Figure #3: The competitive products survey screen of the CompeteCA™ software

Premium Mode:
The CompeteCA™ software is designed to facilitate competitive product surveys, comparisons and quotations using any of the 4 premium payment modes (Annual, Semi-Annual, Quarterly and Monthly). The options are available by clicking on the desired Premium Mode at the top of the right side of the CompeteCA software's products survey screen (Figure #3). The computations are performed instantly by the CompeteCA software to provide you with the instant results in any desired Premium Mode.

View Policies With...
The next set of options provided by the initial survey screen of the CompeteCA software are the options to:

a. -View only those products that have fully Guaranteed Premiums for the entire duration of the level period;

b. -View only those products that do NOT have fully Guaranteed level Premiums or where only part of the initial level period's premiums are Guaranteed (These are annotated in the survey with the blue triangular mark, 4

(Note:  While partially guaranteed term products are common in the US, such products are rare in Canada.)

c. -View all competitive products, including those from both a. and b. above.

Survey by Rank:
"Survey by Rank" lists the competitive products by ascending order according to initial premium. This is the initial format by which the competitive products are shown.

You may scroll within the comparative competitive survey using your mouse or the down and up keys on your keyboard.

A note re annotations:
a. The annotation 4is placed for products that do not have fully Guaranteed level premiums for the entire duration of the initial level period.
b. The annotation " * " is placed for products where the first year or few years of the initial level period are discounted and/or lower from those of the following years during the initial level term.
c. When running competitive surveys that may involve Combined Billing Discounts (where more than one life is to be placed with the same company), the annotation " cbd " appears on competitive quotes that involve Combined Billing Discounts.

Click on any product to view the future years premiums as well as further key information about the respective product at the lower part of the CompeteUS competitive products survey screen.

Survey by Company:
"Survey by Company" lists the insurance company names along with all products of each company that are included in the survey grouped together.

MontAge™:
The MontAge™ functions are powerful, flexible and valuable, yet are very easy to use.  MontAge™ allows you to select 2, 3 6, 10, 12 - or any number of products (up to 18 products) at a time for detailed spread sheet style side-by-side comparisons over any number of years.  To employ the MontAge™ functions, simply click on the MontAge™ button and select an X number of products to compare.  Of course, product selection is simple and easy and is done with a single mouse click.  You can include selections from various product types.  Simply click on the tabs at the top to pick from your desired product groupings, then select the products.  The selected products are displayed at the bottom of the screen as these are picked.  To proceed to the side-by-side spread-sheet comparison, simply click on the "MontAge™ Analysis Spreadsheet" Action button found at the bottom of the MontAge™ screen.

Policy Details, Underwriting Evidence Requirements, Underwriting Qualification Criteria Details, Marketing Information, Insurance Company Profile, and direct, single mouse click Access to the Company's Website:

Yes, all these are readily available directly at the "Comparative Cost Evaluation" screen.  Eachn of the above functions is invoked by a single mouse click on the respective Action Button at the right side of the "Comparative Cost Evaluation" screen.

Individual Product Costs and Values:
The "Cost and Values" functions of the CompeteCA software provide further details of any specific chosen competitive product. These functions instantly provide the detail in both ledger and dynamic graphics formats:

The "Ledger Format" of the Cost and Values functions is seen in the following example screen image, Figure #4:

Figure#4: The Ledger Format presentation of the Premium Flow of the Cost and Values functions of the CompeteCA software.

As can be seen on Figure #4 above, the quantitative detail of the chosen competitive product is shown in detail year by year for:

1. Policy Year;
2. Client's Insurance Age;
3. "Coverage" (Face Amount of Coverage);
4. Modal Premium for the respective policy year;
5. Raw Accumulated Costs (The premium accumulation of all premiums paid to the end of the respective policy year, without consideration of the 'opportunity cost' aspect)
6. I.A. Accumulation (Interest Adjusted/Opportunity Cost Adjusted) premium accumulation of all premiums paid to the end of the respective policy year. Fields to input the "Investment Yield" and "Tax Bracket" assumptions are provided at the bottom of the screen - together with a field for entry of the projected "Inflation Rate" (Discount Rate) for Present Value evaluations.

Of course, the Ledger Format presentation can be viewed for any of the 4 Premium Mode options.

Figure #5: The Graphic Representation screen of the "Cost and Values" functions of the CompeteCA™ software

"A picture speaks a thousand words! "

The initial view of the Graphic Representation places the "Period Readout Bar" (the vertical green bar) at the end of the initial period. In Figure #5 above, the view is of a 20-Year Term Product. The placement of the vertical green Period Readout Bar displays the respective figures for the end of the Period directly below the graph itself. The graph lines are also color coded to assist with the readout. Click on any point in the graph to move the Period Readout Bar to that point and to instantly display the figures for the selected period directly below the graph itself.

As with the Ledger Format, the Graphic Representation is also instantly adjustable for "Investment Yield", "Tax Bracket" and "Inflation Rate". The Graphic Representation can also be instantly toggled to show future or present value dollars. Similarly, the Graphic representation can be instantly toggled to any of the 4 premium Modes.

Across the Board® functions are provided only on the American CompeteCA™ software and on the Canadian software, LifeGuide®. These highly advanced and powerful functions were designed specifically for these life insurance software packages and are only available on these.

The Across the Board® functions provide for a competitive time-value survey and comparison of all the products in the range against each other - over the same number of years and relative to the same quantitative measure criteria. Figure #6 below is a screen view of the initial Across the Board® screen:

Figure #6: The initial display screen of the CompeteCA™ software's Across the Board® functions display.

In the above example (Figure #6), the product that placed 2nd on the initial premium survey is placing in the 87th place by the end of the 20th year (based on Premium level Guarantees) even though the survey involves 20-year Term products. Obviously, initial premium surveys are valid for the initial year only and should not be considered valid beyond that point.  The Across the Board® functions of the CompeteCA software provide you with the ability to view the performance and competitive placement of products over various durations of time. You can easily increase or decrease the number of years by dragging the vertical bar at the lower part of the Across the Board® screen to the left or to the right. The readout below the bar indicates the age of the client at the end of the period as well as the period of time covered by the competitive Across the Board® competitive evaluation.

The Across the Board® screen also provides you with direct access to the "Premium Flow" and "Costs and Values" functions of the CompeteCA™ software.