CompuOffice Software Inc. announces the introduction of further enhancements to the leading edge CompeteUS professional life insurance research, comparison and quotation software. 

These enhancements come on the heels of CompeteUS enhancements that were introduced on August 1st and August 18th of this year (see earlier announcements below) and are just the beginning of a string of enhancements scheduled for upcoming release.  All CompeteUS subscribers automatically receive all enhancements without additional cost.  At a total subscription fee of only $79 per year, CompeteUS provides by far the best value in term insurance comparison software for American life insurance agents and brokers.

The new enhancements include the addition of "Residency and Citizenship" components to the Qualification Analysis functions of CompeteUS.  The "Residency and Citizenship" componet, the newest addition to the Qualification Analysis functions, broadens the scope of these functions with detailed examination of both residency and citizenship status of a proposed applicant for life insurance against the respective published qualification criteria of each insurer.

Other components of the Qualification Analysis functions of CompeteUS include:

"Residency and Citizenship" is now added to the pre-existing Qualification Analysis components which include:

-Height and Weight parameters

-Examination of the proposed applicant's BP parameters, including Systolic and Diastolic figures, along with current and past treatment and/or medication (if any)

-Detailed examination of the proposed applicant's cholesterol and ratio, along with current and past treatment and/or medication (if any)

-Detailed examination of the proposed applicant's alcohol abuse history and/or treatment (if any)

-Detailed examination of the proposed applicant's drug abuse history and/or treatment (if any)

-Comprehensive and detailed examination of the proposed applicant's Immediate family (relateds') medical history

-Comprehensive and detailed examination of the proposed applicant's Driving History

The recent enhancements to CompeteUS, along with the power, functionality and ease of use of this software provide subscribers with a wide and growing service and competitive edge.  At only $79 per year, there is no better value in self-contained life insurance comparison software for the United States than CompeteUS.

Enjoy!

CompuOffice Software Inc. announced the introduction of further enhancements to the leading edge CompeteUS professional life insurance research, comparison and quotation software. 

These enhancements come on the heels of CompeteUS enhancements that were introduced on August 1st of this year (see earlier announcements below) and are just the beginning of a string of enhancements scheduled for upcoming release.  All CompeteUS subscribers automatically receive all enhancements without additional cost.  At a total subscription fee of only $79 per year, CompeteUS provides by far the best value in term insurance comparison software for American life insurance agents and brokers.

The new enhancements include the addition of the Quali-Zoom(tm) functions to further enhance the credibility and value of the comprehensive Qualification Analysis functions of the CompeteUS professional software and to further increase the service and competitive advantage enjoyed by CompeteUS subscribers.

Another enhancement invovles the addition of added flexibility of user choice in the print output and the order of the pring output.  Of course, CompeteUS provides for the creation of print output to either or both hard copy and PDF.  (It is worthy of note that the PDF output creation functions of CompeteUS utilize internal routines written by CompuOffice Software Inc. for this purpose. ) 

REDMOND, WA, August 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Safeco Life & Investments announced its new name today: Symetra Financial. The company, currently located in Redmond, will begin doing business as Symetra Financial in approved states on September 1. "The new name evokes a sense of balance essential for long-term success in the financial services business," said Randy Talbot, president and newly appointed chief executive officer. "By balancing the company's needs with those of our distribution partners, customers, shareholders, employees and the communities where we live and work - by creating symmetry, if you will - we believe we hold the key to creating a shared opportunity for every individual we touch." The sale of Safeco Corp.'s life and investments unit to a group of investors led by White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. closed on July 31, 2004. 

CompuOffice Software Inc. announced the introduction of further enhancements to the leading edge CompeteUS professional life insurance research, comparison and quotation software. 

The enhancements include the addition of comprehensive "Family Medical History" and "Driving Experience History" to the standard setting "Qualification Analysis" functions of the CompeteUS Professsional Software.

"Determination of qualification for rate classes on life insurance products is made by analysis of the risk to the insurer.  It is known to anyone who is familiar with life insurance, that evaluation of a risk (risk evaluation) involves numerous aspects, including personal health and lifestyle, family medical history, financial and legal history, etc.  It is our goal to facilitate determination of rate classification, taking into account the various variables" said Ami Maishlish, VP Insurance and Financial Software.

The CompeteUS Professional Software is available to all licensed life insurance and financial services professionals who care to shop the market for the best value to their clients.  Priced at only $79 per year, the CompeteUS Professional Software is an excellent value.  If your life insurance agent or advisor is not using the CompeteUS Professional Software, perhaps it may be worthwhile to consider using the services of one who does.

After more than a decade of declining premium rates, costs of term life insurance are on the rise.

While some companies are attempting to hold the line on rates, the constriction of the reinsurance market (insurers often cede some or a majority of the assumed risk to reinsurers) has brought forth a tightening of that market.  This translates into higher costs of reinsurance that are ultimately passed to the consumer either in the form of higher rates or in tightening of the qualification criteria or both.  Some companies have already introduced single digit increases while at least one is likely to introduce double digit increases before the fall of this year.

"The declines in term insurance premium rates over the past decade resulted from decreasing administration and handling costs facilitated by advances in technology and systems.  Other factors included the introduction and refinement of multiple category-class underwriting criteria and rate schedules" said Ami Maishlish, VP Insurance & Financial Software.  "It appears to me that these factors have been 'absorbed' into the system already.  The adoption of the 2001 CSO tables, while presenting an opportunity for some rate reductions at older ages and for policies of longer duration, would have lesser rate reducing effect on shorter duration term policies, such as 10 or 15 year term" added Mr. Maishlish

"The probability of term life insurance price increases was apparent since at least the beginning of 2003.  The way I see it, it was not a question of 'if' but a question of 'when', and as it appears the life insurance industry has now approached that point" Mr. Maishlish concluded.

We are pleased to announce the introduction of Multi-Quoter.  Multi-Quoter is designed and intended for use by insuer Head Offices and actuarial personnel to facilitate market and market position research.

Multi-Quoter provides a Conrol Panel for the user to input the desired parameters, including range of products, ages, genders, classes, face amounts, etc. to survey.  Once the user has set the desired parameters and invokes the module, thousands of comparison surveys are run and the results are output in a format ready for import into spreadsheets and/or other research utilities.

Work that in the past could take days or weeks to complete can now be completed in a matter of minutes.

Since Multi-Quoter resides on the user's machine rather than being outsourced, insurers are not forced to disclose their confidential parameters or research to third parties.

Enhance your website with FREE web based quotes.  Yes, these are still FREE to everyone who is a licensed agent in the jurisdiction to which the website is addressed.

Take advantage of FREE web based quotes and comparison surveys in your website before the campaign ends on April 15th.

Please send your request by e-mail to:  support@competitornet.com

Please include your name, telephone number, e-mail address and website address (URL)
If you have a web developer, please also send his/her name and e-mail address.

Everyone who makes their request prior to April 15, 2004 will receive FREE web quotes service for a FULL 12 months.  Renewals thereafter are only $49 per year for CompeteUS subscribers or only $99 per year to non-subscribers.

Since the facility to setup and save "Profiles" was introduced over a year ago, we have received a good number of compliments about this.

To setup a new profile, click on "Profiles" at the top of the CompeteUS screen, then pick "New Profile".  You may create and use up to 18 different profiles.  Profiles are especially useful if you are licensed in more than one State, and can be even more valuable if you are appointed by different insurers in each state.

We are pleased to announce that free versions of CompeteUS are now available for individual insurance companies.  The free versions will include only the products of the specific insurer and the insurer is at liberty to provide this software to all its appointed agents/brokers.

The single company version is designed to provide for inclusion of the insurer's announcements and bulletins in the flash screen that appears when the software is started and through links from that flash screen.

The single company version is designed to allow the insurer to place different bulletins at the flash screens as frequently and as often as the insuer desires.

This FREE software is available to all insurers who regularly provide us with product and data updates directly and is meant as a token of thanks to the insurer.

We are pleased to advise of further enhancements to the MontAge side by side product comparison functions.

The enhancements are were included in the end of December automated update of the CompeteUS software.

Further R&D and programming for the MontAge functions continues nicely ahead of schedule, toward introduction of further enhancements.

More on this in future bulletins.

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe, healthy and joyous season as the year 2003 draws to a close.  May the year 2004 bring peace, health, prosperity and happiness to all.

The year 2003 has been a very successful year for the CompeteUS™ Professional Software.  It is truly a pleasure to receive the numerous positive and complimentary user comments on the power, efficiency - and most importantly, the value - of the CompeteUS™ Professional Software.  We are also very pleased to report that R&D and testing towards implementation and introduction of numerous additional capabilities and functions, as well as further enhancements to existing functions, is progressing very well and nicely ahead of schedule.

The CompeteUS™ Professional Software already benefits subscribers with a wide and considerable service and competitive advantage.  It is our commitment to continuously enhance CompeteUS' lead and to continue to widen the significant service and competitive advantage enjoyed by CompeteUS™ subscribers.

At ONLY $79 per year, including ongoing data updates and software updates, the CompeteUS™ Professional Software is not only the most advanced and most powerful software of this type in the US but is also the most reasonably priced.  As we believe that  "What's good for the customer is good for business!"

Please continue sending us your feedback, comments and suggestions.

If you are a financial practitioner, insurance agent or insurance broker and have not yet obtained your subscription to the CompeteUS™ Professional Software, download the 30-day FREE demo and check it out for yourself. 

There's no reason to pay more than $79 per year for The Professional Choice™ - The CompeteUS™ Professional Software.

R&D towards the inclusion and implementation of fillable forms on CompeteUS is progressing nicely and, like other enhancement project, quite substantially ahead of schedule.

The "FillForm" project was conceived to provide the facilities for CompeteUS users to invoke and fill (complete) various insurance related forms.  The first 'beta' trial, involving the forms of one insurer, has now been concluded with success and we are moving forward to test additional routines to transfer information to the forms and back to the CompeteUS software (This will allow you to start off with the form or to start off with the program itself and is also designed to further adapt the CompeteUS software for custom versions for MGA offices and insurance companies.

As the CompeteUS™ Professional Software continues to be enhanced with further valuable and beneficial functions and capabilities, we are pleased to advise of the inclusion of Qualification Analysis™ narrative notes on product surveys, comparisons and quotations.

Among other aspects, the notes show quick detail of the qualification status of the prospective applicant for insurance with respect to each product's qualification criteria.  The notes also indicate where part or all of the prospective insured's qualification related data is missing and/or the qualification criteria aspect that presents a problem in terms of the prospective insured's qualification for the specific category-class of the product.

In addition, where qualification criteria is unavailable for a product, this is also noted.  The user may choose to research further or to consider other products where qualification criteria are provided by/for the insurer.

The April release of the CompeteUS™ now includes the important and consumer oriented products to cover against the financial impact of Critical Illness (See also news note of March 15, 2003 below).  While, as noted two weeks ago, Critical Illness coverage is not as well known in the US as it is in other parts of the developed world, it is expected that acquisitions of Critical Illness coverage policies will increase rapidly in the near future.

While Critical Illness insurance premiums are higher than those for term (death) insurance, a relatively recent innovation in the form of Return Of Premium is gaining in acceptance for both Critical Illness and term insurance.  Effective use of Return Of Premium (ROP) can substantially reduce the actual real cost of the coverage itself.   With the addition of Critical Illness products, we have also enhanced the CompeteUS™ software to include products with ROP (for both "term" and Critical Illness products).  Users of the CompeteUS™ Professional Software can now set a toggle to choose between:

-Considering and showing only products with ROP

-Considering and showing products with and without ROP

-Considering and showing products with no ROP only

Critical Illness insurance products are the brain-child of the brother of a world renowned cardiac surgeon who recognized the need for such coverage among people who are confronted with the diagnosis of a critical illness.  While life insurance provides coverage for the financial impact of death and while disability insurance provides coverage for the financial impact of inability to earn an income due to a medical or emotional disability, a serious gap in coverage remains in situations of critical illness that doesn't lead to death nor to a covered (or covered duration) disability.

Critical Illness coverage has been commonly available in the U.K. and Europe for quite some time and has enjoyed the most rapid growth in acquisitions in Canada over recent years.  As a matter of fact, since the introduction of the Critical Illness products on the LifeGuide Professional Software in Canada, the number of companies offering this coverage has more than tripled and acquisition of these products by consumers have accellerated rapidly.  While these products are not as commonly available in the United States as they are in Canada, the UK and Europe, the need for such coverage is clear.

Starting with the end of March, Critical Illness products will also be included (under a separate category of products) in the CompeteUS™ Professional Software.

The CompeteUS™ term shopping software is produced for American agents and brokers who require modern, efficient and reliable Windows software for shopping the American term products offered for sale by the various US life companies. 

The CompeteUS™ term shopping software is installed with a personalized download over the Internet and is updated automatically via the Internet. To download, install and view a demo of the CompeteUS™ software, go to the Downloads section of this web site.

Note: The downloadable demo is a restricted version of the actual  software and iCompeteUS™s intended for demonstration of the software only.

The engine for the CompeteUS™ software is also designed to be adapted for creation of "MGA software", with the MGA's own colors and logos, and can be ordered by MGAs to contain the MGA's selection of products and companies. For further information, please contact CompuOffice Software Inc.:

Toll Free Phone: 1-888-316-5433
e-mail: production@compuoffice.com

The consumer information web site,  "WinQuote-US", at the internet address http://www.term.us, was quietly launched several weeks ago.  Although it was not advertised, word of the existence of this objective and consumer oriented term insurance comparison site spread fairly quickly and the site has become increasingly busy  - quite beyond our expectations.

Now , following the announcement of this site to insurance agents and brokers in the September 2002 issue of "LifeInsuranceSelling" magazine, we intend to publicize the site widely to inform the general public of this valuable resource.

"WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) is intended to provide consumers with the most objective, most comprehensive and detailed - and also the most unbiased - term insurance research, comparison and information resource on the Internet.  "WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) is also intended to educate consumers of the value of consultation with knowledgeable, professional and properly equipped consumer-interest-oriented life insurance advisors.  There isn't a more detailed, more comprehensive and more objective term insurance information and comparison site on the Internet known to us than the "WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) site, and we are repetitively receiving the same feedback from consumers and insurance agents/brokers alike.  While we don't intend to hire publicists to attract the limelight, we believe that objective and truly consumer oriented reporters and editors will soon decide on their own to inform their readership and audience.  While the "WinQuote-US" is our small contribution to the benefit of consumers, we also believe that consumer-oriented agents and brokers - subscribers to the CompeteUS(tm) Professional Software - will also ultimately benefit.

To provide consumers with an additional information resource and to benefit subscribers of the CompeteUS(tm)  Professional Software, "WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) will launch the "Find Agent/Broker" facility before the end of this month.  This new resource will provide consumers with an easy to use and friendly zip-code searchable database of CompeteUS(tm) subscribers coast to coast.  Each CompeteUS(tm) subscriber is automatically eligible for up to four different zip-code listings FREE of charge.  The only conditions are as follows:

• The agent/broker undertakes to provide consumers with objective and unbiased advice that is well researched and is to the best interest of the consumer;
• The agent/broker is a current subscriber to the CompeteUS(tm) Professional Software;
• The agent/broker declares that (s)he is licensed in the jurisdiction represented by the zip codes under which (s)he is listed;
• The agent/broker declares that (s)he is covered by adequate Errors & Omissions insurance and that there are no convictions, judgments and/or unresolved proceedings or threatened proceedings against him/her that arise out of a consumer complaint and/or a complaint related to his/her activities as an insurance agent/broker and/or financial advisor.
• The agent/broker agrees to maintain prudent measures to protect the privacy rights of consumers and declares that consumers who call or contact him/her as a result of referral/listing originating with or from "WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) will receive personal service and advice from the agent/broker himself/herself.  The agent/broker further declares that (s)he will not "sell", disclose or transfer the name of the consumer or the consumer's telephone number or other information about the consumer to any third party except as required in the course of service to the consumer AND with the full consent and knowledge of the consumer.
• Since we are a software firm and we do not sell insurance nor engage in the sale of insurance in any form, we will not accept payment of any sort for referrals or for zip code allocation.  The primary purpose of the web service is to benefit consumers.  Our revenue flows from the sale of software and software services.
  

While the above are simple common sense, these are noted for clarity and to satisfy the theme and objective of "WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) as a web-site having consumer interests as first and foremost.

Agents/Brokers who are interested in being listed at the "WinQuote-US" (http://www.term.us) site are invited to contact our office by e-mail:  support@competitornet.com