Estate planning changed rapidly in the late 1980's and early 1990's as changing tax laws intersected with changing interest rates and computerized modeling. Then the rate of new estate planning ideas slowed considerably for the past few years. But today's WSJ mentions a "cool" (pun intended, Brooke) new idea: estate planning for users of cryogenics.
Cryogenics is the process of suspending human remains with the hope that advances in science will allow for such remains to be "thawed" and revived. Most people dismiss such concepts as ridiculous, but there are some who think they can "take it with them." By placing funds into a "personal revival trust," these wealthy individuals hope their money grows virtually expense-free so that they will wake up to being the wealthiest individuals in the world.
Years ago, we used to joke about the idea that a family member could be frozen until all gifting plans had been completed. That joke might become a reality. Estate taxes are essentially a tax on the transfer of assets out of the estate to someone else. If the assets are retained within the estate, it would appear that those assets could continue to compound without taxation for centuries with some potentially lucrative benefits for family members.
Actually the correct term for freezing bodies and body parts is cryonics. It is an important part of using the science of cryogenics to preserve body parts for transplants. The barriers remain high for cryopreservation of the entire body due to issues surrounding the brain.
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