Estate Planning Web Site Service Recent Improvements One of the great benefits of using our Web Builder is that we automatically update and enhance your service for FREE. As a result, you gain more and more flexibility and power to control your web site as you see fit. Below, you will find information on 141 updates / enhancements we've made to our service over the 9 years this service has been in place. Year 2007 141) "Fill Entire Browser Window" Functionality Added When using Template #5, you can now have buttons replace the entire browser window with custom URL locations. Previously, when you clicked a button, it would only populate/fill the right side of the screen with the destination URL. This is the most common use, but for those of you integrating our service with another existing web site, we had request for the ability to have "go back to other site" type buttons. 140) Estate Tax Calculator Updated for 2007 The Estate Tax Calculator on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2007 tax laws. Year 2005 & 2006 139) New CONTENT Added! Pulling from our quarterly newsletters Issues #1 through #5, we've replaced and added new articles. You now have 24 articles from us you can display on your web site. 138) Estate Tax Calculator Updated For 2006 The Estate Tax Calculator on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2006 tax laws. 137) FAQs Content Updated For 2006 The FAQs on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2006 tax laws. 136) Presentations Content Updated For 2006 The Presentations on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2006 tax laws. 135) Articles Content Updated For 2006 The Articles on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2006 tax laws. 134) Updates to Template #4 It came to our attention that several design elements of Template #4 (the one with frames which you use to integrate into another web site you might have) were not working. We've fixed these. This included making sure justification was more uniform, removing unecessary white space at the tops of pages and making more pages responsive to your font choices. 133) FAQs Content Updated For 2005 The FAQs on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2005 tax laws. 132) Presentations Content Updated For 2005 The Presentations on your Web site has been updated to reflect the 2005 tax laws. Year 2003 & 2004 131) Custom Articles Font Fix Lists of custom articles you've added to your site now match each others' font typeface, size and color. 130) Content Updated For 2004 We are currently updating all your educational content (that you license from us) for the new 2004 tax laws, so that your web site will be completely current by 1/1/04. 129) Added More Educational Content: ET Presentation! We've added a 4th presentation entitled, "Understanding Estate Taxes" to the educational content of your web site. The presentation comes complete with 29 slides with accompanying text. It is a great way to expand upon the information your visitors learn from the Estate Taxes FAQs section. As always, you can choose to display or not display this content using your WebSite Manager administration area. 128) New IP Address & More Stable Service We moved our office location, and as part of that process, acquired a more stable dual-T1 internet connection which will make your web site service more stable. More Info. 127) Get Map Enhanced You can now have a "get map" link for each of the 5 locations on your "contact us" page (formerly, you could only have one map, and it appeared at the bottom of the page). 126) CRT FAQs Updated Your Charitable Remainder Trust FAQs have been updated to reflext current laws. 125) Get Map Feature Added Your "Contact Us" page (if you are using one) now supports a "Get Map" feature. If you enable it, a link will appear on your page, so that visitors can click it and pull up a MapQuest.Com map and directions. They can zoom in and out and print these map(s) from here. You can update/edit the address you want for this map from your WebSite Manager now. Formerly, you had to contact us to have us manually update your map. 124) Tax Updates Estate Tax FAQs: Updated to reflect 15% capital gains tax. Estate Planning & Living Trust Presentation: Updated to reflect 15% capital gains tax. 123) Expanded Background Pattern Choices for Navigation Strip For those of you using Template #5 (frame template with a navigation strip of blue buttons along the left side of your screen), we've added far more choices to your background image choices. Formerly, you could only select from a small number of photos (such as a sunset or mountain scene). Now, you can also select background patterns (solid colors, textures, etc.) as well. 122) Content Updated For 2003 We have updated your Articles, FAQs, Presentations and Estate Tax Calculator for 2003 Laws & Numbers. 121) EstatePlanning.Com is higher in Search Engines! Though the search engines are constantly changing their rules, we have managed to keep EstatePlanning.Com high in the search results for people looking up "estate planning." The more people finding us means the more potential new leads we send to you via the Consumer side of our site. As of January 20, 2003, here is how we ranked in the search results: • #4 in Microsoft's MSN.com • #8 in Altavista • #9 in Yahoo • #10 in AOL • #10 in Google • #12 in Lycos Year 2002 120) New Funding Living Trusts Content Added! (FAQs) We have added new content to your site! Under FAQs, you will now find Understanding Funding Your Living Trust. 119) Added 5 new button slots to Template #5 If you are using Template #5, you can now have up to 15 different major topic buttons (formerly 10 buttons) in your navigation area. 118) Expanded Free Kit Request Form We've added our two newest brochures (Sucessor Trustee & Funding Living Trusts) to your choices of free kit items. By default, we've disabled them. If you would like to offer these brochures as part of your Free Kit Request form, login to edit your site as normal, and click on FREE INFORMATION KIT OFFER under Schumacher Licensed Content (green box). You will see enable/disable buttons for each of them. 117) Forms Auto Number Previously, when you entered "sort numbers" for questions/answers in the Interactive Forms, it would display these number exactly for your visitors on your site. However, some of you ended up labeling multiple questions with the same sort number, or deleting questions, or inserting questions and so forth. As a result, we have enhanced the system to "smart number" your questions automatically. So, while it still sorts the questions in order of how you've labeled their sort numbers, it will DISPLAY numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. For example, if you administratively added sort numbers in 5s, such as 5, 10, 15 for your first three questions, it would DISPLAY as questions 1, 2, and 3 for you visitors. This allows you to use gabs like that in your sorting to account for deleting or inserting questions in the future without having to renumber your entire form. 116) Licensed Content Updated for 2002! We have updated your FAQs, Presentations, Articles and Glossary of Terms to reflex the new 2002 exemption and laws. 115) New Successor Trustee Content Added! (FAQs) We have added new content to your site! Under FAQs, you will now find Understanding the Duties and Responsibilities of a Successor Trustee. 114) Linking to forms with template 5 Those of you using template 5, you can now link your navigation buttons to any of the three interactive forms (if you are using them). 113) Estate Tax Calculator Exemption and Maximum Rate Update (tax law change) Your estate tax calculator now uses the 2002 exemption "tax credit" amount ($345,800), and the top tax rate of 50%, per new tax law change. 112) ET & ILIT Tax-Free Gift Update (tax law change) The tax-free gift of $10,000 was changed to $11,000 in your Estate Taxes and Life Insurance Trusts FAQ sections, per the recent tax law change. 111) New Admin. Email Field We have created a new email field which is only for us to correspond with you, independent of what email addresses you enter for other areas of the site (free kit requests, seminar registrations, etc.). This is not a spam thing. It is simply a way for you to specify which email address you want to receive mail from us about recent enhancements we've made to your service. Year 2001 110) Web site speed boost We upgraded to a new version of our database software, and as a result, have much faster load times for web pages. 109) DNS Stability Upgrade We have updated our DNS (domain name service) to utilize Yahoo. As a result, email forwarding for domain names hosted by estateplanning.com are far more stable. 108) FAQs & Presentations updated! We have updated your Frequently Asked Questions and Online Presentations to be current with the most recent tax law changes. 107) New "Estate Tax Update: New Exemption Schedule" Article! We have added more content to your web site, free. In an effort to keep your web site visitor's up-to-date, we have created this article on the most recent tax law changes. To view it, simply visit your site. If you wish to disable this article, as always, you can do so through your administration area. 106) Optional Link on Estate Tax Calculation Results One of the major concepts of your site is to get visitors to contact you. We've noticed a lot of visitors have been running estate tax and probate calculations on your web sites. In an effort to entice them to fill out a form (thus, contact you), we've added the ability for you to add a link to the calculation results page. In this way, you can "plug" a form you've created on your site (like a questionnaire, quiz, or financial organizer), converting some of those running calculations into a tangible contact. 105) EstatePlanning.Com Gets Exposure For You Family Connection Inc., a non-profit organization serving at risk youth, has added our search box to their web site. We're also #1 in Excite's search results and #5 in Microsoft's search results for "estate planning." Furthermore, we recently were written up in eMoney magazine! 104) Redundancy and Backup Systems Upgraded • Remote Restart We have spent some more money, and secured remote-restart hardware. In the rare case that the primary web server gets hung up in off hours (weekend, or week nights), we can restart that server from any other computer with an Internet connection remotely. We monitor the server during off hours, so this allows us to quickly deal with the problem. (will be in place this month) • Backup Mail Server In the rare case where our primary web server gets hung up in off hours (weekend, or week nights), we are setting up a backup mail server to ensure that any mail coming through us is still distributed to you. (will be in place this month) • Backup Internet Connection We have secured a backup DSL Internet connection, which is always running. In the rare case that there are any problems with our primary T1 connection, we can instantly switch to our DSL connection, which is through a completely different provider. This allows us to make sure there is always an Internet connection to and from our web servers, and your web sites. • Expanded Battery Backup System We have spent a few thousand dollars and beefed up our battery backup system in case of prolonged power outages. We can now keep our web service running for around 14-17 hours during any outages. This allows us to make sure that there is always power to our web servers, and keep your web sites running smoothly. 103) Expanded Interactive Forms Previous, your 3 interactive forms could only have 50 questions and answers. It has been expanded to support up to 150 questions and answers in each form. 102) Funding Your Living Trust (Part 2) Article Added We have added a new article, and the second part of the "Funding Your Living Trust" article series. By default, we have turned it on for your visitors to read. You can, as always, disable it using your administration area. 101) Interactive Forms (control over Q&A layout) Previously, the 3 interactive forms only displayed the questions and answers side-by-side. Now, you have control to use either side-by-side or above-below layout. The new "above & below" layout positions answers directly below the corresponding question, giving you more space for the question and answers (in case you have long ones). 100) IRA Updates Made To Slide Presentation On January 11, 2001, the IRS issued new proposed regulations that greatly affect - and simplify - the way most of us will determine our required minimum distributions from IRAs and other tax-deferred plans. These changes are reflected in the IRA-related Presentation section of your web site (in addition to the FAQs section; see previous update) 99) IRA Updates Made To FAQs On January 11, 2001, the IRS issued new proposed regulations that greatly affect - and simplify - the way most of us will determine our required minimum distributions from IRAs and other tax-deferred plans. These changes are reflected in the IRA-related FAQ section of your web site. Year 2000 98) Compliance Issue on Article Resolved We have broken Asset Protection Trusts and Land Trusts into separate Articles, so that they can be displayed or not displayed independently from one another (resolving some of your compliance issues). 97) Photos added to Home Page (Frame Template) You can now choose to add photos to your home page if you are using the Frame-Template (Overall Look #4). If you do not want images, you can select image #0 in the Art Gallery for each section of the home page. 96) Expanded Features for New Template #5 Based on YOUR requests, we have added more flexibility to our newest template: • More button choices in navigation area ("navigation" under Global Settings) • More background choices for navigation area (Art Gallery) • Font control over text in navigation area ("fonts" under Global Settings) 95) New (Easy-To-Use) Graphic Chooser (Art Gallery) We have redesigned our Art Gallery to be more intuitive. It has it's own box (orange) on the main menu, which was formerly under Global Settings. There are currently two links in this box, one for photos/clip art and one for background patterns/images. Clicking either of these brings up a 3-frame page. Frame 1 lets you select/change your choices. Frame 2 is a list of all available choices. Frame 3 displays a sample of an image when you click it in the list of Frame 2. In this way, you can see everyone on ONE page, with a quick load time. 94) More Graphics, Backgrounds & Photos! We have almost doubled the amount of images you can choose to include in various places on your site. Per your request, we have added many more ethnic photos as well. Our Art Gallery now has 282 images in total. We will be expanding this in the future as well. Click on the new "Art Gallery" area in your Main Menu. 93) Online "Smart" Help Pages Although we offer a great deal of information to help you know how to administrate your web site, we are attempting to improve how it is presented. If you click on FONTS in GLOBAL SETTINGS, you will see our new idea in action. It splits the screen into two frames. Frame 1 displays the items you can edit for that topic (in this case, fonts). Frame 2 displays help for editing; "smartly" showing you information on ONLY that topic. They scroll separately, and are both visible on ONE page. In this way, you can be editing something and easily reference the HELP frame for assistance. If you like this, let us know and we'll update other areas to function the same way. 92) Seminar Registration Form Master On/Off Switch Our system automatically generates a seminar registration form for each event you add to the "seminars" area of your site. Now, you have the ability to disable to this feature if you wish. 91) New Template With Ultimate Flexibility Based on YOUR requests, we are proud to announce or newest, most flexible template. We have spent a great deal of time on it and it takes flexibility to the next level. It's primary use will be for those of you who do more than just estate planning (as it collapses "Estate Planning" into one button/link. It utilizes a frame-based design, leaving a consistent navigation on the left side of the screen. You control this area completely. You can pick the buttons from a long list, choose the order, and even control where the buttons link to. In this way, you can combine the content we provide, the content you add, and ANY other content from any other site. The best part of the frame-design is that you never leave your site, even when you pull in other web pages. 90) Display Header & Navigation Links Control For those of you using Template #4 or the new Template #5 (see above), you now have the ability to display or not display a header on each page. You can also control whether or not to display redundant links at the bottom of each page. You can do either of these from the Main Menu when you log in to administrate your site. 89) Home Page Display Control Added For those of you using Template #1 or #2, you had no control over what gets displayed on your Home Page. Now you can! For example, you can choose to include a background page on your site, yet not have it appear on the home page. Or, you can choose to have a Client Reviews page and have it appear on the home page as its own area. To use this feature, log in to administrate your site, and click on HOME PAGE DISPLAY CONTROL in the blue box in the Main Menu. This enhancement doesn't apply to Template #3, as that template only displays brief text on the home page. 88) Home Page Loads Faster We have completed a good chunk of programming to make the home page load quicker. If you are using template #1, you will notice the page loading [on average] in 6 seconds (which was previously 10 seconds). This enhancement also affects the other templates to some extent, which should now shave 1-2 seconds of their home page load time. We will be targeting template #2's home page load speed next month. 87) View Form Submissions You can now view any forms your client submit using the Interactive Forms you create from your Main Menu. Although these forms are automatically emailed to you when the client fills them out, this can serve as a backup in case your email is misplaced or lost. 86) Select "None" for Pictures You now have the ability to select "None" for the areas of the site that previously forced you to use an image from our photo gallery. 85) FreeKit Process Enhanced The free kit process use to be as follows: Step 1: client fills out form and clicks button; Step 2: a page comes up asking them to click another button to email the request; Step 3: a final page comes up saying the request was sent and they need to click another button to return to the web site. We have made the second step automated. That page has some code that automatically completes the step (essentially clicking the button for them after 1 second of wait time) and takes them to the final page. One less step for your clients creates a smoother process! If you like this feature, let us know, and we'll add it to the seminar registration and any forms you have created. 84) Email System In Place! We have revised, enhanced and tested our new email system on our server! Now, people using your "free kit request," "seminar registration," and/or filling out any forms you've created for them properly get emailed to you. As before, they also get stored on our system in case you lose the email. You may login to administrate your site and view these stored submissions from your Main Menu. Forms get emailed to whatever address you specify for each form, while the free kit requests and seminar registrations get emailed to whatever address you have defined in Basic Information (Global Settings). 83) Seminar Bug Fix We have fixed a bug in the seminar administration area. It now lists your events properly when you click "Continue to Add/View/Edit/Delete" button after deleting an event. In addition, you can now delete events that you did not assign a title or date to. 82) Improved Seminar Registration We have improved on last month's seminar registration feature based on your suggestions. New fields have been added: Number of People Attending and How Your Heard About This Seminar? 81) Hotlinks "Description" Expanded You now have unlimited "description" text for each URL in your hot link area. Previously you were limited to a sentence. 80) Seminar Registration Built-In !!! Previously, the one way to allow people to "register" for your seminars was by creating your own form using the Interactive Form area. You no longer have to do this double-entry. Our seminar area automatically generates a "registration form" for each seminar you have. Clients and prospects can now click on any seminar and register right there! You can specify where these forms get emailed to by clicking #3 under A) COMMONLY USED PAGES (in blue box on main menu). We have set this address to be the same as your free kit requests as a default. Like the free kit requests, these registrations are stored on our server for your eyes only (if you lose the email of the request). Simply login to edit your site and click on "VIEW REQUESTS" under the Seminar Registrations statistic at the top of the main menu. 79) Revised FAQ area: faster and integrated. Previously, each FAQ had it's own page without only a question and answer on it (which did not look like the rest of your site). Now, when you click on a FAQ topic, the questions and answers retain your site's look and feel and other elements (background, color, disclaimer, etc.). They are also now situated on a single page (rather than a page per question) which gets rid of any previous speed issues of stepping through questions. Clicking a FAQ now jumps down the page immediately, rather than loading a new page with the next question/answer. 78) Use Your Domain Name Without the WWW. Ever want to pull up your site with domain.com rather than www.domain.com? Now you can. Our new server now supports this feature. Just email us and we'll take care of it for you. 77) Use Your Own Photo Next to "Background" on Home Page If you are using template #1 or #2, you were previously restricted to using one of our images next to "Background" on your home page. Now, you can use your own photo. Just let us know, and we'll do it for you. 76) Dedicated T1 Internet Connection We have dropped the big dough and purchased a dedicated T1 line for you. Yes, you heard right. We will no longer be sharing our bandwidth with other big companies. The only traffic that will be using our line is estateplanning.com and our web site clients. This means that we will always have maximum speed on page loading for your web site! NOTE: If you have an existing web site (other than the one with us) and you are linking to your estate planning site, you will need to change that link. You need to replace 216.168.32.72/estateplanning in the beginning of the link to www.estateplanning.com:8080 by the end of June 2000. Therefore, your new link will begin as follows, http://www.estateplanning.com:8080/FMPro? (and leave the rest of the link the same. Please contact us if you need assistance with this change. 75) New Fast Server In addition with the above T1 line, we have spent some more dough, and purchased a dedicated (and extremely fast) server and software for estateplanning.com and our web site clients. This puts all DNS Hosting control in our handles, instead of another host. Outside of networksolutions (or another third part domain name registration company), we can now handle DNS, email routing, FTP (see below) and virtual hosting in-house! We are working on switching all "pointers" to this new server without interrupting the service. NOTE: If you are using our "pointer" service (if we are handling your domain name), let us know if you experience any problems with email@ your domain name or www.domain.com pulling up your web site properly. 74) FTP Access For Your Graphics/Photos! With the above two purchases, we now have the capability of supporting FTP. What is FTP you ask? FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows you access to upload files, graphics and photos to your folder on our server. Previously, we had to do that for you. In order to do this, you must have software that allows you to FTP files. There are shareware programs you can download for free. You can go to shareware.com and search for FTP to pull up available software. When you launch the software, it will ask you for information to connect to our server. Let us know if you want it, and we'll give it to you. 73) New Article We have added a very long article entitled "Funding Your Living Trust (Part 1)" to your ARTICLES section. It is a big chunk of Part Six from our Best-Selling book Understanding Living Trusts©. As with the other articles, you can choose to use it or not using your administration area. 72) New Web Site Statistics Block We have enhanced the "stat block" you see when you log in to administrate your site. Now, it includes extra information to help you see how your site is doing. New stats include: total hits (clarifying hits to your site versus traffic sent to you from estateplanning.com), average hits per month, and customization percentage. The percentage shows you the amount of custom features you are making use of. We have done some preliminary reports on all our web site clients, and having the percentage above 60% appears to make a big difference in how successful the site is. 71) "Home Page Text" Now Supports HTML The brief description (text) you have on your home page now supports HTML code. If you are using Template #1 or #2, this text appears directly below the "Background" Link at the top of the page. If you are using Template #3, this text appears to the right of the navigation strip. What this allows you to do is add images, charts, graphics and any manner of formatted text as opposed to "plain" text. To edit this, login to administrate your site and click on Brief Home Page Text under Custom Content in the blue box. If you need help with this, let us know. 70) More Background Patterns We have expanded out background pattern choices from 15 to 83. Feel free to choose a new one for your site. Template #1 uses an automatic background, but feel free to choose a new background for your site if you are using any other Templates. 69) Estateplanning.com is #1 in Microsoft's Search Engine We are now #1 in the search results at msn.com when people search for "estate planning." As with any search engine, this varies from spot #1 or #2 from time to time, but we are happy Bill likes us so much. When people click there and jump to our site, the zip code search box to find you is there! Click here to check it out. Just in case that wasn't enough, Microsoft also rated us #4 in their national "Top 10 Most Popular Sites For "Estate Planning." We are also #12 in InfoSeek, #17 in Altavista, and #22 in Excite. We also have a direct link on Senior.com (the "estate planning" link in their main navigation) - Senior.Com gets over 2 million hits per month. 68) More Marketing Tips We have added more marketing tips that some of our clients have found successful. Click here and to see! 67) New FRAME Based Template If you have your own primary web site (other than the one we built for you), and you are using frames, we have a new solution for you. Previously, flowing our content into your frames was either not an option or not seamless with your existing site. Now, you can choose our "frame template" and have the content flow in, matching your fonts, background, etc. Year 1999 66) FREE MARKETING ENHANCEMENT! We are now pushing almost 100% of ep.com's consumer traffic to you! We revised our CONSUMER area on estateplanning.com. Now, almost everything they click will take prospects to your site first. This works with Frequently Asked Estate Planning Questions, Slide Presentations, Estate Tax Calculator, Seminars and Articles (see below). Here's how it works. A prospect gets to estateplanning.com from the 10,000 hits per month we get. They click CONSUMERS to get educated on-line. When they click, say, FAQs, they are prompted to type in the beginning of their zip code. The ONLY results that come up will be our web site clients (that's you!). From there they can jump straight to your web site. In addition to the preferential treatment you receive in all DIRECTORY searches for estate planning professionals (gold star, top of the list, etc.), this now makes SIX powerful ways we are funneling traffic to you! 65) We are now publishing YOUR articles! As we mentioned above, there is a new section on ep.com's consumer home page called Estate Planning Articles! This section automatically pulls the titles of all your articles and lists them at ep.com! Prospects can search for all articles or search by keywords that may in your article's title. Clicking the article will take them to your web site, directly to that article! You don't have to worry about distribution - be published instantly! Just add an article to the "articles" area of your web site. 64) Forms - Forms - Forms! Our newest addition to our web site service (and arguably the most powerful), is our Interactive Form Builder. With it, you can generate ANY form for your web site including, order forms, questionnaires, feedback, financial organizers, and anything else in question/answer format. The best part? You don't have to know anything technical to do it! You simply click CREATE FORM, name it, type in an email address you want this form sent to (like your secretary), and start adding questions! It's that simple. In fact, you can even choose the type of answer you want for EACH question including, pop-up lists, text fields, radio buttons, check boxes and text areas! Make your web site interactive today! 63) Content Updated for 2000 Tax Laws We have automatically updated all the content we provide on your site for 2000. This includes all the FAQs, Slide Presentations, Articles and Estate Tax Calculator. 62) Estateplanning.com in a Feature Article... Last but certainly not least, in an effort to drive MORE traffic to ep.com and then to YOU, estateplanning.com will be referenced in a feature article in the January 2000 issue of American Associate of Individual Investors (AAII) Journal. We anticipate a serious amount of traffic - so get ready! 61) New Template!!! You heard right! We have added a third template for your site's overall look and feel - the fastest loading template yet. It organizes your links on the left of the page and creates a professional header that you control! As with our other templates, you can mix and match the site's color, fonts, graphics/photos and background patterns to get a unique look. For more information or to try it out, click on OVERALL LOOK in your GLOBAL SETTINGS in your MAIN EDIT AREA. 60) Glossary of 124 Estate Planning Terms We have added more content to your site! Now, your clients and prospects can look up estate planning terms right on your web site. As always, you can choose to disable this area if you do not want it on your site. 59) Background Page Now Supports HTML Your background page now supports HTML code. This allows you to use photos, logos, formatted text and tables if you so choose. In addition, the "short description" that appears on your Home Page now accurately displays your paragraph and line spacing. 58) We Now Handle Your Domain Name Registration/Modification We have added another FREE service as a bonus to our web site clients. We will now handle your Domain Name registration and modification. Domain names are the unique web addresses that you can give out to people to view your web site. Although we give you a free domain name at ep.com, many of our clients prefer their own domain name without the estateplanning.com prefix (e.g., mffm.com). If you would like us to register and point your own domain name directly to the site we just built for you, let us know! Click here for more information. 57) EstatePlanning.Com in The Wall Street Journal On October 12, 1999, the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition sang our praise in their article "Cyber Investing - Web Can Help You Navigate The Estate-Planning Process." As a result, this has increased traffic and attorney searching at estateplanning.com - which means more potential clients for you. Here's an excerpt from the article: "Several sites can help when it comes time to get some personal guidance from an attorney or financial advisor. Both the Schumacher Publishing site (www.estateplanning.com mentioned earlier) and a site run by the American Bar Association... offer tools individuals can use to find a lawyer in their area who offers estate-planning services. Schumacher Publishing's has a lawyers' database where individuals can post their opinions about the work a particular law firm did for them." 56) EstatePlanning.Com is #2 on Lycos, HotBot & Netscape Search Results! We have received high search result placement on three major search engines. Running a search on Lycos for "estate planning," for example, brings us up as #2. The link reads: Estate Planning and Living Trusts - Directory of member attorney and financial planner websites, organized geographically (search by zip code), with free information about estate planning. Clicking this link takes visitors directly to a page on ep.com site with a zip code search box - more potential clients are now just a click away! Click here to check it out! 55) FASTER SERVER! In an effort to maintain maximum speed and quick page load time for you site, we have moved our service to a web server dedicated ONLY to estateplanning.com and our clients - that's you! As a result, you and your visitors will see consistently fast page loads even during high traffic hours of the day. 54) Added ten more articles for your site We have just added ten more articles that you can choose to include in your web site. You may mix and match any of these with any articles you provide as well. 53) EstatePlanning.Com meets Microsoft! You heard right! EstatePlanning.Com is now including Microsoft Expedia Maps with our web site service. Go to your site and visit your Contact Us page to see the map. If you do not want to use it, feel free to turn it off by clicking CONTACT US in your Main Edit Area. If you like the map, feel free to rename your Contact Us link to Contact Us/Map or something similar. Major Web Site Enhancements Due to your feedback, we have worked round-the-clock and come up with, by far, the most comprehensive and diverse upgrade in the history of our web site service. Rather than go into extensive detail on each upgrade, we have outlined them below. More information on each can be found by administrating your site. The overall concept for v4.0 was to give you more control over your site, making it even easier to have a unique Internet presence. 52) Articles have been upgraded to a whole new area with the following improvements: • Articles are now broken out as separate lines/links on your home page for quick access. • You can now add an unlimited amount of your own articles. • You can sort your articles by a sort number or by date (ascending or descending). • You can now choose any combination of your own articles and the ones ep.com provides. • The Articles section can be turned on/off for your entire site with a master switch. • Viewing an Articles retains the look & feel of the rest of your site. 51) Created a new Hot Links area with the following: • You can add an unlimited number of URL links on this one page. • You can title and give a brief description of each link individually. • You can use any URLs (web addresses) of any length. • You can add a Title, SubTitle and Introductory text to the Hot Links area as a whole. • The Hot Links area can be turned on/off for your entire site with a master switch. • You can sort your links with an optional sort number. 50) The Background section can be turned on/off for your entire site with a master switch. 49) The Estate Tax Calculator section can be turned on/off for your entire site with a master switch. 48) The Contact Us section can be turned on/off for your entire site with a master switch. 47) You can now have all your "Contact Us" links jump to a specific URL instead of our default page. 46) Major coding was completed improving the load time of every page on your site (including the home page!) 45) You can now delete Free Kit requests from your administrative area. 44) Your Font preferences are now fully integrated into your entire site, not just your custom pages. 43) Viewing the Seminar Detail of an event now retains the look & feel of the rest of your site. 42) The Estate Tax Calculator Results page now retains the look & feel of the rest of your site. 41) The Seminar List page was redesigned to use a more pleasing layout of your events. 40) You can now see which pages are "in use" for your entire site on your Main Edit Area screen. 39) Linking back to an existing site/domain name now appears on every page, not just the home page. 38) "Back to Slide List" while viewing a slide now correctly jumps to the presentation list it's part of. 37) EstatePlanning.Com and Senior.Com announce joint venture!!! Jim Schumacher, president of EstatePlanning.Com, announced today an agreement with Senior.Com - The web's premier online community for those over 50. Senior.Com receives almost 2 million hits a month and has been ranked #1 or #2 for over a year by Web100. NetGuide calls it, "One of the best on the Net." Senior.Com will be adding an ESTATE PLANNING link directly on it's home page (and on each page's navigation bar) which links DIRECTLY to EstatePlanning.Com's directory of estate planning professionals (that's you!) "I can't believe professionals who have a web site with 'ep.com' are now only a click away from 2 million potential clients every month!" says David Davidson, director Internet & Special Projects at EstatePlanning.Com. Click here to check it out. "There is no question that the Internet is the wave of the future for estate planners. We're working very hard to put more deals like this together for our internet customers," says Jim. 36) Decreased Home Page Load Time We have decreased the time it takes for your home page to load by approximately 50%. Visitors to your web site with high speed connections can now get your web pages to load in an average of 5 seconds. 35) Maximized Site Visibility We have added the ability for prospects and clients to find you faster at estateplanning.com by clicking directly to your web site from the FIRST search results page that comes up. Clients can now click your GOLD STAR and jump to your web site without having to click your name first. This could improve your traffic by allowing less patient visitors to jump to your web site in only TWO steps. First, they search for your zip code. When you come up at the top of the search results, they click your GOLD STAR and are immediately linked to your web site. 34) Font Control You can now alter the overall font TypeFace, Size and Color individually for Page Titles, Subtitles and Body Text. For more information, please click "Fonts" under Global Settings on your Main Edit Area. 33) State Search For Your Seminars/Events EstatePlanning.Com has been advertising your events and seminars in the Consumer area of our site. Previously, all events were displayed. Now, prospects and clients can narrow their search by selecting a single state. Click here to see how they will find your events. 32) Link Back To Your Own Domain Name If you are using your own domain name (e.g., www.taxplanning.com), you can now automatically add a link on the learning center home page back to your main site. For more information, please click "Link Back To Your Own Domain" under Global Settings on your Main Edit Area. 31) FAQ/Slide Presentation Fix Previously, navigating the FAQs & Slide Presentations proved confusing to some users due to the "legend" of topics always appearing at the top of the page. We have now fixed this. When a visitor to your site selects a FAQ or Slide Presentation to view, they are taken to the page which now prominently displays the topic (and links to questions or slides) at the top of the page, above the "legend" of other available topics at your site. 30) FREE Registration to Top Search Engines We are now offering a FREE one-time registration with the following top 7 search engines: InfoSeek, AltaVista, Lycos, Snap, HotBot, Yahoo and Excite. For those of you who already have service with us, we are currently submitting your "welcome" page to these engines. All new web site clients will receive this service automatically and for free. (NOTE: Search Engines can take anywhere from 1 hour to 6 weeks to have your site appear in their search results. Registration does not guarantee high ranking/placement.) 29) Direct Links to Slide Presentations & FAQs Previously, your prospects/clients had to click on "online presentations" or "FAQs" links to see the topics covered on your site. Now, your home page displays all the topics (e.g., Living Trusts, Charitable Remainder Trusts, etc) and includes direct links to each topic to save them time. 28) Improved Editing Organization Your Main Menu edit area has been altered to allow for more user-friendly changes. All text and links that appear on the home page are now on the actual pages they are related to. For example, the "blurb" text on your home page about your "Articles" page (as well as the actual article) can be edited by clicking on Articles from Main Menu edit area. We have also clarified how the custom page "blurb" on the home page works. If you do not have any custom pages marked as "use this page," this sections will NOT appear on your home page, as there are no pages for it. You can edit this text by clicking on Home Text for Custom Pages in the Main Menu edit area. The new interface also tells you which custom pages you have selected to use and not use from the main menu. 27) Faster Server Estateplanning.com has been moved to a faster server to stay abreast with the newest internet technologies. As a result, some pages on your site should load quicker. 26) Choose to display or not display last names of your reviewers If you choose to have your clients reviews appear at your web site, you can now elect to show or not show their last names. From your Main Menu edit area, click on Client Reviews in the yellow box. 25) New Charitable Remainder Trusts Slide Presentation We have added a third online slide presentation to your website for FREE! This new presentation entitled, "Understanding Charitable Remainder Trusts" can now help educate your prospects and clients while you spend your valuable time elsewhere. As with the other presentations, you can choose whether or not to offer this presentation at your site. To view these 41 beautiful slides, go to your website and click on the "online presentation" link. 24) Brand New Overall "Look & Feel" For Your Site The ultimate for your custom site...change the entire look and feel with one click. Now, you can choose from two vastly different "templates" for your site. The new template also lets you choose from a multitude of background patterns to further customize your site. 23) Enhanced Web Site Tracking We are now tracking "click-thrus" that bring traffic to your site from your professional listing at estateplanning.com. Every time someone does a search and clicks on your web site, we track it. This information is displayed for you on your Main Menu of your Edit Area. So, if you received 20 hits and 5 click-thrus in March, you know that 25% of your visitors came from your listing at estateplanning.com! We recommend that you keep a spreadsheet where you can write down this monthly, weekly or daily information for your own tracking. 22) Professional Listing Tracking Now you can track how well your listing at estateplanning.com is doing by going to http://www.estateplanning.com/hits 21) Enhanced Free Kit Page (Seminar Reservations) You can now edit ALL the text that appear on the free kit page. This ability now allows you to do a number of different things with this page, other than as a free kit offer. One of these is to alter the text on the page to make this a seminar-reservation page for your clients. (e.g., change the kit contents to seminars dates that people can select for reserving seats at your upcoming seminar.) This information will be email to you just like the free kit was. 20) Added Internet Exposure & "Preferential Treatment" on EstatePlanning.Com One way for people to find you is through our professional estate planning listings (SPARS) on EstatePlanning.Com. Previously, when people ran a search, the results were sorted by zip code only. Now, we added a special big STAR graphic to appear next to your name to draw attention to your listing. In addition, your name will always appear AT THE TOP OF THE SEARCH RESULTS LIST that would normally include your listing. Try it out! Click here to do a search for professionals in your area. 19) Enlarged Estate Planning & Living Trusts Slides Based on feedback we got from you, we've even enlarged the slides for "Understanding Estate Planning & Living Trusts" Presentation almost 200% as big as it use to be for easier reading. To view these beautiful slides, go to your website and click on the "online presentation" link. 18) Tax Exemption Updated for Estate Tax Calculator Your estate tax calculator has automatically been updated to use the tax exemption rate for 1999. Leave it to us to keep your site current! 17) Customize Your "Contact Us" Page Previously, your "Contact Us" Page had limited customization. Due to your feedback, we've changed your OFFICE LOCATION editor into CONTACT US PAGE editor. This new page allows you to have up to any text you want on this page, including 5 different email addresses, web/Internet addresses, names, office locations, descriptions or titles. To edit your contact page, go to your MAIN MENU edit area and click "Contact Us Page." 16) Customize Your FAQs Previously, your FAQs page was "hard wired" and displayed all six topics of our questions/answers on Living Trusts, Estate Taxes, Corporate Trustees, Charitable Remainder Trusts, Life Insurance Trusts and IRA Beneficiaries. Now, you can select any one or combination of these topics you'd like to use on your site, or disable them completely. 15) Customize Your Slide Presentations Previously, your Slide Presentations page was "hard wired" and displayed both presentations on Living Trusts and IRA Beneficiaries. Now, you can select one, both or neither of these presentations to use on your site. 14) Improved Main Menu Interface Based on your feedback, we've updated our Main Menu Edit Window to be more user-friendly. Please let us know how you like it.   September to December 1998 13) Choose Your Own Home Page Graphics Previously, you had static, unchanging images on your home page. Due to your requests, we have added the ability for you to change these images to any combination of the 70+ images in our "Gallery" of clip art and high-quality photos. Click on Home Page (Choose Your Own Graphics) on your main menu. 12) New Major Headings (Sections) We have added two major sections to your home page, one for your Articles and one for your 10 Custom Pages. As with the other sections, you can edit the text, links and graphic for these sections as you see fit. 11) Complete Home Page Text Control Some of the text that appeared on your home page use to be static text that you could not change. Now, you have the ability to alter ANY text that appears on your home page! Click on Home Page (Text & Navigation Links) on your main menu. 10) META Tags Added We have added META Tags to your Welcome page! These "tags" are used by search engines when people search for your site. As a result, you can now register (or reregister) with search engines using this Welcome page with META Tags and possibly achieve better results. 9) Add Graphics To Your Custom Pages Using the same Gallery of images for your home page, you can now easily add an image to any or all of your 10 custom pages to liven up the page. We also fixed a bug that wouldn't allow you to add extremely long text into these custom pages. Click on Additional Custom Pages (Add Graphics) on your main menu. 8) More Custom Pages Previously, you had up to five "blank" custom pages ("additional pages") to use however you wanted. Do to your feedback, we've now doubled that amount! Now, you can have up to ten "blank" custom pages in either plain text or even HTML pages. 7) Tax Information Updated for 1999 Your 100+ Frequently Asked Estate Planning Questions and two slide presentations (Estate Planning & Living Trusts and IRA Beneficiary) have been updated to incorporate the 1999 tax changes. 6) Marketing Tips For Your Web Site We have noticed that some of our clients are getting phenomenal success from their web site with us. To help you make your site work harder for you, we've taken it upon ourselves to compile a "Marketing Guide" of tips and provide it to you for FREE. To see these tips, simply click the link on your Main Menu of your Edit Area. 5) Recent Improvements To Your Service In an effort to keep you informed about past and upcoming updates and enhancements to your service, a page has been created to involve you in the process. You can get to this page by clicking the link on your Main Menu of your Edit Area. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please email us. 4) Automatic E-mail Notification For FREE Kit Requests The powerful "free kit request" on your site, designed to gather new leads for you, now notifies you IMMEDIATELY via e-mail, when someone requests information. As a backup, you can also log on to your "Main Menu" edit area and click "View Free Kit Requests" in case you misplace these e-mails. 3) New Article Added To Your "Articles" Page For all of you who have chosen to use articles provided by estateplanning.com for your "articles" page, you now have two! The newest article, "Should You Move To a Roth IRA?" was just added this month to fill your site with fresh material. 2) Custom Pages Now Accept HTML Now you have COMPLETE control over your 5 additional custom pages! With HTML, you can now bold text, make text bigger or smaller, change the color of text, insert graphics, and make unlimited e-mail links or url links to any web address you want. We've even added instructions on how to create basic HTML pages if you don't know how. (If you don't want to bother with this now, don't worry - everything on your custom pages will continue to work as it has till now). Simply login to your "Main Menu" edit area like normal, click on "Additional Pages" and you will notice the new "What Kind of Page?" choice for each page. You have the option of "Plain Text" (which is how all your custom pages have been displayed thus far) and the new "HTML Page" choice. There is also a link for Basic HTML Instructions right there! Click here to see an example of what you can do with a HTML custom page. 1) New IRA Beneficiary Slide Presentation We have added a second online slide presentation to your website for FREE! This new presentation entitled, "Understanding Who Should Be Beneficiary of Your IRA?" can now help educate your prospects and clients while you spend your valuable time elsewhere. Based on feedback we got from you, we've even enlarged these slides to almost 200% as big as the "Understanding Living Trusts" presentation for easier reading and a better overall presentation. To view these 43 beautiful slides, go to your website and click on the "online presentation" link. It's that simple!