy a new policy the consumer must prove they are still healthy.
Barney explained, “That’s why most term products have very high renewal costs. Companies know that if a consumer is healthy they will likely buy a new policy when the premiums start going up. Consumers who have developed health problems will not be able to buy the new policy and so they will hang on to their old policy. Given that, companies can fully expect that a consumer electing to pay renewal premiums has a much higher likelihood of death. Because of this, renewal premiums have to be higher to protect the company against the anticipated increased level of claims.”
While 20 and 30 year policies have higher initial premiums they offer much lower overall cost. A life company knows that a consumer who buys a 20 year policy is much more likely to keep that policy past the point they might consider dropping a 10 year policy. Barney said, “Most consumers will think about switching when the premiums go up. If the company can keep a 20 or 30 year term customer longer it can moderate the total cost for the longer level period.”
Regardless of how long a consumer has had a level term policy, Barney said it never hurts to check and compare term insurance costs. While a life company cannot walk away from the guaranteed premiums it has put in an existing policy, consumers can walk away from the term policy at any time without penalty. If a consumer can find a better deal, or buy a longer level term period for a small difference in premium, they would be well advised to consider doing so. Price differences between companies are substantial. In many cases a new policy will save the consumer a lot of money over an existing policy.
Barney warned, “Never give up an old term policy until you have a new term policy in hand and the first premium on the new policy has been paid. During the medical exam, the company could turn up a medical problem you didn’t know you had.” Barney suggested that a one month overlap makes sense and should ensure a person is not inadvertently left without insurance.
For more information contact:
Bob Barney, President
Compulife Software Inc.
108 Edgewood Plaza
Nicholasville, KY 40356
Telephone: (800) 798-3488
FAX: (859) 885-3988
e-mail: barneyrl@compulife.com
If you have a web site but don’t have live term quotes we recommend you give it some serious consideration. Our web providers typically charge between $99 per year to $15 per month to hook up your site to a customized version of the Compulife internet term quote system which includes a customized grouping of your particular life companies.
If you don’t have a web site you will find that our authorized web providers offer complete sites including domain names, web pages, hosting and on-line term quotes for as little as $299 per year.
Agents who don’t have web sites run the risk of looking like dinosaurs and with prices for sites this low, there is simply no reason not to have a basic site. The nice part of the customized on-line term quotes is that your site can also offer a powerful service to consumers for no extra money.
First, Compulife’s new advertising campaign will focus on paying a prospective customer $5 just to TRY our software. Full details are now available at our website www.compulife.com.
The idea was sparked by an automotive marketing program where dealers were offering people $10 to test drive a vehicle. I liked the idea and wondered how we could use the concept to attract attention to the Compulife program. The problem was if someone asked for a trial, how did we know they really tried it?
In response we came up with a way for the trial user to demonstrate they had “tried” the program. If a first time trial user completes a simple 5 minute exercise, within 5 days, then we pay the $5.
More important, if the trial user buys Compulife within 5 days of that, they can take a 25% discount in price. A number of agents have already acted on this offer even though our print ads have not yet appeared.
Second, we are introducing a new program for our authorized web providers who have been the source of a number of new customers for Compulife. We believe that our authorized web providers can benefit from a more aggressive marketing program that gives them more opportunity to add customers for their web services. Further, we didn’t want their offerings to conflict with our new $5 test drive program, and so we needed to eliminate the possible overlap.
NOTE: Compulife will continue to honor the previous referral program for the small number of individuals and organizations who had been the source of multiple referrals of new customers. However, if the referred agent acts on the $5 promotion, and also takes the 25% discount, then the referral credits to those individuals and organizations will be adjusted accordingly.
The backbone of Compulife’s offerings on the Internet is our “Authorized Web Provider” program. Authorized web providers are organizations who offer internet hosting services targeting the life insurance community. This new program will enhance their position.
Effective immediately, anyone who is a first time subscriber to Compulife may purchase the Compulife “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” for only $99. Having done so, they can have the Compulife internet quote system connected to their web site by one of our authorized web providers. The following are the four authorized web providers listed at our website:
Just a Start
For those who say “I knew there was a catch”, here’s the catch breaker. The offer is good until the end of the INITIAL “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” subscription. That initial subscription can be up to 5 years in total duration.
And that’s even better news. Each additional year added to to the “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” subscription is at only 50% of the first year price. A one year subscription to “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” is $99 but a two year subscription is only $149 ($50 more). Here are the subscription periods available:
2 Year Subscription – $149
3 Year Subscription – $199
4 Year Subscription – $249
5 Year Subscription – $299
It Pays to Be a Subscriber
MORE IMPORTANT: Your next renewal will be treated as if you were a first time subscriber to Compulife. You can go ahead and renew for a new one to five year period, and you can continue to have Compulife’s internet comparisons on your website. At the end of that subscription, just as for those who purchase the “Internet Starter Program”, you must renew as a Compulife personal use subscriber in order to maintain your web comparisons.
As we have noted before, some companies allow the discount for husband and wife but not for business partners. Many that do allow the discount for business partners will allow the discount for more than 2 partners. The multi-life comparison button for non-spouse will eventually ask how many of the clients to do the comparison for and give total premiums for that group. And yes, you will be able to file that group of 2, 3, 4 or 5 individuals into the Pick 12. Once this function is completed our multi-life option will be wrapped up.
For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we rely on three other websites to supply monthly updates. These are automatically checked and used by our automatic Internet update software.
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, go to our webpage www.compulife.com and select the last menu choice “Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc.” Under the section “License Agreements”, the third license is the “Internet Update Endorsement”. Print the endorsement. Once you have it, please 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.
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