X-Message-Number: 9803
From: 
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 09:39:03 EDT
Subject: price guarantees

Posts have appeared saying that all cryonics organizations reserve the right
to increase prices in the future, even for those already signed up. This is
not quite correct.

At Cryonics Institute (CI) the standard contract does indeed say that there
could be price increases. However, several important facts should be noted:

(1) As a practical matter, CI has never raised its prices (that is a period of
22 years, including the high-inflation years of the late 70s and early 80s).
Minimum (whole body) suspension fee is still $28,000, a one-time payment,
after a one-time membership fee of $1,250 for an individual or $1,875 for a
couple. On an inflation-adjusted basis, our prices have steadily declined.
(There are no annual dues, unless you want voting rights.)

(2) CI has relatively small fixed overhead, owning our property free and clear
and with no debt of any kind; in tough times we could hunker down and get by
on absolutely minimal overhead.

(3) CI DOES formally guarantee that there will be no price increases for those
members who pre-pay their suspension fees. We believe this is sound, in
overall context, because CI is earning money on the invested sums while the
member is still alive, as well as for the aforementioned reasons. 

Of course, this guarantee only reflects current methodology. If more
complicated and more expensive preparation methods are adopted in the future,
the use of THOSE methods will not be included in the guarantee; but we will
still (if necessary) prepare the patient by the older methods at the
guaranteed price. (In fact, eventually we may have a range of options, some of
them even cheaper than current procedures.)

In practice, I am confident that we will be able to improve our suspension
methods without raising prices, although of course within limits. And those
limits will be wider for those with prepaid suspension fees (and also for
those who fund at levels above the minimum $28,000, even if not prepaid).

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

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