Personal Revival Trusts

Do you want to cheat death?  If so, you may be planning to be frozen when you die and then thawed out when medical technology evolves to the point that your life could be extended.  See, for example, the Cryonics Institute which explains:

As soon as possible after legal death, a member patient is infused with a substance to prevent ice formation, cooled to a temperature where physical decay essentially stops, and is then maintained indefinitely in cryostasis. When and if future medical technology allows, our member patients hope to  be healed, rejuvenated, revived, and awakened to a greatly extended life in youthful good health, free from disease or the aging process.

Assume that technology develops sufficiently and reanimation occurs.  Now what?   You have already been declared dead and your property has passed to your heirs or beneficiaries.   Being homeless does not sound like a good option.

Not to worry!!  A new technique, the personal revival trust, is gaining in popularity.  The to-be-frozen person places property into a trust in the one of more than 20 states that allow dynasty trusts, that is, trusts that are not limited by the Rule Against Perpetuities.  In addition to other beneficiaries, the to-be-frozen person is named as a beneficiary contingent on being successfully revived. 

It is reported that over a dozen of these trusts have already been established.  A. Christopher Sega (adjunct professor, Georgetown University) reports that he has drafted three personal revival trusts over the past year.

See Antonio Regalado, A Cold Calculus Leads Cryonauts to Put Assets on Ice, Wall St. J., Jan. 21/22, 2006, at A1 [subscription to Wall Street Journal Online needed to access link].

Special thanks to Prof. Joel C. Dobris of the University of California — Davis for pointing out this article.