Why are capital credits discounted to estates?
The capital credits are discounted in order to balance the fairness between the estate and the other members of the cooperative, recognizing the time value of money (funds received today are worth more than funds received some time in the future). The fairness issue arises from the fact that if estates were given preference and received a full retirement of capital credits early, then other members or the cooperative would be disadvantaged by receiving less retirement that year because only so much of cooperative funds are available for retirement each year.
