Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin: Put This…
U.S. Update News November 2003
The December 2003 disk update will be processed Tuesday, November 25th and Wednesday, November 26th.
Disks will be shipped Wednesday, November 26th. You should have the November Update in your office by Monday, December 1st. Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your October disks ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this November 2003 Update. October disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the November 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 complete 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 than disk updates.
Essentially these companies determine their ROP premiums by applying a factor to the basic premium of the policy (without ROP). The factor times the basic premium equals the ROP premium. We have now come up with a design concept which will allow us to replicate that calculation without having to do a significant re-tooling of our system. However, our existing DOS, Windows and Internet engines will not have the added functionality needed to quote this and so that creates potential conflicts between old comparison engines and new data. We have come up with a way to handle this conflict. Š
To ensure that the old comparison engines (software programs) are not mixed with the new data, we have now moved ROP products into their own separate categories which the old engines are unable to quote. The new categories are not accessible except by the new comparison engines that have been modified to process them. As always, there will be free internet engine software upgrades to customers who use that software.
This change does result in a negative implication for some of our existing subscribers. We have NOT added the new ROP categories to the DOS program and so the option to quote ROP products is no longer available in DOS.
We believe that the Windows version is what you need to be using. For the past 5 years our Windows software has gotten the vast majority of our development attention and it is now the far more powerful version of our software. It is only our commitment to the wishes of existing software customers that keeps us from just bringing the DOS product to an end at this point. Once again, if you are using the DOS version you are missing out on important features and capabilities. Eventually, the DOS version will cease to exist; but not yet.
Compulife Lite subscribers are receiving a special letter explaining some very attractive upgrade options. If you are a Compulife Lite subscriber, and have missed seeing that letter, contact us immediately at 800-798-3488.
We hope that most subscribers will take advantage of the significant discounts offered to those who obtain updates by Internet.
6 / 12 X ($199 – $99) = $50
6 – the number of months remaining in your subscription
12 – the number of months of your original total subscription period
$199 – the price of the full Compulife (personal use)
$99 – the price of the Term4Sale – Agent edition
Until November 14th that upgrade fee will be cut in half. In other words, as in the the above example, the $50 would be cut to $25.
Once again, this is a one time offer of upgrade for Term4Sale – Agent Edition customers and it is only available until Friday, November 14, 2003. If you upgrade you will not only have the new ROP product comparisons, you will also have the new “to age 100” comparison category which includes a number of the guaranteed no lapse to age 100 U/L products now available.
We are concerned that these products are more complex and require additional consideration and explanation beyond mere price. That is where the agent comes in and we are not insurance agents. In the meantime Compulife will be developing and offering some editorial comment on these products at www.term4sale.com, and pointing out that subscribers to a full version of the Compulife program have further information about those products.
If you are using our Internet engine at your own website, and you want to quote these new categories, you can now do so if you obtain the new engine. And for those who are using our engine through authorized web providers, you are permitted to add those categories to your website providing that you are a subscriber to the full version of Compulife as opposed to the “Term4Sale – Agent Edition”. While there is an Internet starter program that lets a first time subscriber have term quotes on their websites if they just purchase the “Term4Sale – Agent Edition”, they will not be permitted to quote ROP or no lapse U/L plans.
And finally, we caution those who add ROP and no lapse U/L plans to their Internet quotes that you need to work with your internet provider to ensure that these products are properly explained to the public. In the event that there is a dispute that arises between you and a consumer later, you are on your own. Compulife assumes no liability or responsibility for your decision to add these products to your website.
Currently the “Term4Sale – Agent Edition” generates its own invoice and Šwe have decided that we are going to allow the full version of Compulife and the trial versions of Compulife to do the same. We will still manually invoice each subscription renewal, but in the event you do not get that renewal, the system will be able to generate the invoice for you.
To go with that coming option will be a “Health Class Report” which will explain what classes were rejected by the program and the reasons why they were rejected. If the health criteria for that product was not provided by the company, the system will still pick the lowest premium available for the class selected. The health analysis report will indicate that health analysis was not performed for that company/product.
Progress on those improvements was slowed by the introduction of new comparison categories for our U.S. subscribers. With that completed, work again will re-focus on the 5 life comparison.
Some companies permit a discount for husband and wife when they buy policies at the same time, while others do it also for business partners. Many that allow the discount for business partners will allow the discount for more than 2 partners and so the multi-life comparison button for non-spouse will eventually ask how many clients to do the comparison for and give the total premiums for that group. 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 completed.
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.