U.S. Update News January 2005

COMPULIFE^® Software, Inc.Next Monthly UpdateWe plan to post the February 2005 Internet monthly update to our six monthly update web sites on Monday, January 31st.

The February 2005 disk update will be processed Monday, January 31st and the disks will be shipped on that day. You should have the disk update by February 2nd or 3rd.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Subscribers who still get updates by disk can save up to $100 per year by switching to updates by Internet. Please read the last section of this bulletin for complete details. Don’t wait for your next invoice to make the change. Compulife will bonus your subscription renewal deadline for switching from disks to internet.

Happy New YearCompulife wishes you and your family a happy and prosperous 2005. If we can contribute anything to your business success in the coming year, then one of our corporate objectives will have been met.

Apologies for the ConfusionI try to write simply but somehow that wasn’t working last month. In the December 2004 bulletin I talked about a PROPOSED new feature for our software that involved Universal Life. It appears that most who read that misunderstood what I was talking about. Let’s try again.

First, Compulife is not planning to add U/L comparisons to our software. We already have the U/L comparisons that we have decided to add. You will find those products in the comparison category called “To age 100 Level Guaranteed”.

NOTE: Term4Sale Agent Edition customers do NOT have this category.

Providing that a U/L product has a fully guaranteed premium that will not lapse before age 100 (some will guarantee longer), the product can be included in that category and we want to include every such product that we can.

The NEW PROPOSAL that I talked about last month adds nothing new to that comparison.

What Was I Really Talking AboutThe PROPOSED NEW feature I would like to add, is a “link” or “connection” between the Compulife program and the Home Office software provided by the life companies. Here is how I envision the function working:

PROPOSED NEW FunctionFrom the comparison results you would double left click on a U/L product which would cause the “Display Single Product” window to appear. (That part works already)

Next, IF the company has worked with Compulife in order to facilitate the new feature that we are PROPOSING, there would be a NEW BUTTON on the single product display window. Currently you have a button called “Rate Class”. Imagine a NEW button just to the left of it called “Illustrate”. If you were to click on the imaginary “Illustrate” button, our software would then connect to the Home Office software, passing into the software the client’s information and displaying a genuine Home Office illustration for the exact same product that you were looking at in Compulife.

Again, this is NOT a new comparison feature. This would be a proposed new interface between our software and the company software. It would make it much easier to use the company software to generate a genuine life company illustration for the product you saw in Compulife.

So, Why Was I Asking for Your Help?The point of talking about a new feature that we do not have, and the point of asking for your help, is that to facilitate this new feature we would need to work with the Home Offices of various life companies in order to create the interface. We are not proposing to hack our way into the life company software, we are proposing to work with the Home Office to make whatever changes are necessary, to their software, to facilitate this feature. It may be that such features already exist in some Home Office software and we simply need to know how to connect. It may mean that the Home Office will need to make changes which cost money. The big question is:

Why Should a Home Office Work With Us?That’s where you come in. You cannot expect a Home Office to spend time and money on a project that no one wants. They would need to be convinced of its value. If agents don’t want or need the feature, why would the company spend money on providing it?

So last month I asked you to e-mail me if you thought such a feature would be important and to explain WHY you thought it would be important.

I received about 20 e-mails.

Half of them clearly didn’t understand what I was proposing.

If that is the extent of the interest in this proposal, the proposal is DOA (dead on arrival). That’s the proposal being dead, not the feature. Once again, if that’s all the interest that exists, I have no interest in committing time and money either.

This is Up To YouIf you want this function/feature, you can e-mail me at barneyrl@compulife.com.

If you DON’T want the function/feature, do nothing. That’s all you will need to do, just do nothing. We’ll make sure you don’t get the new feature and assume everybody is happy as is.

Mid-month Update Change Went WellThe new mid-month update procedure was implemented without difficulty. For those who need to do a mid-month update manually there is now only one file to download and save to the \COMPLIFE folder. For the rest, who do their updates automatically, we doubt that you noticed the change.

Removal of DOS from Disk UpdatesWe did get a number of calls from subscribers who were caught off guard by the removal of the DOS version of Compulife from their disk updates. As is usually the case, the vast majority of subscribers do not read bulletins and so most didn’t see it coming even though we had been warning about it.

There are two alternatives for those affected by the change. First, those who still want to run DOS software need to get updates by Internet. Monthly updates by Internet will continue to include the DOS and Windows program until the 3rd quarter of 2005. We expect the early part of 2006 to be very busy time which we will tell you about later in 2005. In the meantime, we need to move everyone from DOS software to Windows software by the end of 2005.

Given that the DOS software will be coming to an end, we strongly recommend that you take the second alternative which is to make the point of learning to use the Windows version of Compulife. There is no doubt that the Windows version is now much more powerful than the DOS software. Those who prefer DOS to the Windows program are usually operating with the belief that there is something that the DOS program does that the Windows won’t do. If you are one of those people, please give us a call at (800) 798-3488. We can show you how to do the same thing in the Windows version of Compulife.

www.term4sale.com – 560,000 quotes/visits in the last two yearsOur thanks to the subscribers who have again renewed their paid listings on the www.term4sale.com web site. Your sponsorship of that public service is appreciated and has made term4sale one of the premier comparison sites on the Internet. That’s not just us talking, that is according to the media and search engines. As of the writing of this bulletin, a google search for “term insurance” had term4sale.compop up number 2 on the list following budgetlife.com. As a side note, I am happy to note that Budget Life is one of 4 Compulife authorized web providers who use the Compulife comparison technology on their web sites. Needless to say, we are looking good.

A google search of “term life insurance” has term4sale.com coming up number 10, but that is actually good progress over the past few months. Our key words at the site used to focus much more on “term insurance” with little emphasis on “term life insurance”. This meant we were routinely coming up number 1 for term insurance, but down on the 4th or 5th page for term life insurance. That has changed over this year.

You can also see the attention that the media has been giving to term4sale by clicking on the red “Testimonials” graphic when you visit the site. The media coverage has been broad and favorable. With the changes and improvements that we continue to make, we expect it to stay that way.

I would also like to thank those subscribers who have taken the time to write agent testimonials which is another page in the testimonials section. We would like to include more testimonials in that list so if you are favorably disposed to send one, we’ll get you added. One of the benefits is that your testimonial will contain a link to your web site and because term4sale.com is highly ranked site, it will be an important link for you when it comes to search engines.

A number of subscribers listed at term4sale.com still do not have links to their web sites. This can mean one of three things:

1. You do not have a web site.

2. You do not have a small link at your site to term4sale.com

3. You forgot to tell us to link

If you do not have a web site, get one and get one now. Compulife’s authorized web providers would love to have your business and the average “all in” price of a brand new web site is only $299 per year. If you have not considered it before, check it out by visiting:

compulife.com/website.htmAs a Compulife subscriber the $299 annual fee will also include a fully customized term comparison function at your web site, where you can offer your customers term insurance comparisons for the companies that you represent. There is no reference to other agents or term4sale in your web site’s comparison service.

Once you have a web site, Compulife would be happy to add a link to your site in the agent listings at www.term4sale.com. The only condition is that somewhere on your site you have a small link back to term4sale.com. This is not intended to have your clients actually visit term4sale.com, the link is intended to help improve term4sale in the search engine rankings. Those rankings take into account those links when determining which sites get ranked high or low.

Remember, if your name is listed in the agent listings at term4sale.com then your name appears with two other agents in that listing. If either or both of your competitors have web site links, and you don’t, you are at a disadvantage. That is why Compulife held off providing such links until this year. We don’t want the site to favor one subscriber over another.

The harsh reality is that if you don’t have a web site today the marketplace thinks you are a cave person. The reality is that a majority of term life insurance consumers now have access to the web. Therefore, not having a web site is a big mistake. If this helps you get motivated to get it done, then I think I am doing you a big favor. Further, given that our authorized web providers can provide ready to go insurance sites for $299 per year (all inclusive), I think that adds up to two favors that I am doing for you.

Once you get a site, and once it is linked up to term4sale.com, make sure you tell us so that we can add that to your agent listings at term4sale.com.

Coming Next – Improved PrecisionA small but increasing number of companies are quoting from rate tables that have fractional pennies. This is particularly true for U/L – no lapse policies. We intend to introduce a change to our database which will allow us to increase the number of decimal places that we store from two decimals to six decimals. Currently we take products that have fractional pennies in their rates per thousand and round the rates up to the next whole cent. This can make our quotes fractionally higher than they should be.

IMPORTANT: Change Will Require New Internet EngineThis change will require a minor data conversion which will necessitate a change to the data structure. This means that new data will not be compatible with old data. While this will not be a problem for customers who subscribe to our software, because the new program and data will be provided at the same time, it does create a problem for those who use the internet engine.

Therefore, if you are using Compulife’s Internet engine, you will need to be ready to replace the engine with the new engine once the new data is introduced. Due to the significance of the changeover, and the fact that everything will need to be implemented and tested before release, we are planning to make this change with the April monthly update.

I apologize for that delay but two events will take me away from the office in the new year; one for a week in January and another for a week in March. Given the importance of the changeover, we need to leave lots of safety room before making the switch.

WARNINGIf there is anyone out there, using Compulife’s Internet engine, and has not kept their subscription to that engine current, the new data files in April 2005 will NOT WORK with the existing engine. You will need to upgrade the engine in order to continue.

Therefore, if you are a current engine user it would be a good idea to make a note to contact Compulife in March, to ensure you get an updated version of the engine. If you are NOT a current engine user, but still using the engine, you’ve been warned.

Last Data Modification for DOSThe new April 2005 data file change will be the last change that we plan to make to the DOS version of Compulife. As previously discussed, Compulife will stop offering DOS software effective with the 3rd quarter of 2005. After that, the only desktop software that we will provide will be the Windows version.

Dueling Web SitesFor those who update by Internet, Compulife has gone to great lengths to provide you with redundancy in our web sites. Our main web site is:

www.compulife.comHowever, we keep two other completely separate web sites, on two completely different servers, at:

www.compulife.us     or     www.compulife.ccWhatever we update to compulife.com, we are also updating to compulife.us and to compulife.cc. If one web site goes down, for whatever reason, either of the other two are ready to serve you. That includes both monthly and mid-month updates.

For those doing monthly updates by Internet, we rely on three other web sites to supply monthly updates. These are automatically checked and used by our automatic Internet update software.

Returning Monthly Disk UpdatesFor those receiving updates by disks, you are responsible to return those disks each month. Not returning disks can lead to the termination of your update service. 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 $100 per year in subscription fees.

To switch to Internet monthly updates, go to our web page www.compulife.com and select the last menu choice “Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc.” Under the section “License Agreements” you will need to select and complete a new License Agreement for the type of license you have. After you have printed the new agreement, please read it, 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 step 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.