Consumer Information and Objective Cost Research for Term Insurance Now Available Online

American and Canadian consumers now have access to free, objective and comprehensive term insurance information and cost research. This is now available on-line at http://www.consumerterm.com and provides the most objective and unbiased term insurance resource for North Americans on the Internet.

TORONTO, CA-November 14, 2002 -- North American consumers, in both the United States and Canada, now have free access to the most comprehensive and most objective and detailed term life insurance information and cost comparison resource on the Internet.

This service is run for consumers, by consumers at http://www.consumerterm.com and provides detailed year by year initial and renewal cost comparisons of hundreds of products that are offered by a very wide range of insurance companies. The research resources provided at http://www.consumerterm.com utilize the leading edge LifeGuide® and CompeteUS software engines that are widely used by consumer-oriented insurance agents and brokers in Canada and the United States respectively.

The web site www.consumerterm.com is not an insurance sales site and users are not asked for any identifying information. Comprehensive and detailed market and cost research is available without even the entry of a zip or postal code. The site, run on a not-for-profit basis, also provides the MontAge feature that allows the user to pick from as few as 2 to as many as 18 products from the on-screen survey for side by side detailed year by year comparisons. In addition, http://www.consumerterm.com also provides users with a growing list of user-friendly on-line financial calculators and financial analysis functions.

Present and/or past tobacco and/or nicotine consumption is a material and fundamental aspect of life insurance underwriting and a key determinant in the cost of term insurance. Depending on each insurance company's underwriting criteria, some term insurance products are available on a "non-smoker" basis to individuals who smoke cigars or pipe or to those who chew tobacco. Other products, particularly those having "super preferred" rates and underwriting requirements may have minimum periods of a varying number of years of "no tobacco or nicotine consumption" as a minimum to qualify. Term insurance sales sites that fail to address the tobacco use aspect beyond a mere question of whether the user is a "smoker" or not, easily miss cost savings opportunities for non-cigarette smokers while potentially providing "low ball" quotes on "preferred" and "super-preferred" underwriting products. To address this important material aspect, the software engines that run http://www.consumerterm.com provide the user with enhanced accuracy of input and therefore also provide comparisons with enhanced credibility.

Consumers who wish to have access to the services of insurance agents and brokers who are equipped with the Canadian LifeGuide® Professional Software or the American CompeteUS Professional Software are also provided with a facility to locate insurance professionals in their area by searching the "Agent/Broker" databases. Agents and brokers who are listed in the "Agent/Broker" databases are listed free of charge with the understanding that they will provide callers with objective and unbiased professional service.