It's ironic and instructive that the 7 million dollar bequest came so closely on the heels of the Freitas analysis. It helps illustrate the nature of Alcor finances over the past forty years. Alcor has always done more than just membership dues and cryopreservation minimums pay for. It's been able to do that because of donations and bequests. Historically there have been large bequests every decade or so. This recent bequest, like previously bequests, could likely have sustained Alcor for many years without Alcor having to raise membership dues or fees. However the board was of a different mind this time, and chose to establish an Endowment. The Endowment is to fund Alcor operations by analogy to how Alcor's Patient Care Trust funds long-term patient care without being spent down. This means that dues increases will be necessary in the short term. However in the long term growth of the Endowment, and the revenue it provides, should help reduce the need for dues increases in the future. Also, some regular large donors have made it known that they prefer to see Alcor eliminate structural deficits.
One thing the Freitas analysis makes clear is that there is choice between
1) Paying very high membership dues, and having a guaranteed cryopreservation decades in the future without having to increase your cryopreservation funding for inflation ("grandfathering")
or
2) Paying lower membership dues, but being prepared to have either very large cryopreservation funding, or increasing cryopreservation funding as you age to compensate for inflation.
The cost of Alcor cryopreservations has approximately doubled in nominal dollars every 20 years. CI has amazingly held its minimums steady for decades through cost reductions and increasing subsidizes by bequests and better-funded members. They almost certainly won't be able to continue that indefinitely.
Edited by bgwowk, 02 December 2010 - 06:01 AM.