Update News for October 2009

If you read no other bulletin, READ THIS ONE!

As part of our 27th year celebration we are offering
SPECIAL Discounts and opportunities
You’ll be sorry if you miss these one time offers
Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:

• • Subscription Specials – THREE – 3 for 1 offers

     

     

  • Option 1 – Subscription Split – Retail Buyers

     

     

  • Option 2 – Subscription Split – For Bulk Buyers

     

     

  • Option 3 – Three for One Offer to New Subscribers

     

     

  • The Deadline is FIRM – October 31, 2009

     

     

  • You’ll be Sorry If you Miss This Deal

     

     

  • Latest Internet Engine is now Available

     

     

  • A Number of Looks and Styles to Choose From

     

     

  • Income and Retirement Calculators

     

     

  • Compulife Forms Library

     

     

  • More No Lapse UL Variations

     

     

  • Almost Done – New Service for On-Line PDA/Phones

     

     

  • Making Subscription Renewal Installations Easier

     

     

  • What’s Next?

     

     

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

Subscription Specials
THREE – 3 for 1 offersThere are a total of 3, 3 for 1 subscription offers that give EVERY subscriber to Compulife, and every new subscriber to Compulife, a way to dramatically cut the cost of their subscription. The three different options will apply depending upon your current status with Compulife. The offers can let you cut your subscription cost by as much as 2/3 the annual price or, for enterprising subscribers, you can get your subscription for FREE. Keep reading.

For example, if you normally pay $199 per year for Compulife, you can cut that to $66.33 if you act before October 31, 2009. The deadline is FIRM.

Consider this an experiment to see whether our subscribers would like to have us lower our overall price structure. If we can triple the number of our subscribers, we think we could seriously revise our prices downward. If we can double it, we can still revise, but not as much. This month you get to vote by using your feet.

So that everyone is all on the same page, these special offers are all about adding new subscribers to Compulife. A new subscriber is defined as any agency or individual who was not a paying subscriber to Compulife during 2008 or 2009. If you are an existing subscriber to Compulife, you can participate in the discounts by “Splitting Your Subscription”.

Option 1 – Subscription Split – Retail BuyersThe vast majority of our subscribers purchase Compulife on a one by one basis. If you are a single agent, you pay $199 per year. If you are an agency, which provides quotes from our software to more than one agent, you pay $299 per year. There are discounts for those who buy 2 or 3 years in advance and if you have ALREADY taken advantage of those discounts, they can be combined in this offer.

During September we sent emails to all retail subscribers announcing a “Subscription Split”. You can read about the Subscription Split by clicking on this link:

Click Here to Read about Subscription SplitHighlights:

• • • You can give a duplicate of your subscription to one or two others, FOR FREE!

 

• • • Charge your two “splitees” whatever you want – that’s between you and them

 

• • • They get the balance of your subscription period

 

• • • They get there own subscription including free agent listings on www.term4sale.com

 

• • • You can find out how long you are currently paid by clicking on “Help” then “About”

 

• • • Extend your subscription for all three, by adding as many as 3 more years at the normal, annual, retail rate for one subscription *

 

* May not be combined with other discounts/offers

Option 2 – Subscription Split – For Bulk BuyersAny agency can split to 1 or 2 more agencies under the above mentioned Subscription Split.

If an agency wishes, it can double those values by splitting to individual agents – in essence adding sub-user agents which are normally $139 per year, or $99 per year for 10 or more agents.

So if you are an agency, you can give personal use copies of your software to up to 4 of your agents, and their subscriptions are paid for as long as your current subscription. Yes, as described on the Subscription Split web page, you can add as many as 3 more years to your subscription by paying $299 per year, and all of your splitees will have their subscriptions extended to the same expiration date as you.

Remember, you can only do this for agents who have not been subscribers to Compulife during 2008/2009.

If you are already a bulk buyer of Compulife, you can also split each sub-user you have ONCE (not twice). So, if you currently have 10 sub-users, you can now have 20 sub-users by splitting each of the 10 once. Each new sub-user gets a subscription equal to the time remaining on the sub-user that you split. Yes, you can extend the sub-user subscriptions by paying for up to 3 more years at the discounted rate.

EXAMPLE:

You are an agency with 10 existing sub-users. You are currently paying $99 each per year for each of those agents. Your subscriptions for those agents all come due in March 2010. You decided to split the 10, but before you do you decided to pay $990 times 2, to add 2 years to the existing agent subscriptions. That means you now have 20 sub-agents, each of whom have effectively cost you $49.50 per year until March 2012.

Option 3 – Three for One Offer to New SubscribersThis offer will be emailed to all past trial users of Compulife and we will make public announcements regarding it.

If you were not a paying subscriber to Compulife during 2008/2009, you can buy one subscription and get two free. Of course the correct way to do this is to go find two other agents, and combine your money with their money so that you can each get Compulife for 1/3 the normal price. If you can only find one other person, then you each get the software for 1/2 the normal price.

And if those new subscribers want to extend the deal, they can buy up to 3 years at the normal annual price – effectively locking in the discount for three years. At the end of the split period, each of the three can continue at Compulife’s normal retail prices that are available at that time.

Sub-users of agencies, who are already receiving discounts as a result of their agency’s bulk purchase, can also extend their subscription for up 3 years by telling 3 of their friends about this deal. If those three friends get together and buy a new subscription, then the 12, 24 or 36 months are added to the sub-user’s subscription for FREE.

Agencies may also add additional sub-users, at their normal sub-user discount, on the basis of a two for one and may extend those subscriptions up to 3 years by paying in advance. So in the example above, where the agency split 10 existing sub-users to twenty, they can also add an additional 10 by paying for 5.

The Deadline is FIRM – October 31, 2009The deadline for these three, 3 for 1 offers is October 31, 2009. All money related to these offers must be in our office by that date in order to qualify.

We are happy to send a trial to ANYONE you think may wish to join with you in this offer. You can request that trial by clicking on the following link:

30 Day Trial ReferralNOTE: Offers cannot be combined with other offers. The four month FREE subscription does not apply unless the trial user elects to NOT take advantage of the offer by the end of October 31st. Further, you cannot obtain multi-year discounts when purchasing additional years, as the additional years will be split. The exception are those subscribers who have already purchased multi-year discounts. Those discounted years may be split when those subscribers split those subscriptions and they can still add up to 3 more years at the annual price.

You’ll be Sorry If you Miss This DealIf you do not take full advantage of this offer, you will regret it in the future because we will not be making this offer again. The purpose of this offer is to gauge whether or not we can add a significant number of new subscribers through lower prices. If this works, and we get significant participation, then we will simply adjust our retail prices. If the result is insignificant, then the experiment will not need to be repeated.

So, you can effectively get a lower price by participating in this offer, and if enough subscribers do that, then you can look forward to lower future costs for Compulife.

Latest Internet Engine is now AvailableCompulife has completed work on the latest version of our Internet engine and it is now available to all of our authorized web providers and those who have purchased the engine for use on their website.

The new engine now supports the new categories and category system which we have added to our software. So if you want to add the new categories you will need the new engine.

We have also built into the engine a number of new functions that we think you will find very useful. Details about those new functions will be in the engine package that we will send to you in October. If you want it sooner, and not later, please send an email request to:

jkuhn@compulife.comYou can see some examples of the look and feel of the new and improved quoting software by visiting this page:

Sample On-Line QuotesIMPORTANT: When reviewing the sample web site please note that we have deleted a number of the popular brokerage companies using the administration option that is now available with the new engine. Compulife does not want our Sample On-Line Quote system used as a cheap alternative to the software which our subscribers pay for and support. If you want to set up a web site that includes the companies that you want to quote, then you can do so. The purpose of the Sample Site is for you to see the look, feel and options available. All the companies and products that are in the PC version of Compulife are available for quoting using the internet version.

A Number of Looks and Styles to Choose FromWhen you visit our Sample On-Line Quotes web page, we have given you some things to play with which will let you see the various looks, styles and options that you can choose for your version of the quote system.

The first option is that you can choose the look and feel of your comparison results page. This is NOT something that you will let a user do on their web site, it is a choice/decision that will be predetermined for the web site. Once that is set users of the site will see what you selected.. Our Sample site is designed as a place where you can play with the various styles on the fly.

Income and Retirement CalculatorsYou can add either or both of our calculators to your web site. The first is the “Income Replacement Calculator” and the second is the “Retirement Calculator”. Both are options on your Compulife program and work the same way.

You can play with the web versions of these calculators which we have set up on the Sample Web page. Here is that link again:

Sample On-Line QuotesThe calculators should be self explanatory but if you have questions you can give us a call. Both calculators are on our list of future video tutorials which we should be back to creating later in the fall or early winter. New Video productions will follow adding the on-line PDA quote options which we continue to work on.

Compulife Forms LibraryAs we have specified in the past, if you are a subscriber to our Internet engine, or an authorized web provider, you can add the Compulife forms library to your site(s). The code to run the forms library is PHP based and so your server must be able to run that PHP code. Further, and most important, your must keep copies of the actual forms you offer ON YOUR OWN SERVER. Forms can be very large and we do not want your customers pulling them from our servers and sucking up bandwidth.

More No Lapse UL VariationsDuring September, as promised in our last bulletin, Compulife added a number of new no lapse UL categories to our software. Here is what we told you in the midmonth bulletin:

• • 6. New Categories Added

September 24th – Our thanks to West Coast and Protective Life who met our challenge to provide no lapse UL premiums for a “to age 65, 70 and 75” scenario. We said that if we got such rates, we would move forward and add “to age 100” and “to age 105” categories.

But West Coast and Protective went above and beyond the call of duty and provided us with a complete range of additional level coverage options in between and above. We have responded by adding all of them to our categories. Here is the complete list of new categories.

• • • • Age 80 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 85 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 90 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 95 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 100 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 105 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 110 Level Guaranteed

You will notice in the category list, these all follow the term categories:

• • • • Age 65 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 70 Level Guaranteed

 

• • • • Age 75 Level Guaranteed

The reason is quite simple. It is possible for your client to outlive the coverage, as the guaranteed premium/coverage ends at the age specified. Policies in the new categories do NOT become paid up at the age specified, they effectively lapse – or at least the guarantee does. So if you sell the age 90 no lapse variation, the guaranteed premium/coverage is gone at 90. If your client is still alive, the policy is over, or will cost a great deal more.

If you are selling these policies to your clients, speculating that your client WILL die before the benefit is paid, then your speculation may backfire. The only way certain to ensure that your client is going to have guaranteed coverage for life, is to go to age 121. And it is surprising how many 121 plans are highly competitive when you select the “pay to 100” option.

Having said all that, premiums are clearly less expensive for ages 100 and 105 and it appears a number of agents, and a number of companies, are recommending these premium/guarantee solutions. While we don’t think it is good idea to speculate about how long you may live (as an outside number), it is not our place to do anything other than warn that your mileage (or in this case mortality) may vary.

And now that we have introduced these new categories, we are more than happy to work with other companies to get their no lapse UL products into those categories.

As I like to say to companies:

“What part of free advertising don’t you understand”.And in case you didn’t know, Compulife does not charge life companies to add their products to our system. The only time a life company pays Compulife anything is if they subscribe – just like any agency.

And on a final note, Nationwide Life had also given us rates to age 100 and those are in that new category.

Almost Done – New Service for On-Line PDA/PhonesFor some time Compulife has had a PDA/phone service running at:

www.termcomparisons.cc/blackberryIf you have a PDA/phone that can surf the web, we would encourage you to check it out.

We continue to work on some significant improvements to this existing service that will allow you to enhance and personalize the on-line service. That personalized version of the service will be FREE and part of your subscription to Compulife.

Once the new upgraded service is available, the above link will cease offering quotes and will offer an application form that lets you apply to have your FREE personalized PDA/phone version created just for you. Once you complete that brief application, Compulife will click a button in our database which will email you a link for your new PDA/phone quote system.

The difference between the generic service that is currently available, and the new service that is coming, is that the new PDA/phone service will be personalized for each subscriber. You will have one web address that is your web address for doing quotes (your personal use – it is NOT intended to be a web site that you let other people use). The web pages and quote format are being specifically designed for the “small screen” of your PDA/phone.

You will also have a second web address that will let you select the companies that you want to include in your quotes.

Some new features will also be available with the improved new service. One of the feature we think you will really like is the ability to quote annual and monthly premiums at the same time.

Once again, your personal PDA/phone web address will be for your use ONLY. Functions in the software will report to us if multiple users are hitting your PDA/phone web page. If it is determined that such is the case, then your site will be disconnected,. Needless to say, if we do google searches and find links to these web sites, that will also cause them to be taken down.

If you want a public web site, that anyone can use, then you need to purchase our internet engine or talk to one of our authorized web providers which can add quotes to you web site for as little as $99 per year. Those are the options we have provided for public web quoting and you can also set up PDA web quotes for multiple agents using those options.

What’s Next?Once our work on the web engines and PDA/Phone software is complete, we will be turning our attention to some important maintenance work that is needed to the data entry systems. Those programs have not been updated for quite some time, and some need to be converted to take advantage of the newer programming compilers that we have been using for the Windows software that we already distribute to you. Our goal is to make it easier to program future software, which will ensure that we can roll out changes and improvements more efficiently.

Further, having reviewed where we are heading over the next few years, and the changes that we would like to be able to make in the future, we have decided to stop and do a much more extensive overhaul than simply changing our data entry software. We have determine that we would also like to implement a better data storage structure that will make maintenance easier on both a data entry basis, as well as a programming basis.

To achieve our goals in this regard, we will be spending a fair bit of time reviewing our new data storage needs, and then building conversion software that will convert our existing data files into our new data file structure. Once we have done that, we will then introducing new comparison software that does exactly what it does now, but which derives its results from the new data structure. In other words, you will end up with a new program that does exactly what the old program did/does.

Once this first stage is completed, we will have both old program and old data, with new program and new data. Moving forward we will use the old data entry systems to maintain the old version, then converting old data to the new data forms for general distribution.

The next stage is to create the new data entry systems that talk to the new data format. Once we are satisfied that the new data entry system give us everything that we have now, we will then switch to the new data structure alone. We will only do this once we have thoroughly tested the new software to ensure it gives us no problems in maintaining the date. This may take several months. As far as the part you use, by the time we make that transition, you will have been using the new software for several months.

The point of sharing this with you is that the process will be quite lengthy and so from this fall throughout most of 2009, you will not be seeing many changes and improvements to the software that you use, even though the underlying foundation will be going through a massive change. Once the foundation has been reconstructed, and all the tools to work on the foundation have been built, the program will be in a position to make some substantial moves forward.

Think of it as transplant surgery, where you need to keep the patient alive and well, at the same time as you are swapping out the organs.