Dead peasants insurance....

[R13]

anyone heard of it? I just learned about it in the "Capitalism : A Love Story" documentary, it is crazy. Employers take out insurance on some of their employees, without them knowing about it, then collecting if they die. And these aren't CEO's, these are just workers at Walmart for instance. There are multiple companies that do this and have been for about 30 years....

* Companies pay a whopping $8 billion in premiums each year for such coverage, according to the American Council of Life Insurers, a trade group.
* The policies make up more than 20% of the all the life insurance sold each year.
* Companies expect to reap more than $9 billion in tax breaks from these policies over the next five years. The policies are treated as whole life policies. So, companies can borrow against the policies (though the IRS won't let them write off the interest). And the death benefits are tax-free.


Hundreds of companies -- including Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney and Winn-Dixie -- have purchased this insurance on more than 6 million rank-and-file workers.


Does your boss want you dead? - MSN Money

That link actually lists a few cases from some Walmart employees.

Here's some more.

Employers Collect Life Insurance on Employee Deaths, 'Dead Peasants' Life Insurance - ABC News


This one has some of the same parts of the two above, but some other ones, with a list of some of the companies that do it. Walmart, Walgreens, Bank of America, Wachovia, Kentucky Power Co., Coca Cola are just to name a few. This is wild, companies betting on your life and taking out insurance on you..that you don't see a penny of. In the movie, it's in one of the links too, that her husband had a 1.5 million policy on him.

Corporate owned life insurance aka Dead Peasant Insurance | Nye - Gateway to Nevada's Rurals




This is sickening.

[imported_elp6n]

They legally have an interest in the insured party, and they're paying the premiums.

We can all purchase our own life insurance policies and name our own beneficiaries if we so desired.

[R13]

They legally have an interest in the insured party, and they're paying the premiums.

We can all purchase our own life insurance policies and name our own beneficiaries if we so desired.

There is a reason I can't take out an fire insurance policy on your house, because I would have an interest in your house burning down. This is wrong on so many levels it's ridiculous, the people weren't made aware that the company had a policy on them, most of these companies that we know that do them...were slipped out by accident. Somewhere a piece of paper read Dead Employee = $81,000(which I use that number because of a 26 year that died - Walmart - and ran up 100k in hospital bills and a 6k funeral)...her family didn't receive a dime of help. There is something wrong with that picture, when a company hopes you die and profits from you dying(esp at a young age when the profits are higher). There is absolutely no reason why one of the richest corporations in the world should be able to do this, along with any company.

[imported_elp6n]

There is a reason I can't take out an fire insurance policy on your house, because I would have an interest in your house burning down

Not exactly.
You cannot take a fire insurance policy out on my house because you dont have an interest. You have to have a legal interest in it first, then insure it. Burning it down isn't an interest. Loaning me money for it is an interest.

I can understand why people dont appreciate a life policy being taken out on them, but it's currently a legal practice. The employer has that technical interest in an employee. Under the eye of the law its loss of an asset when an employee does. It's all a matter of technicalities.

They pay the premiums, the employee isn't out anything.
If the employee wants their chosen beneficiaries to 'profit' from his/her death, they need to buy their own policy, pay the premiums, and name their own beneficiaries.

[R13]

Not exactly.
You cannot take a fire insurance policy out on my house because you dont have an interest. You have to have a legal interest in it first, then insure it. Burning it down isn't an interest. Loaning me money for it is an interest.

I can understand why people dont appreciate a life policy being taken out on them, but it's currently a legal practice. The employer has that technical interest in an employee. Under the eye of the law its loss of an asset when an employee does. It's all a matter of technicalities.

They pay the premiums, the employee isn't out anything.
If the employee wants their chosen beneficiaries to 'profit' from his/her death, they need to buy their own policy, pay the premiums, and name their own beneficiaries.

I would have interest in your house burning down, I didn't say that I did burn it down, but it burning down would profit me. It burning down would be in my interest, it's a bet, but I would benefit if your house burnt down.

People aren't half as upset if they were told about it, this practice has caught lawsuits from the IRS to the families of the person. Of course they can do that, this isn't the point. The point is that companies have taken out policies on their employees, without their knowledge and profiting(tax free) on their deaths. The whole idea is so f'ed it isn't even funny. You're worth more dead to them than alive.

[imported_elp6n]

I would have interest in your house burning down, I didn't say that I did burn it down, but it burning down would profit me. It burning down would be in my interest, it's a bet, but I would benefit if your house burnt down.

Just to clarify legal interest in property:
You would have no interest in my house unless you owned the mortgage on it or owned the house. That's why you cannot get a policy on it - not because a potential loss could financially benefit you. An insurance carrier will not and cannot give you a policy to cover property you have no legal interest to. The lienholder, if any, gets paid first in the event of a loss. Policy owner gets paid second, if there's anything left after paying the lienholder. You, as random guy with no existing legal interest, cannot be named to the policy. Even if you're the renter to a house that burns down you have no legal interest in that home's policy and you couldn't have taken a policy out on the structure.

[1inStripes]

You're worth more dead to them than alive.

Know, for most businesses that would be able to afford the premiums, their probably not worth more dead to them than alive. Once you figure in costs for training, health insurance, and etc. if they are taking out a policy of 81k, its probably just a nice recovery to replacing the employee.