Volume 1, Issue 1
1st Quarter, 2006


Functions of a Trust Protector During Biostasis and at the Time of Cryogenic Revival

John Dedon, Esq.

page 4 of 5

A situation might arise where the trust could be involved in litigation with Alcor. Perhaps we want to move Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic to a different caregiver and Alcor resists. Flexibility must be built into the trust to allow the funds to be used in this Dedon quotesituation. It is impossile to know what all of the specific contingencies will be, thus we must allow for them when designing the trust and considering the role of the trust protector.

Ultimately, the trust protector should be authorized to use funds within the trust to retain whatever assistance is necessary to see that Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic are given the best chance for biostasis and revival to be successful.

This leads us to ask - what exactly does “revived” mean during the transition from biostasis to revival? I believe it means that the person is functional and able to live an independent life. This "revival" might take weeks or months to occur. Who will make the decisions as to what degree of autonomy is returned to Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic as they come out of biostasis? Again, it will be the trust protector. He or she must work with Alcor and with the trustee to ensure a smooth transition.

Terminating the Trust
Once the full revival is complete and independence is attained, we may no longer need the trust. When Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic are back in society and are productive, the trust may be terminated, or at the very least, they should have the option to terminate it.
They may very well decide that they need some time to go by before they are entirely comfortable terminating it. They may still wish to continue to benefit from having the institutional trustee manage the assets for a time. At what point do they get full control? The trust protector can play a role in this decision as well.

Permanence
When choosing the institutional trustee, we mentioned the importance of permanence. This is also a factor in choosing a trust protector. How do you know that the accounting or law firm will be around forever? Safeguards must be built in to account for the possibility that they may not.

You may have an attorney or CPA that you're working with currently, but in reality, you are hiring a law firm. You are providing that if and when that attorney is no longer around, the law firm will be. It would be wise to have a trust protector with similar or the same institutional knowledge as the institutional trustee.

Timing
When does the trust protector get involved? Does the trust protector get involved upon the first or the second death[1] of Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic? Do they get involved before either death? There is a strong argument for involving them while Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic are still living because who knows more about what their intent is and the cryogenic process than Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic?

By working with the couple now to do more than simply have a role in setting up the trust, the trust protector will be able to get a sense of what their intent is. He or she will be able to work with Mr. and Mrs. Cryonic to define that monitoring role mentioned earlier.

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Footnotes (back to top)
1. The term, "first or second death" refers specifically to the query: At which time is the Trust Protector to get involved regarding an existing trust created by Mr. & Mrs. Cryonic, at the time in which the first spouse dies, or when the second spouse dies? As statutes regarding Trusts/Trust Protectors involving cryogenics have not yet been brought to legislation, this is merely conjecture and speculative; for educational purposes only. Editor's Note, Loraine J. Rhodes.


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