Long Life

Good News Regarding Your Cryonics Funding

By Rudi Hoffman CFP® CLU ChFC®

You are reading this magazine because you are serious about your chance to maybe live a long time, and you are probably signed up with the Cryonics Institute for this reason. This article is aimed mainly at people resident in the USA, and those living elsewhere will have to consult their own insurance advisors. Although Suspended Animation services are not available in the rest of the world at present, they could be within some readers’ lifetimes and making financial plans in advance is worth considering as you could end up spending a lot less.

First of all, congratulations. You have already become a member of one of the most important, and exclusive, "clubs" in the world. And you may have heard or read about the exciting new enhancements to the stabilization, transportation, and cryoprotection available through the collaboration of the Cryonics Institute and Suspended Animation, Inc. These are some significant breakthroughs in protocols, which the best scientific minds in cryonics have determined will provide for your best chance of an optimal outcome for the chance to save yourself. The purpose of this article is to announce the good news that you can probably afford to fund the latest protocol for biostasis.

Let's Get the Bad News First

It does not matter how sincere you are about your cryonics arrangements, or who you know in the movement, or how long you have been in the movement. It may well be that nanotechnology can solve everything, but no one can know that for certain, or indeed that nanotechnology is even the answer at all. It may be easier, it may be harder, therefore it is wise to get the best possible cryopreservation available to you in your particular circumstances. No one can foretell the future accurately – avoid all those who claim that they can. If your funding is not solid and reliable, you are very unlikely to get an optimal cryopreservation. It is a harsh, ugly, almost embarrassing fact of life that a number of cryopreservationsn in recent years have been delayed, sometime for days, due to insecure or poorly arranged cryonics funding issues.

A badly funded cryopreservation resulting in a delay reflects badly on the entire field of cryonics, not just the individual concerned It is a public relations disaster waiting to happen, and makes this wonderful and scientific venture look amateurish and fraudulent. Public policy responses to a single individual’s lack of good cryonics financial planning could cause legislative actions criminalizing cryonics. For example, a regulatory response to the Ted Williams case has in the past caused a temporary moratorium on new patients at the Cryonics Institute as recently as 2003. This is especially noteworthy because the Cryonics Institute had nothing to do with the Ted Williams affair, which was an Alcor and Arizona based controversy. We cryonicists live in a community, and we must do all we can to protect the reputation of the community of cryonics. This is a professional and scientific endeavor, that may save our lives. But if you have to wait for two days at room temperature while your funding is verified, cryonics does not look very scientific or realistic to many people.

I am therefore going to ask you to continue to read the following article carefully.

Because it has been my privilege to assist many of the people, who have signed up for cryonics during the past few years, to buy their insurance, I feel I know something about you and what you want. As a fellow cryonicist, I understand your personal issues. And I promise not just to tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know. I am going to write to you from the depths of my heart and passion, because your life may be at stake based on how you respond and the actions you take as you read these words. And, whether we like it or not, our tiny band of intrepid cryonauts is vitally dependent upon each of us doing our part to be smart and plan well.

Now for some good news.

My purpose here is to give you some idea of what amounts of insurance you will need to buy, and some idea of what it may cost.

In round numbers, if you are an "option 2" ($35,000 base cost) member of Cryonics Institute, you are going to need to buy $95,000 of total coverage to handle the Suspended Animation and Cryonics Institute package.

Let's round this to $100,000, the minimum face amount with many life insurance companies if we use term insurance. For reasons we won't go into in this article, it is very smart to buy substantially more coverage than this, but let's keep things simple for now.For people who are getting life insurance now, or are considering upgrading their funding, it’s important to consider the fact that CI’s funding minima are not guaranteed, and their funding should reflect this.

Additionally, Suspended Animation may well be offering in the near term future a vitrification option, which will almost certainly be at a higher price. Let’s face it, getting your insurance set up involves a lot more than just the financial issue of taking a cut in disposable income for the premiums. Let’s do it right, think big and long range, and not have to visit this issue next year when SA or CI may make available new and higher cost protocols.

Assume you are a healthy and preferred non-smoker, without family history of cardiovascular disease or cancer, and on the younger side of 40. You may want to start out with a 20 year term policy. This term policy should provide for guaranteed renewability as term, as well as guaranteed upgradability to a permanent policy with no further evidence of insurability required.

Later articles to be written periodically will summarize some straightforward information about the types of policies, the distinctions between term and permanent policies, and why using a permanent policy to fund your suspension and cryonics estate planning is probably optimal. Our purpose here is to provide some sense of a range of costs.

The table below assumes a proposer for 20 years term insurance, with perfect health, a nonsmoking status, no dangerous sports, and no family history.

Age	sum assured	annual premium	total premiums paid for each 20 years
20	$250,000	$480	$9,600
40	$250,000	$960	$19,200
60	$250,000	$2,400	$48,000
total at age 80			$76,800

Think of this for a moment. Some of us spend more than three dollars a day ($1,095/year) on a latte' at Starbucks. Many people have cable or bar tabs or cigarette costs at much more than $100 a month. People you know may gamble or play the lottery with this monthly amount, or fritter it away in all sorts of ways which may not reflect their values.

Upgrading Current Funding for CI to Add the SA Option

Here is some more good news:Let’s say you have earmarked $35,000 in cash or assets to fund your CI costs. It is very possible you could reposition these funds to fund a single premium policy which will create the $100,000 you need without any further premiums ever! What about the many members out there who are concerned about whether or not they may be insurable? Maybe you smoke, or suffer from diabetes, or had prostate cancer, or are up in years. The short response is that there are now more choices than ever to secure funding. Many companies will now consider your individual situation and improved lifestyle to attenuate previously uninsurable risks. Cancer, heart attack, and cardiovascular problems that were uninsurable five years ago are now being issued at surprisingly affordable rates. Annuity funding, which requires no evidence of insurability, provides total safe and secure funding, while enabling good growth with interest income which can be personally used or donated to the Cryonics Institute.

Conclusion

In conclusion, here is the call for action. You owe it to yourself, your family, and your cryonics organization to double check your funding. If you are a long time US resident CI member, call Andy Zawacki at 586-791-5961 about upgrading your funding to have the benefits of Suspended Animation’s world class technicians at your side precisely when you need them. You could also go to the website http://www.rudihoffman.com and review the new video format questions and answers. If you like what you see, then email or telephone Rudi Hoffman CFP® CLU ChFC® on 800-749-3773 to check on your funding choices, to review your current situation without any consultation cost or obligation, and find out about your options. It is my passion and pleasure to assist you in obtaining the best possible fit given your precise situation.

Friends, we are trying to do something that has never been done in the long history of life on our planet. For the first time in perhaps two million years of human history, it may be within our grasp to have a scientific and technological response to the fundamental problem of the human condition. We have a chance…whether slim or larger it is hard to tell at this point…to take the magnificent and epic adventure of being around for the far future. The cryonics experiment we are engaged in is an inspiring and historic leap ahead for your individual human potential. Let’s be smart and sincere in controlling the financial side of this most important operation of your life. You have it within your power to take action to make sure your funding is optimized for your individual situation. Please, don't let fear, of any sort, keep you from exercising this power. Let’s make cryonics work. And we’ll celebrate together in the year 3000.

Commentary by John de Rivaz:

The table above suggests that by taking out successive periods of term insurance, coverage of $250,000 can be achieved from 20 to 80 for a total outlay of just $76,800, paid in easy instalments over the 60 years. That is good leverage. But what happens if the money relocated from prepayment or a trust was instead saved in a 3% after tax fixed interest account in order to provide the premiums required? For the first 20 years, only $16,000 would suffice - half the CI funding minimum. That is a remarkable leverage. Even at age 40, the next 20 years requires only $32,000 for that quarter of a million coverage, and 60-80 needs $80,000 – still way below a quarter of a million.

Life insurance still looks a very good deal. But you can’t get something for nothing. Suppose instead the person, who actually reached 80, was able to use the benefit of hindsight that he isn’t going to die over that period to invest the money instead of buying insurance. He would have all he had spent buying insurance and the resulting after tax compound interest to his name, whereas the insurance option would have left nothing. And we are not given data as to how much it would cost to convert the term assurance into a whole of life policy at age 80 years. That is the real cost of the insurance. Of course he has had something of benefit for these 60 years with the three term policies. Had he died in any of those years, at a suitable place and time, he would have a quarter of a million available for a very good cryopreservation.

Also the gain on equity investment (stocks) over 60 years is likely to be more than 3%, although tax penalties levied on those who exceed the gains limits cloud the issue somewhat, and shares can go down as well as up. (It is the risk that they may go down which is the price that is paid for the possibility that they may go up. Share appreciation is not therefore something for nothing - it is payment for taking risk.)

Age	sum assured	annual premium	total premiums paid for each 20 years	if from capital paying 3% after tax, it requires this amount	3% compound after tax, interest after 20 years transforms it into
20	$250,000	$480	$9,600	$16,000	$28,898
40	$250,000	$960	$19,200	$32,000	$57,796
60	$250,000	$2,400	$48,000	$80,000	$144,489
total spent by age 80			$76,800	total invested $128k	$231,182

I would agree that funding needs to be sound. People consider death as a sudden cataclysmic event. Indeed it is, but it can happen slowly, with the victim out of control and needing expensive terminal care. In such a situation anything requiring regular payments is likely to by abandoned, not by the insured, but by someone looking after him. Also, death isn’t the only thing that could cause trouble. Suppose the insured becomes a litigation victim and his assets are frozen. Again the payments are not made, and the policy lapses.

What I would consider to be the safest method of funding by life insurance is a single premium policy of a type that does not require any evidence of insurability, and which is owned by CI rather than the proposer. This ideal method would also require no periodic payments of any sort to pass through the proposer’s bank accounts. There may be policies available that only pay out if the proposer lives for so many years after taking it out. They would be worth having, as the risk of litigation over evidence is removed and yet the premium hike over not providing evidence to be argued about ought to be lessened as well. If you are pessimistic, you could cover this period by a separate term policy.

With these ideals, there are no premiums to be paid, and it does not form part of the proposer’s assets for taxation or appropriation by a court. Of course it is not perfectly safe. Nothing is perfectly safe. The cryonics organisation could fail resulting in someone hostile becoming the owner. Or legislation that degrades the security of ownership could be enacted. This is quite likely as families could use this method to protect their assets against terminal care costs for elderly members, and governments will get more and more upset about the subsequent drain on public funds.

But at the present time I don’t know if such policies are available in the USA, and what they cost. A public presentation on this presents members with the ability to feel confident that the facts given are accurate and provides confidence. People will trust such presentations far more than telephone sales chats or even individually circulated leaflets. I am hopeful that someone knowledgeable may expand on this in the future. What matters is not who is right, but what is right -- what is right for CI and cryonics to progress to the point that members are reanimated to healthy youthful and indefinite lifespans.