Update News for May 2026

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

• Changes To Our API License Agreement
• Monthly Bulletins To End
• Who Reads This Stuff Anyway?
• Just One Simple Question About E and O
• Our Current Programming Plans

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

Changes To Our API License Agreement

Many will remember our legal battle with David Rutstein and his partners, who stole our software and gave it away for free to thousands of agents, enabling those agents to offer quotations on their personalized websites for FREE.

In April we uncovered another example of this behavior with an agency purchasing our API service. Unbeknownst to us, they were using our API to power multiple personalized agent quoters which the agents (third parties) were receiving from the agency for free. Virtually all of those agents were NOT licensees of Compulife.

The customer’s defense was that they didn’t know.

On the face of it, why would ANYONE think that this is acceptable? Why would any agent buy a web quoting tool from Compulife if they could get the same thing, powered by our software, from someone else for free? How is Compulife supposed to make money?

We don’t let you take the PC software and give it to third parties. Your Mobile quoter is limited in number of users/browsers.

We took a fresh look at our API agreement and it wasn’t spelled out in that agreement. Even so, I want to remind everyone that in order to obtain a license for the API you must have a base subscription to Compulife, each of which has its own license which states quite explicitly that you can’t give our software to third parties.

I concede that confusion might arise from the fact that if you put the web quote option on your website, the entire world can use it for free. We consider those people to be “visitors” to your site, and we don’t count or limit visitors. That’s OK, visitors can use YOUR licensed copy on your website to obtain quotes for free.

But that’s not what was going on. This customer was setting up “personalized” quoting pages, personalized for the customer’s affiliated agents. Those agents were then holding out those individualized quoting pages as their quoters for their visitors to use. That is NOT even close to acceptable UNLESS that agent is also a subscriber to Compulife. Again, we would assume this is UNDERSTOOD on the face of it.

Anyway, this subscriber when confronted first tried to argue that what was happening was not happening. Not a good start to the conversation.

Once they were provided with the evidence that we could see clearly what they were doing, then we heard the “we didn’t know?” response.

We decided we would need to AMEND the agreement to spell this out in explicit detail in that agreement. We consider that the amendment changes NOTHING, it merely CLARIFIES what has been the understanding that we have had with subscribers to the API from the beginning. Once again, to subscribe to the API means you are governed by two agreements, the first having already spelled out that you do NOT give use to our software to third parties.

You will find the amended agreement here:

If you are an API subscriber, please read the amended agreement.

If you did NOT understand that you could not set up YOUR API access for third parties, unless they were subscribers to Compulife, then it’s time to make it right. If that’s a deal breaker for you, then please let Compulife know NOW. We will do for you what we did for the above mentioned customer, we will REFUND the last total annual subscription you paid for the software and you can look for an alternative.

If we discover after this notice, that you are giving access to your API to third parties who are NOT licensed with Compulife, either directly or through you as a sub-user, then we will use the following provision of the agreement which was in the original agreement, and remains in the amended agreement, to part company with you too.

• (ii) Compulife shall have the right to terminate this Agreement and the license granted herein:

• (a) Upon 10 days’ written notice in the event that the Customer, its officers, agents, or employees violate any provision of this Agreement; and

(c) Upon 10 days’ written notice for any cause subject to Compulife returning the annual service fee as determined in paragraph 4(i) less an amount of $40.00 for each month of service since the Customer’s last annual renewal.

Once again, if you are an API subscriber you can act immediately and we will refund the entire last annual subscription you paid us. That offer is good to May 15th. Otherwise, now that the agreement is amended, if we find that you are doing this, we will act according to provision (a) and there will be NO refund, just termination.

NOTE:   I cannot remember the last time we parted company with a customer based upon the (c) provision, but I can assure you that if we find out that you are sharing our software with third parties (ANY of our software), or giving access to our software through the internet to third parties, where they are using the software as if they were buying it from us, then we will act to part ways relying on provision (a).

We have worked VERY hard for 44 years to give our customers a product that is low cost and high quality. We are not paying our employees minimum wage to deliver that product. We certainly are not selling anyone software so they can give free access to it to other agents and agencies without them (or you on their behalf) having to pay Compulife anything for their use.

We know that our subscribers MAKE MONEY from the use of our software. They’re not buying it because they want to contribute to a charity called Compulife, they are buying it because our software makes them money.

And if it wasn’t making you money, I wouldn’t buy it either.

If YOU, and I mean YOU as a licensee of Compulife, set up a web page and have one million visitors and you sell a ton of life insurance, CONGRATULATIONS, YOU only have to pay us for a single license. BUT, and this is a HUGE “but”, you are not allowed to give access to another entity (third party) so that they can feature your copy of our software on their website and do so for free. They are free to LINK to your site, as long as the link is to YOUR website, and that it is NOT disguised as something offered by them.

If you’re an agent reading this bulletin, and not a subscriber to Compulife, and want a free quoting tool, I highly recommend www.term4sale.com. Lots of agents use that website. And feel free to offer a link to www.term4sale.com so that your site’s visitors can go there and get free quotes. That’s fine; no problem.

In what universe does it make any sense that we would spend all our time and money to create one copy of our product that one person buys and then distributes to the whole world so that they can then use it for free? Why would anyone not understand that is not acceptable? It takes a special kind of GREED to believe that the person who owns the product should not benefit from the re-marketing of that product.

And for guys like Rutstein who gave it away for free, with the argument they “weren’t selling it”, we aren’t stupid. Those choosing to employ this offer as part of their marketing strategy are making money from the relationship another way, typically by earning commission overrides on business placed with them or an affiliate by the agent that they are giving free software to.

The Bible says do not muzzle the ox that treads the grain. In other words, if you don’t feed the cow, you can’t expect to get milk.

Monthly Bulletins To End

The days of the monthly bulletin, which began in 1982, are coming to an end. In April I turned 72 and while I have no plans to ever retire, and while I have no reason to believe I won’t live for a few more years, the fact is that “the older I get, the better I was.” That quote is courtesy of Lee Trevino.

And while I have not planned my funeral yet, or bought a plot (yes, they are not burning me, this body will rise again when the trumpet sounds), we have determined that Jeremiah and his wife (my daughter) will be continuing the company after my demise. Jeremiah is well versed in the function of the company such that you should not notice any change when I’m gone. And as we plan for that eventual transition (hopefully a few years from now), our systems for managing the operation are getting better and better organized. That will minimize the learning curve for new people as they are brought on board to replace us old folks who leave in the future.

Even so, Jeremiah’s workload will expand when I am gone and he will need to hand some of his current work to others, and so anything that can be done to minimize the total workload is important.

Despite the title of this part of the bulletin, we have no intention to change the monthly update system, or the midmonth updates (as needed) which we use to make incremental changes between monthly updates.

To review, when you get a monthly update it refreshes ALL the files in our system. When that update is complete the software automatically pops up the next month’s version of this bulletin. That is going to change.

Who Reads This Stuff Anyway?

As soon as the monthly bulletin pops up, most people close it and it is never seen again or read. I think midmonth bulletins are more carefully followed by those wondering why there was a midmonth update, curious to know which company changed rates.

But in this day of information overload, all of this is just one more thing to read and everyone has enough other things to read that only a small percentage of our customers bother to get into these monthly bulletins or read my musings.

In April I pointed out that I had asked for help in the March bulletin with respect to information about E and O insurance. Only a handful of people replied in April after that second appeal and that was after I expressed my frustration that no one had responded in March. Now in fairness, one subscriber did respond in March and I had accidentally deleted their email but it was clear, even from some of the emails in April, that my explanation of the issue was NOT being read very carefully.

So here is the change we plan to make. In July we will introduce a new GOWIN.EXE which no longer directly goes to the latest monthly bulletin after a monthly update. Instead, we will simply auto-link to the “blog” which is on our website. You can check that out now by clicking on the following link:

The blog features ALL our past bulletins. By linking to the blog each month, after the monthly update, the newest thing we have to discuss in that blog will be at the top of the list (just as our midmonth bulletin is organized). Each article is listed with a “synopsis” of the article and there is a “Continue Reading” button. You get the full story by clicking on the button.

In essence the blog will change so that there will be no more “Update News” for each month, but rather an article (when and as needed) that will have a date below it. Some months there may, during the course of the month, be a couple of articles (as needed). For example, the above story about the API agreement being amended, would be directly posted to the blog. It might go up mid-April, and then you would see it automatically after the May monthly update when it would appear in the blog.

Some months there may be no bulletin because there is nothing specific to report.

Rather than look for something to talk about, from a variety of topics, the articles will be more compact, mission oriented and published immediately. If there is something that NEEDS to be discussed, we will publish it. Also, the articles will be more focused on the functions and features of the software. We will look to shorten content.

Midmonth bulletins will continue unchanged, and they will continue to focus on data changes.

The blog keeps a running history of information. You can see when you visit the blog,

and as you scroll down. There are literally years of past content.

Just One Simple Question About E and O

Among the handful of responses that I got to my question about E and O insurance, I got the general impression that E and O was something you were required to purchase because life insurance companies mandate it. You can’t get appointed or contracted with a company unless you can offer proof that you have E and O insurance.

That brings me to a specific question, which I talked about in general in March. In Canada, when I was licensed to sell life insurance, the requirement to have E and O insurance was a government mandate. Oh yes, the life insurance company wanted to know you had it, but you could not renew your insurance license without proof of E and O insurance.

So the question is, for our U.S. subscribers:

Is the requirement for E and O insurance a life insurance company (only) requirement, or is it required by state law?

Let me ask the same question another way:

Do companies require you to have E and O because the government requires them to do so, or is this just something the life insurance company requires and the government doesn’t care?

Now let me be more blunt than I have. I believe that the E and O policies you folks are being required to purchase are DEFECTIVE.

E and O policies protect 3 parties:

• 1. The consumer (that person you do business with)

• 2. You, the agent or agency

3. The company that issued the E and O policy

Based upon my experience, courtesy of the Rutstein lawsuit, I am now of the view that the only party really protected by an E and O policy is the insurance company that issued the policy. The fraud exclusion, which requires no demonstration of criminal fraud, can be used as an excuse by the company to avoid payment of any claim. Worse, you cede your right defend yourself to the insurance company, who while they pay the bill for your legal defense, suffers no downside if they mismanage that defense, lose the case and leave you holding the bag.

Do you care? Not likely based upon the lack of interest to date.

Our Current Programming Plans

The following is the current order for new work that we will be doing moving forward:

• • Introduction of New PC Version: CQS.EXE.

• • Overhaul Of Current Product Data Files.

• Introduction of Compulife Mobile Plus (with Pick 12).

Anyone with questions about any of these upcoming projects can call Bob Barney to discuss:

Please don’t email me essay questions; just call. If I’m not in, email me your phone number, I’ll call you.

These planned objectives will easily consume our programming time during the balance of 2026. The good news is that once the product data files have been converted, and we have introduced the new CQS.EXE and upgraded our internet engine to use the new data files, Compulife will be turning its full attention to our web-based, Compulife Mobile software. The long-term goal is to have a web-based product that does everything our PC-based software does.