A lot of people who are interested in signing up for cryopreservation may hesitate when they see the price tag. It’s understandable to want to feel like you’re making a financially sound decision. This is why there are several ways you can prepare to cover the finances in advance. Through the use of different life insurance policies, investments, and some wealth management tips, you can pay for your cryopreservation and grow your savings. You may even discover a way to carry your wealth into the future.
Wealth Management Before Cryopreservation
Swiping your debit card (or entering the numbers online) for minor purchases gives a lot of us anxiety. Paying €100 for groceries? Easy. €200.000 for cryopreservation? A little scarier. However, the earlier you sign up and start utilizing wealth management strategies, the less intimidating this price tag becomes.
The best (if you’re relatively young and healthy) option to get started with cryonics is term life insurance. Term life insurance is the most common (and easiest) way to fund cryopreservation. It’s also the most affordable on a monthly basis. Coverage begins immediately, as soon as you get a policy. This means that in the case of sudden death, your insurance provider will cover the entire cryopreservation. Just make sure that you list your cryonics provider (i.e. Tomorrow Bio) as your beneficiary if you take this route. Term life insurance pricing starts at as little as €20/month, but gets more expensive as you age. To keep monthly premiums affordable, we recommend signing up for cryopreservation as soon as possible. You’ll also need a Tomorrow Bio membership, which costs €25/month. This means you can sign up for everything (worldwide standby, field cryoprotection, indefinite storage) for as low as €45/month.
How to Make Sure You Have Enough Money After Term Life Insurance Expires
Term life insurance provides coverage for a fixed period of time. Once that coverage ends, you’ll need an alternative way to fund your cryopreservation. Luckily, terms are usually up to 65 years, giving you plenty of time to grow your savings. You can also extend your term life insurance until you’re the age of 85, but doing this will of course lead to higher monthly premiums.
Whole life insurance is another option to safeguard your funds after term life insurance ends. This is a permanent policy that continues to build cash value over time and is also referred to as traditional life insurance. Premiums stay consistent, and interest on the cash value accrues based on a fixed rate. Whole life insurance lasts until the end of your life, so you can think of it more like a savings plan with an automated payout at the time of death. However, in most cases, you’ll need to have whole life insurance for several years to ensure that the funds to pay for your cryopreservation have accumulated by the time your term life insurance policy runs out.
The same idea applies to investments or savings plans. The average annual rate of return for whole life insurance is about 1% to 3.5% of the cash value, so it may take a while to reach €200.000. Although the fixed rate means you will have guaranteed returns, other types of investments (i.e. stocks and bonds) create higher returns. Creating a diverse portfolio of wealth management strategies is a good way to establish long-term financial security.
Regardless of which option you choose, wealth management is essential. Creating a budget and sticking to it can help you grow your savings while giving you financial security during your life. Since most people tend to accumulate significantly more wealth in their later years (60-70) than in their 20s or even 30s and 40s, you’ll be in a stronger position to fund your cryopreservation plan directly. Be strategic about your investments and prioritize wealth management strategies. It may even be a good idea to work with a financial advisor to determine the best way to grow your wealth.
As we continue to raise awareness about cryopreservation and all of its benefits, more people are gaining interest. The more people that sign up for cryonics, the more affordable it will be for everyone. As the demand increases, prices decrease. So, by the time you need to fund cryopreservation directly, the cost may have dropped significantly. While it’s not something you should rely on, we’re optimistic that technological advancements and the growth of the cryonics community will make an impact.
Wealth Management While in Cryostasis
Integrating wealth management strategies to grow your savings during your life is pretty straightforward with the right tools and knowledge. But what happens after you’re pronounced legally dead? After legal death, you no longer have any rights or ownership of assets (including money). So what are you supposed to do if revival ever becomes a reality? You’ll wake up… then what? There are a few different scenarios that could happen. At our Biostasis2021 conference, Rafael Hostettler discusses wealth management while in cryostasis and after revival. You can watch his full talk in the video below.
One of the most interesting possibilities is waking up in a post-scarcity society. In this situation, money would be an afterthought. A degree of sustainable superabundance (when there’s more than enough of everything) could render money unnecessary.
So how do you take the steps to ensure wealth management in cryostasis? Rafael Hostettler, in his Biostasis2021 talk, recommends a few things. First, consider investing in material things whose value is likely going to grow over time. Since wealth is directly defined as the abundance of valuable materials or possessions, collecting material things that will continue to hold value in the future is a good idea. But, again, the problem arises with how will you keep those items for your use? Wealth needs to be stored independently of ownership since you have no legal status.
You could bury them in an undisclosed location (sounds absurd, but we're not kidding), donate them to a museum for safe keeping, or try to set something up within your family. However, any wealth accrued needs to have resilience from being stored in accessible locations, from within the system, and from the interest of others. You could also take a divide and conquer approach where you give partially to organizations like EBF and partially to self-replicating trust, but the details of these options have yet to be solidified. As experts continue to explore possibilities of wealth management in cryostasis and beyond, hopefully a new system will come to light. Until then, it’s interesting to think about. How would you secure your wealth for life after cryopreservation?
Over time, Tomorrow Bio will support and even set up different options for long-term wealth management that can be used after you’re cryopreserved.
Conclusion
We don’t know what’s going to have value in the future, or if we’ll even need any money at all. What we do know is that cryopreservation carries a pretty high price tag. But, while we work on lowering it, you can help by spreading awareness about cryonics and helping it become a more mainstream topic. To help cover funding for cryonics, wealth management is essential. The earlier you start, the better!
For questions regarding funding, feel free to schedule a call with one of our team members. Or, head over to our Discord channel and start a conversation about wealth management after revival with other members of the cryonics community!
