X-Message-Number: 5702
Date: Sun, 04 Feb 1996 17:47:59 +0100
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Re: CI's European costs (was neuro/Pretoria)

I was waiting for Bob Ettinger to reply to this, but as he doesn't seem to 
be here (probably his message will come up alongside mine now) I will 
answer.

As I understand it, Barry Albin uses his own aircraft to collect clients 
from sites in Europe where they are taken to his facility in East London. 
There they are be prepared in a manner approved by the Cryonics Institute 
for shipment by a regular airline in one of the caskets he built in 
partnership with CI.

Also, it is permitted to add the $6k to one's suspension funds and the CI 
will pay Barry Albin. I do not know whether this will confer VAT 
advantages, but it could do as the service is being ordered by an 
organisation outside the UK.

To suggest that a private air ambulance is used to transport CI patients to 
the USA is verging on fantasy, and I am suprised that someone like Garret 
Smyth is progagating this idea. Evem Alcor, with their substantially higher 
prices, could not afford this.

Many UK life policies have UKP50k as a minimum sum assured and this would 
easily cover all costs with the CI. For the benefit of people seing this 
for the first time, I recommend a term policy coupled with your own savings 
into a CI trust invested in technology stocks, rather than a whole life 
policy where you are paying high additional fees for the life cover. If you 
are fortunate with your choice of investments, you may even be able to drop 
the term policy before it reaches term. 

If you are ultra cautious, you could go for a renewable or convertible term 
policy in case your investment don't work out. However if technology fails, 
then so will cryonics, so it probably won't matter much.

In article: <>  Garret Smyth 
<> writes:
> 
> 
> Me (Garret):
> > > There will always be some people who
> > > can't afford $28,000 dollars plus shipping
> > > (which add on almost as much again).
>     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> John de Rivaz: 
> > No it doesn't. If you allow $6,000 over the 28k you will have considered 
> > several years of inflation of the costs presently suggested by Barry Albin 

> > and Co., CI's UK agents. (Although this hasn't been tested, I think you can
> > avoid the UK's 17.5% value added tax by arranging for CI to order the 
> > transport from the USA rather than paying for it out of your trust or 
> > estate).
> 
> Me again:
> I understand that F A Albin and Sons charge 2,000 to 7,000 Pounds Sterling
> ($3,180 - $11,130) [their figures] "depending on where you are in Europe,
> difficulties involved, Airfreight charges and local fees etc."
> 
> Inflation isn't mentioned, but I've heard that they prefer you to pay when
> you sign up and if you want to pay on suspension you are expected to arrange
> a much larger sum in life insurance.
> 
> As well as this, I read on th net - I think in a posting from Robert Ettinger
> that Albins have an air ambulance available at short notice. I have to assume
> that they mean that they would get a short notice charter. When I read this
> I asked a friend who is a pilot (in the charter field at the time) to find
> out the cost of a charter from Europe to the US. He was at first 
unenthusiastic
> to get quotes on the grounds that such a charter is almost unheard of and
> no one really did such a trip. I pressed the matter and he got a rough figure
>  - about 20,000 pounds! I guess if CI were serious about such a flight they

> would have to add the cost to the suspension. Albin's presumably add their bit
> too (and, although the CI's share may not attract VAT, Albin's would have to,
> so I assume the Albin figures include tax.)
> 
> Hence CI's transport can add the same again as suspension. And transport 
is
> *un*frozen with CI.
> 
> TTFN
> 
> G
> 
> -- 
> Garret Smyth
> 
> Phone:  0181 789 1045 or +44 181 789 1045
> 
> 
-- 
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