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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=4335