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

U.S. Update News September 2003
We plan to post the October 2003 Internet monthly update to our five monthly update websites on Thursday, September 25th.
The October 2003 disk update will be processed Thursday, September 25th and Friday, September 26th.
Disks will be shipped Friday, September 26th. You should have the October Update in your office by Tuesday, September 30th. Unless you have made arrangements to purchase your diskettes, please return your August disks ONLY AFTER you have successfully installed this September 2003 Update. August disks are your backup in case you should have problems installing the September 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 full 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.
However, this creates a problem for those who wanted to show multiple classes of the same product. For example, assume that you wanted a spreadsheet showing the preferred plus, preferred and standard non- smoking premiums for the very same product. If you changed the face amount, but left the client set to preferred plus, and then wanted to refile, the program automatically put in the preferred plus rates for each product entry because the program assume that you wanted preferred plus as the rate class.
The new option, which appears as the first option in the “Refile Options” window, will permit you to refile so that the exact same premium class for each product is maintained in the Pick 12.
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.
We have now added a new option to the “Display Product Comparison” which allows you to “Quote All Companies” at the click of a button. When you click on “Quote All Companies” your comparison will re-display with all the companies included. Until you change that back, or until you leave and re-enter the program, the “Quote All Companies” selection will be remembered. Once you do leave the program and then return, the selected group of companies will be activated again.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are NOT automatically listed at the site. You must request your listing.
We do not assume all subscribers want to be listed because we know that there are those who do not want to be listed, for a variety of reasons. Therefore, please check to make sure you have a listing if you want to be listed.
At some point we plan to add some testimonial letters at our www.compulife.com web site where you can see the favorable experiences a number of our subscribers have had by being listed. While no one is inundated with telephone calls, a consumer calling a Compulife subscriber is generally a pretty good insurance prospect. Some agents have called to say they have sold sizable policies.
Compulife’s new advertising campaign will focuses on paying a prospective customer $5 just to TRY our software. Full details are now available at our website www.compulife.com.
It is clear already that this marketing concept is a winner. A number of agents have already acted to claim their $5 and a number of those have taken advantage of the 25% discount and purchased our software. This despite this offer is only appearing in our September print ads.
Increasing the number of Compulife subscribers is good for all subscribers. It gives Compulife additional revenue to initiate product improvements more quickly, and permits us to control our individual pricing.
Progress on that 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 wrapped.
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.