X-Message-Number: 14932 From: "John de Rivaz" <> Subject: guaranteeing payment Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 10:39:20 -0000 The thought has occurred to me a safer method of guaranteeing payment would be as follows: The patient takes out a loan secured on an endowment policy and pays the cryonics organisation in advance. He pays loan interest and the endowment premium. When the endowment policy matures, the payout pays off the loan direct to the loan company. I know that this will not be popular, but it is a logical extension to the plans Alcor is making and it is perfectly safe as far as Alcor is concerned. Alcor need no longer be concerned as to whether the endowment policies are safe or not. Personally, I do think that Alcor ought to invest the money it has received for these prepayments and invests at an appropriate rate of growth to ensure that inflation of costs is met by investment gains. I would imagine, though, that many people would prefer the certainty of inflation losses as opposed to the uncertainty of gains being made by investment. (Most people reading this list must know my "anthropic investment in technology" ideas.) But that is a matter for Alcor and its members. The loan/endowment proposals would be more expensive, but it seems a logical way to get rid of the problems at present being experienced by Alcor with life insurance. Patients' expense does not really seem to be a consideration. Personally I and some others find this anomalous, but the fact remains that Alcor has the largest numbers of members signed up for cryopreservation and obviously they find it satisfactory. That is what the free market is all about. I hope it is helpful. note: In case it is called something else in the US, what I mean by an endowment policy is a life policy that pays out a fixed sum at the sooner of a fixed date in the future or the policyholder dies. They are often used in the UK to fund house purchase, which is a cost comparable to an Alcor cryopreservation, and the payout would be to the mortgage company. -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://www.geocities.com/longevityrpt http://www.autopsychoice.com - should you be able to chose autopsy? Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14932