X-Message-Number: 9860
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 02:01:34 -0800
From: American Cryonics Society <>
Subject: Re: Individual Trusts

On "Individual Trusts" I wrote:

>> Motivation
>>
>> A lot of us "true believers" are intent on leaving the bulk of our
>>assets to benefit cryonics.  Other people want other charities,
>>relatives, or friends, to get the bulk of their estates, and only provide
>>minimum funding for cryonics.  It may be that people will be more
>>motivated to provide adequate funding if there is the possibility of them
>>benefiting more directly from their money and not simply contributing
>>more to the "community chest."

In Message #9849 John de Rivas responds:

>Also it could help divert funds otherwise left to relations to cryonics if
>provision could be made for relatives to receive some income from the
>funds whilst the relatives are still alive, but the principal remains with
>the  cryonics organization. Such an arrangement is not uncommon where a
>husband  leaves his assets to his wife in trust for his children, the
>widow getting  only the income. This prevents his widow from re-marrying
>and leaving the  assets she had inherited from her first husband to
>someone else's children.

My response:

The same thing can be accomplished informally by family members agreeing
that at the death of the second spouse, all family assets (minus certain
specified gifts to children, etc.) will go into a family cryonics trust
which will be used to benefit all family members in suspension.  This trust
could even be added to at the death, and suspension, of any children who
choose cryonics.

This informal arrangement doesn't prevent a spouse from changing his or her
mind, or (with remarriage) the new spouse getting it all by intestate
inheritance.

The advantage is that the principal sum can be more readily accessed for
emergencies.  A lot of people want to allow assets to be used by surviving
family members for real emergencies (medical emergencies for example), but
don't want frivolous use.


Yet a third way to achieve the objectives John discusses is through a death
benefit insurance policy option.  This option (available on most US
policies) allow for the yearly interest earned by the policy (capital) to
go to the surviving spouse (or other named beneficiary).  The principal sum
death benefit is not paid until some given time in the future (typically
twenty years after the death of the insured), or upon the occurrence of a
given event (the spouse's death, for example).  The ultimate beneficiary
which receives the principal sum, can be a cryonics society, or a trust
administered by a cryonics society.

For what it is worth, what happens with this option is that the proceeds
from the life insurance policy are used to purchase an annuity with the
insurance company handling both sides of the transaction!

The insurance companies like this option, since they get to keep money
longer.  The earnings are usually not very exciting: 4-6% is typical.
However, there is also not the bite by attorneys and other adminisrators
which John warned us about.  This means that for fairly small sums (say
$300k or less) such administration by the insurance company is an OK deal.
For larger amounts, setting up a formal trust and paying the lawyers and
other fund administrators (while earning higher return on investment) is
the preferred strategy.

Long life,

Jim Yount



=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+American Cryonics Society
(650)254-2001
                      FAX (650)967-4444
P.O. Box 1509
Cupertino, CA 95015
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