X-Message-Number: 4335
From: 
Date: Tue, 2 May 1995 21:26:31 -0400
Subject: finances of signing up

Following Derek Ryan's posting (#4327) on the finances of signing up, in
which he mentions certain costs at Alcor and guesses about other
organizations, I suppose I should indicate the Cryonics Institute policies:

1. CI has no annual dues required for initiation or maintenance of a
suspension contract. If the member wants voting rights (including the right
to stand for office), (s)he pays annual dues, currently $100/year for one or
$150/year for a couple. These dues are waived for members who have fully
prepaid suspension funding, as several of our members have.

Thus annual dues represent a much smaller fraction of total cost for CI
members.

(CI does, however, have a higher initial one-time membership fee--$1,250 for
one or $1,875 for a couple. This can sometimes be paid over a one-year period
in instalments.)

2. CI policy on last-minute applications is flexible according to
circumstances. In general, there is a surcharge of $7,000 (above the basic
minimum of $28,000 for whole-body suspension). And in general, again, if the
next of kin reverses the  decision within 90 days, the patient may be
returned and the basic minimum suspension fee refunded, with the $7,000
forfeited to pay our expenses. 

We feel this is a very generous and liberal policy, which nevertheless
adequately protects CI; but the screening is careful, and no acceptable case
has yet presented itself.

3. We pay considerable attention to the situation of the ill and elderly with
limited resources or limited liquid assets and no chance of buying new life
insurance. We expect to become increasingly flexible in this area and to
accept  risks that are small but that in earlier years we would not consider.
In other words, as our recources increase, we can accept a slightly higher
degree of risk as a trade-off for faster growth in the patient population.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute


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