January 27, 2006

WSJ Article on Cryonics

The Wall Street Journal had an article last week about wealthy people who have made arrangements to have their bodies frozen in liquid nitrogen after they die. They are also willing their money to themselves:

With the help of an estate planner, Mr. Pizer has created legal arrangements for a financial trust that will manage his roughly $10 million in land and stock holdings until he is re-animated. Mr. Pizer says that with his money earning interest while he is frozen, he could wake up in 100 years the "richest man in the world."
At least a dozen wealthy American and foreign businessmen are testing unfamiliar legal territory by creating so-called personal revival trusts designed to allow them to reclaim their riches hundreds, or even thousands, of years into the future.
Thomas Katz, an estate planner at the law firm Ruden McClosky in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., believes cryonics could raise fundamental legal quandaries. Upon coming back to life, for instance, would a person have to repay their life insurance? "Our legal notion of death is pretty fixed. The scientific notion might not be as time goes by," Mr. Katz says.
Edward O. Thorp, a hedge-fund industry pioneer, created a cryonics trust in 1997 funded by a $200,000 life-insurance policy. At 73, he says he's now arranging a larger trust -- of between $1 million and $50 million -- which he will direct to invest in no-load index-tracking mutual funds to avoid management and trading fees. He puts the odds of a person frozen today coming back at 2%. "I figure it's worth a lottery ticket," says Dr. Thorp, who has a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Comments

Talk about passive investors...Corpses being frozen will provide subjects for scientists in the future. They'll be able to track environmental hazards by comparing current levels of such things as toxic chemicals in tissue with what it was at the time the corpse was frozen. Admittedly not the future the corpsicle was hoping for.

Posted by: Jim Voelker at January 27, 2006 12:56 PM

Inheritting your own compounded wealth is a cool concept. It would be much less painful to harness time-dilation to pass the time lol. Futurama did a spoof where Fry discovered his $0.10 in the bank compounded for 1,000 years made him among the wealthiest people in the year 3,000. Of course if I was revived somehow in the future, I'd rather reclaim my wealth like "That Guy": sleazin my way to the top.. 80's style. *We can dance, we can dance! Dun dun dah dah, dun dun, dun dah dah!*.

For me, I'm young enough that I hope to be able to finance an indefinite life expectancy due to technological and medical progress. The Law of Accelerating Returns works for more than just computer speed...

Posted by: jontait [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 28, 2006 03:38 AM


Post a comment




Remember Me?




(you may use HTML tags for style)