Update News for April 2008

Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:

• • FORMS – 20 Companies

     

     

  • On-line Forms Retrieval – Project Completed

     

     

  • Expanding No Lapse UL Categories

     

     

  • Improvements to Web Sites

     

     

  • On-Line Tutorial/Seminars

     

     

These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this bulletin.

FORMS – 20 CompaniesIn the first midmonth update in April, the number of companies in our forms library will hit 20 with the addition of Liberty Life Insurance Company.

The following are the companies whose forms are now available in Compulife’s forms library:

American General Life Insurance
Banner Life Insurance
Centrian Life Insurance
Genworth Life and Annuity Insurance Co
Genworth Life Insurance Company
Genworth Life Insurance Company of NY
Liberty Life Insurance Company
North American Company for L & H
Pruco Life Insurance
Pruco Life Insurance of New Jersey
Reliastar Life Insurance Company
Reliastar Life Insurance Company of NY
Security Life Insurance of Denver
Savings Bank Life Insurance
Transamerica Financial Life Insurance
Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance
United States Life Insurance in New York
West Coast Life Insurance
Western Reserve Life Insurance
William Penn Life Insurance

If you have a company which you do business with, and they’re not on the above list, WHY?

Remember, this is FREE to the life company. It costs a life company NOTHING to have their forms available through Compulife.

In order to add a life insurance company, the company needs to provide two things.

1. A copy of the forms (locked forms only) and list of forms indicating the states that they are used in and how they are used (most companies have all this already).
2. The company must agree to add us to their email list to notify us whenever they add or make changes to their forms. Most companies already have periodic bulletins on this and so we just need to get the same copy that they send to everyone else.

On-line Forms Retrieval – Project CompletedDuring March we completed the development of our on-line forms retrieval system. This new software is available FREE to life insurance companies who have provided us with forms.

We doubt that most companies are paying attention to this offer and so we intend to show them rather than tell them.

During March, and for the first time, Compulife secured our own web server. Prior to this we have been purchasing shared web services from 7 different web providers. While we will continue to maintain and use those same shared web servers, to ensure triple and quadruple redundancy for our software updates and web services, the new virtual dedicated web server allows us to host multiple web sites with multiple domain names.

One of the reasons that we will be doing this is to create sample forms retrieval systems for individual life companies. During the month of April we intend to create sample forms retrieval sites for some of the companies in our forms library. Each site will have its own domain name. Each site will also offer the ability to download and install our stand-alone, PC based, “goforforms” program.

Once a sample site has been put up for a life company, we will contact the company and give the company a link to the site. They will be invited to check it out.

As with all things forms, this will be FREE to the life company. At the very least we recommend that the company keep the site as a backup delivery system for their forms. If the company would like to establish the same software as a primary forms delivery system, we will assist the company in placing copies of the software on their own servers. The actual forms maintenance software, which we use to enter forms into the system, is also available to the life insurance company for FREE. That combined with the retrieval software, provides companies with a stand-alone software solution that can be run from any PC and server.

The domain name that we register for each company will be our gift to the company. If the company asks us to park it and not use it, we will. If the company wants us to transfer ownership to them, we will do that. We are simply registering the name in order to demonstrate to the company what we have been able to accomplish with our forms retrieval system. Rather than tell a company about it, we will show them.

The on-line forms retrieval system is also available to subscribers who have purchased our internet comparison engine. You may have and use the on-line forms retrieval software for NO ADDITIONAL charge providing that you maintain the actual forms on your web server. You can update the forms on your server, the same way that you update rates on your server. You use the PC version of Compulife to obtain the forms, and then upload the forms to your site. We can even show you how easy it is to compare the forms on your local PC, that are in your COMPLIFE folder, with the forms that are on your server. Once you do the comparison (it’s instantaneous), you simply upload the new forms. Once again, we’ll show you how do to this.

IMPORTANT: you must have a company’s permission to use their forms and Compulife holds you responsible for securing that permission. If we determine that you are using a company’s forms without their permission, and the company objects, Compulife reserves the right to discontinue our software service to you. Therefore, you must be careful. Remember, forms are the PROPERTY of each respective life insurance company, they are NOT public information. Forms are protected by copyright and the copyright owner is the respective life insurance company.

The on-line forms retrieval software is also available to our authorized web providers who will have the ability to use that software for those subscribers who are obtaining our web quoting services through those providers. If you currently have Compulife comparisons on your web site, provided by one of our authorized web providers, and would like to add forms, please contact your authorized web provider.

Expanding No Lapse UL CategoriesCompulife would like to expand the categories for our no lapse UL comparisons. In order to do so we will need help from the life companies. Please keep in mind that unlike term products, where life companies produce rate cards or have rate tables, most life companies do not have tables from which they calculate their no lapse premiums. In virtually all cases it is the company’s own quoting software that generates the premiums and values.

For several years Compulife has been able to quote these products by having life companies provide us with schedules of premiums for all ages, sexes and classes, for a number of popular face amounts. Typically these will be $100,000, $250,000, $500,000, $1,000,000, etc. Because companies employ an automated process to generate these spreadsheets, many provide us with even more face amounts.

From those spreadsheets Compulife will reverse engineer values and create an entry into our system which imitates the company’s premiums. In many cases this value will be higher (hopefully slightly higher) than the premium that the company’s software generates. Fortunately, with no lapse UL premiums, your client can pay a premium higher than the premium necessary to guarantee the coverage – the key is that the client may not pay a premium that is lower. Even though this is UL, paying a premium lower than that specified as the minimum no lapse premium, means the client loses their guarantee.

Given the risk that a client might miss a premium, and the concern that premiums are paid every year, year after year, throughout a person’s lifetime, a lot of life companies offer the ability for agents to create no lapse U/L premiums for different payment scenarios. For example, if your client does not want to pay premiums after age 65, then you can use the company’s software to solve for a fully guaranteed, no lapse premium, with payments to age 65. If you client makes his last payment at age 64, the policy is considered paid-up – fully guaranteed.

Recently a company asked Compulife if we could quote premiums for other payment periods. We replied that we can but haven’t done so because no company has yet provided us with the data that we need (the spreadsheets with the premiums). The company indicated that they would be willing to do so at some future point. We assured them that as soon as they did we would expand our categories to accommodate them.

So we are now extending an open offer to all life insurance companies. Compulife would like to be able to add the following categories to our software:

• • no lapse UL, lifetime payments
  • no lapse UL, pay to 100
  • no lapse UL, pay to 65
  • no lapse UL, 20 pay
  • no lapse UL, 10 pay
  • no lapse UL, single pay

NOTE: The first category, for all intents and purposes, would include the 2001 CSO generation of products which now have lifetime premiums (payable to age 121).

In making this change, we would propose to remove ANY no lapse UL product with coverage that terminates if the insured lives beyond the premium payment period. Currently our system only requires coverage to be in force to at least age 100, although we think most policies now provide lifetime protection. In fact we would like to remove products that could terminate before the insured. If anyone is aware of any no lapse product in Compulife, which terminates AFTER the last guaranteed payment, please let us know and we’ll pull it from the system.

Once again, Compulife will move forward with the proposal to add new no lapse payment categories just as quickly as we have ANY life insurance company provide us with premiums to fit the category. This is an open offer to any and all life companies.

On another note, we are hearing more and more from agents who want survivorship quotes. Once again, this is something we can and will do if life companies are prepared to provide us with the joint age calculation formulas to determine the Single Equivalent Age (SEA). For example most companies will put the two individuals through a calculation matrix to generate a new age, sex and smoking status, as though the two people were the same as a single person at a different age. Generally that age is younger than the youngest of the two individuals (assuming it is a survivor policy and not a first-to-die joint life policy).

Compulife will move forward with survivorship quotes just as quickly as we have ANY life insurance company provide us with the calculations we need. This too is an open offer to any and all life companies.

Improvements to Web SitesDuring March significant improvements have been made to our websites, both www.compulife.com and www.term4sale.com. The changes make our websites more attractive on the new generation of wide screen, LCD displays.

We think the new pages are better organized and look more professional. The question is, did anyone notice? Tell us what you think? Do you have any suggestions?

On-Line Tutorial/SeminarsWe are also obtaining the software and hardware that we will need to begin offering on-line tutorials. From our website you will be able to link to a Windows media program that will give you a multi-media tutorial which will have video, computer image displays and voice instructions on how to use our software. You will see us use the program, and talk about it while we do. We have decided that we will use a two person audio track where Jeremiah and Bob will actually discuss the software and its use during the course of the tutorial. For those of you who have listened to director/producer audio tracks provided with many DVD versions of movies, you will understand how this will work.

Tutorials will be short and topically arranged. For example, the first tutorial will be an audio visual presentation of the Dare to Compare Challenge, which is a training tutorial we use for first time users. Someone will actually be able to sit and watch us do that tutorial in a video. We think for those who fear touching the keyboard, this will be useful.

The second tutorial that we are planning will explain how to use our “ROP Analysis”. We think that function in the software is overlooked but is very useful, particularly when selling ROP products to high end insurance buyers who actually understand the time value of money. Once we have that tutorial ready, we will talk about it in the future Update News, and invite you to check it out. At that point we will ask if there other features and options in Compulife that you would like us to cover in the tutorials? Let us know.