X-Message-Number: 13893
From: 
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 18:46:45 EDT
Subject: new kinds of insurance

A James Swayze post mentioned funeral insurance and possible new kinds of 
life insurance for cryonics, and noted that the cryonics insurance might not 
have to be paid, because sometimes the insured would not be frozen, and 
therefore the premiums could be less or the company profit more.

I don't think we would want any such situation, where there would be a 
financial incentive for someone to prevent or hamper suspension.

As for other innovations, I have previously mentioned the possibility of the 
cryonics organization in effect--although not formally or legally--providing 
the insurance. The member would make periodic payments, and the organization 
would agree to suspend the member upon death regardless of the payment total 
at time of death. 

There are two main problems. One is getting it past the lawyers, making sure 
we wouldn't be found to be violating the laws regulating insurance companies. 

The other problem would be evaluating the prospective member and assessing 
our risk. This is probably sufficiently daunting to make the project 
impractical on a large scale any time soon. But it might not be impractical 
on a small scale. If this deal were made initially with only a very small 
number of people, an organization such as CI would not be endangered even if 
the members died immediately. (CI directors do not currently have this under 
consideration.)

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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