Rudi Hoffman, Certified Financial Planner and the world's
leading cryonics life insurer, addressed about 200 people attending the 8th
Worldwide Alcor Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 11, 2015.
Here is brief outline of his presentation:
1. What if some of us are wrong? Not about the
science, the technology, the biology components to the feasibility of
cryonics. But about the feasibility of the FUNDING of cryonics.
2. One of the foundational principles of scientific
epistemology is looking not for confirmation, but trying to find NON
confirmatory evidence or information.
3. However, human nature being what it is, given the
unknowns of future costs of funding issues in cryonics, even many long term and
serious minded cryonicists tend to not think about how their cryonics funding
program could go wrong, or be insufficient for future needs and
possibilities. Overcoming this so called "CONFIRMATION BIAS" is
an important component of rationally addressing this problem.
4. The purpose of this talk is to make EXPLICIT some
of the "hard questions" of cryonics funding, and suggest a possible
answer to these problems.
5. No one ever promised or even implied that trying to
actually overcome permanent death is supposed to be easy, trivial, or
inexpensive. The epic scope of the mission of cryonics...providing a
bridge to a future technology that has solved the joint problems of ageing and
death...indicates this will be hard. Together, we can "roll up our
sleeves" and jointly do everything we can to make sure that we address
optimal funding for our cryonics arrangements.
6. Due to inflation and technological enhancements,
the cost of a state of the art cryopreservation is almost certain to increase.
7. Historically, Alcor costs have increased at about
3% a year. When this author signed up with Alcor in 1994 the cost of a
whole body cryopreservation was $120,000. It is now $200,000 in 2015.
8. The "Rule of 72" is a tool enabling us to
figure out doubling times of costs in our heads. By taking an inflation
rate into the number 72, the result which comes out represents the doubling
time of costs. I.e, a 3% inflation rate represents a doubling of costs
every 24 years. ( 72 divided by 3 equals 24.)
9. Brief overview of types of life insurance:
A. Term life insurance. Premium
(cost) and coverage stays level for a "term" or period of time.
Lower in cost in the early years when we tend to not die, but shockingly high
in the later years. If one starts with term, it should upgradeable to a
permanent type of policy
B. Permanent life insurance.
Premium (cost) stays LEVEL for one's lifetime, or even stops in the later years
once there is sufficient cash value in the policy to enable the policy to pay
itself A newer form of this is Index Universal Life. This type
policy is recommended for cryonics funding, as we need a policy which will
actually be IN PLACE in the later years when we tend to die. Industry
statistics indicate 97 of 100 term policies do not result in a death
benefit. This is because they generally are non-renewed due to extreme
cost increases in the later years. The costs don't merely double or
quadruple, but go up by a factor or 50 or 100 times in the later years.
10, Analogy: Two forms of transportation
technology, the bicycle and the car. Both good transport tools, with
different optimal uses. However, the car does have more moving parts, is
a more complicated piece of technology.
In a similar manner, Index Universal Life has more moving
parts than straight whole life or universal life, but has the capability to
beat INFLATION due to it's structure.
11. Call to action: Get your current cryonics
funding ANALYZED by a competent and caring professional. Consider
OVERFUNDING your cryonics by a substantial margin. If one cannot afford
enough permanent coverage for an overfunding of 2 to 4 times the current cost
of cryopreservation, obtain a TERM policy which can be upgraded as one's
financial capability improves. Find out what the reality of enabling
optimal cryonics and estate funding actually is, even if you can't afford now,
so you have a definite actionable path forward as finances improve.
