Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin: Merry Christmas…
U.S. Update News June 2002
The July 2002 Internet monthly update will be posted to our five monthly update websites on Tuesday, June 25th.
Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your “May disks” ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this June 2002 Update. May disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the June edition.
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.
If you call Compulife to report a rate error, program bug, or help Compulife obtain new rates, etc., we have traditionally given a free month of software as our way to say thanks. That practice will not change but we are changing the way that the credit is given.
At one time most subscribers received disks each month and most paid monthly. That’s no longer the case. All subscribers now pay annually. And because most subscribers get updates by Internet, where the expiration date has been fixed into the Internet Master Disk that you install once every year (or two) to your computer, we needed to come up with a more efficient way to give credits to those who qualify.
Those qualifying for credits will now be sent a “Compulife Credit Voucher” indicating either the “amount” or “percentage” discount that you have been awarded. When you receive your next invoice for a subscription renewal from Compulife, you can apply that credit voucher or vouchers (you could have more than one), together with the balance of payment for that invoice, as the total payment for that invoice.
The following are examples of credits awarded:
Those who report a rate error, or alert us to new rates, will be given a “Compulife Credit Voucher” for 10% of the annual subscription price.
If you refer a new agency customer to Compulife, you will receive a credit voucher for 50% of the price of the Internet version of the agency system. Currently an agency system is $299. Therefore, you would receive a credit voucher for $150. Alternately, you could waive your right to that credit, and the credit can be taken by the agency that you referred. This means that they could buy the software for $149 instead of $299. Once again, you forfeit your right to a credit voucher if this happens.
If you refer a new personal use customer to Compulife, you will receive a credit voucher for 50% of the price of the Internet version of the personal use system. Currently a personal use system is $199. Therefore, you would receive a credit voucher for $100. Alternately, you could waive your right to that credit, and the credit can be taken by the agent that you referred meaning that he or she could buy the software for $99 instead of $199. Once again, you forfeit your right to a credit voucher if this happens.
If you refer a new “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” customer to Compulife, you will receive a credit voucher for $30. You may not waive the credit voucher or give the credit to another agent.
Credit vouchers CANNOT be used as payment toward the cost of a “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” program.
Credit vouchers are not given to anyone who has purchased the “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” of our software. The annual cost of this subscription is already very low. Please remember that there are a number of options and benefits not available to Term4Sale – Agent Edition subscribers.
In keeping with this low cost, there are several differences between the “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” and the full “Compulife Quotation System”. For full details go to:
Two year subscription pricing for those receiving disk updates has been eliminated.
A three year subscription price, for those obtaining Internet Updates, has now been introduced. Agents or agencies can save $99 per year for each additional year that they purchase when renewing a one year subscription. For example, a personal use subscription to Compulife is $199, but a second year can be added by paying an additional $100 for a total price of $299. A third year can be added by paying an additional $100 for a total price of $399 for 3 years.
The strategy behind these pricing changes is quite simple. Those who obtain their monthly updates by disk represent the most work and expense for Compulife. By contrast, we do not have to ship or handle the disk returns for Internet subscribers.
Further, each year, when we invoice for subscription renewals, and process subscription payments, there is substantial administrative work that is entailed. We must invoice you. Frequently our customers move and do not advise us. We must track them down. When we receive your payment we must process it. Next we issue you an Internet Master Disk authorizing you to obtain updates for another year. Taken together, it’s a lot of work.
Alternately, when you purchase a two year (or now three year) subscription, we eliminate all that work in the second or third year. That saves us money, and enhances our customer retention (there are no subscription refunds for early cancellation). As a result, we can afford to offer very deep discounts for 2nd and 3rd year subscriptions.
The Company information function provides the name, mailing address, phone number and contact people for the company’s home office (where we have that information). We have now added the website and the e-mail address for general inquiries. While we have worked very hard and located the home webpages for virtually all life companies, we have not entered a number of the e-mail addresses. We would ask that life companies advise us as to which address they would like us to give out to subscribers wanting to make initial inquiries of life companies.
In the DOS version of the program, the links and addresses are displayed but you cannot launch the browser from the DOS software.
In the Windows version of the program, a button appears at the bottom of the “Company Information” window, and the button when clicked will activate your Internet browser and take you to the life company’s website.
There are two ways to display a single product window. First, it will appear when you press the F2 button (Display a Single Product). Second, it is the window that appears when you double left click on a product from within a comparison.
With the single product window displayed, you will see in the top right hand part of the header a “Category” button. Clicking this will display a list of premium categories for the product. The name that the company uses to describe the category is displayed together with Compulife’s short form classification. Compulife’s short forms, and their meanings, are as follows:
P+Ns – Preferred Plus Non-Smoker
PfNs – Preferred Non-Smoker
R+Ns – Regular Plus Non-Smoker
RgNs – Regular Non-Smoker
P+SM – Preferred Plus Smoker
PfSM – Preferred Smoker
R+SM – Regular Plus Smoker
RgSM – Regular Smoker
The new feature adds the premium to the right of the company category description. Categories are sorted by premium in their respective non- smoking and smoking groups.
This does 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 can quickly see which category that premium is for.
2. Categories are 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. This is now fixed.
There are a number of product duplications, or waiver premium band duplications, which we will be able to eliminate. This will make our database smaller, faster and simpler. We will be introducing the new data changes all through June once we are satisfied that the new Windows program is working well for all customers.
To accommodate this, we have been placing products in our system more than once. This is to ensure that for the affected state, we are not quoting for issue ages above that state’s maximum.
Our database can now track different maximum issue ages for states. During July we will converting over products to eliminate the redundant state entries that can be eliminated with this new feature. As in the case of Waiver of premium, this will save space in our data files, make our program faster and simpler to use.
We will not be touching this until July as we want to give some additional warning to those who use the Compulife Internet software. The internet engine software NEEDS TO BE UPDATED or the new files will quote incorrectly in the affected states.
If you have not received and updated Internet comparison engine since May 1st, you need to e-mail Compulife at barneyrl@compulife.com.
IMPORTANT: Midmonth updates can occur ANYTIME between monthly updates. These are placed on our website as changes occur, when they occur.
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.
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 doing monthly updates by Internet, we have three other websites standing at ready with the monthly updates. If you cannot obtain your monthly update from either compulife.com or compulife.cc, call our office at (800) 567-8376 and we’ll tell you where the third site is.
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”. Alternately, the agreement is now available at our www.compulife.com website under “Forms, applications, instruction tutorials, etc.”
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.