Customers of cryonics companies set up trusts to protect their wealth after death and pay for their possible resurrection.
Although cryonics currently only involves freezing and not resurrection, attorneys for wealthy individuals are already preparing for future possibilities. A new type of service has emerged, aimed at preserving the wealth of customers until they can be brought out of suspended animation, according to Futurism.
Estate planners are now creating ‘revival trusts’ for wealthy individuals that will be cryogenically frozen after death. If cryonic generation technology becomes feasible, these individuals could access their funds hundreds of years later.
“The idea of cryopreservation has shifted from crazy to merely eccentric. It’s a bit of a new trend,” says real estate lawyer Mark House.
House partners with the Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics facility that has served 230 customers. Believed to be the largest facility of its kind, Alcor has approximately 1,400 customers preparing for cryogenic preservation.
Estate planners require clients to allocate at least $500,000 to cryonics trusts to ensure ongoing costs do not deplete accounts over time. As with other trusts, beneficiaries and executors are appointed.
However, there are significant challenges: no one has been successfully removed from cryogenic storage, and legally, a death certificate cannot be annulled.
To get through these bureaucratic hurdles, clients are advised to appoint a fiduciary protector: an individual or organization with the authority to decide whether to revive the client.
“Some people say that resurrection is only successful if the person retains their past memories. Others are satisfied with a similar clone. There are also people who think that it would be enough to upload their brains into a computer,” explains real estate planner Peggy Hoyt.
Regardless of the method, these individuals aim to reclaim their property in the revival. Initially, they will need money to finance the resurrection process, should that become possible.
