X-Message-Number: 6769
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: Cryonics via Insurers
Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 12:19:21 +1000 (EST)

Steve Bridge writes,

>     Peter, this sounds more complicated than you describe it.  That would 
>make the insurer a cryonics marketer without any particular benefit for 
>them, since these are individuals who are (presumably) *already* buying a 
>policy.

Individuals buying life insurance have a vast array of options and
schedules to choose from. Small things can affect their choices
significantly. There's also a real PR angle on it - a smaller insurer
could get national media attention if it were to offer this. That
attention might not be complimentary, but for a smaller insurer the
gains in brand-name awareness might more than offset this.

>     The only possible benefit I could see for the insurer is if the 
>cryonics company provided a kick-back to the insurer for the service; 
>which would probably be a red-flag to the IRS, at least for non-profit, 
>tax-exempt corporations like Alcor.

The insurer could build the costs + a small profit into an option on its
premium life and health insurance schedules - as per income protection -
so the provider wouldn't give the insurer anything but its blessing.  I
guess the main difficulty would be finding an insurer interested in
giving this a try. I don't know if that would be straightforward, but if
I were a suspension provider I'd try it just to find out.

Just my 2 bits,

Peter Merel.


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