TYT: Companies are legally taking out DEAD PEASANT INSURANCE policies on their employees (OMG!!!)

[Tx4obama]

This is just crazy and should be against the law.

Apparently in Michael Moores' new film he covers something called 'Dead Peasant Insurance Policies'.

Companies can legally take out insurance on their employees (after one year) and if they die they give ZERO of the money to the person's family.

This means that they profit if you die and you are worth more to them dead than alive.

A whopping 25% of all life insurance policies in the USA are Dead Peasant Policies.

Companies that do this include WalMart, Walt Disney, Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble, Winn Dixie, and other Blue Chip Companies...

In the video the discussion of DEAD PEASANT's INSURANCE starts at the 13 minute mark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XWFu41PPyU

Please help spread the word!

[DesertFlower]

1. michael moore talked about it this morning

on "the view".

[Tx4obama]

2. I am amazed that there isn't outrage & discussion about this here on DU! n/t

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. my employer has such a policy on me

Apparently my dead ass is worth $350,000

[gauguin57]

22. are you serious?

How do you know this?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

26. I consented to it,

They call is "business continuity insurance" - I opted out of a parallel policy for which I could select the beneficiary because I have no dependents.

[northernlights]

4. I can't help but wonder

If that's what they're doing at the 'dark side' financial co. where I just started working. Seriously, every night at training, they bring out bags of candy and throw them in front of us on the tables where we're sitting. My blood sugar is going crazy. The woman next to me said her teeth hurt all the time. I thought they were trying to make us toothless diabetics. Maybe that's only the 1st phase of their plan. :grr:

[Deja Q]

10. Okay, are you just being just a tad paranoid?

Most organizations do that. One I worked for a few years' back did and, if you knew them, you'd know from the first millisecond they're not out to poison each other with sugary fat.

And here's some real food for thought: If they wanted to lop off people, they wouldn't induce diabetes. They'd rig accidents. Trolling for diabetes dollars only goes so far...

Incidentally, sugar is a stimulant that doesn't act as long as coffee... oh, and you're taking night classes. Are they really trying to kill you or are they wanting to keep you and your coworkers from falling asleep during training classes... When companies put out training classes, and they're not cheap, that doesn't really mean they're trying to kill you.

Unless you were being sarcastic. I have trouble discerning that at times...

[Tx4obama]

5. The bad thing is ....

If companies can take out life insurance policies on their employees where they reap all the benefits of the policies then there is NO incentive for them to:

1) To keep the a safe environment (physically) in the workplace such as factories, mines, ships, etc. -- also including having security in high risk locations such as convenience stores, parking lots/garages, etc.
2) To provide the best health care
3) To provide a stress free environment to lower the instances of heart attacks and suicide etc.

I truly wish that a high profile politician and/or talk show host will take up this issue and make it as well known as Palin's BOGUS death panels.

[Eric68601]

6. In other news...

Soylent Corp. announced today that due to recent customer complaints of lack of taste in their soylent red and soylent orange wafers, they are now working diligently with marine biologist to produce a more nutritious product with an exciting taste. Prepare for a taste, coming to an organic health food store near you.

[malaise]

7. Won't be long before they kill them

to cash in.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Variation: Dead Spouse Insurance

I know a woman who is married to a real bastard. He married her to get her land and hasn't yet been able to steal it. She doesn't know that he goes to Europe and Asia for sex tours but she does know that he took out a life insurance policy on her life, naming him as beneficiary. And further, she knows that one of his friends did this on HIS wife and his wife died suddenly in an "accident". And finally, her husband monitors her cell phone records and has "bugs" placed around their home. (No, I DON'T know why she remains married to him, I just don't.)

So I won't be surprised if this man has the incentive to make an accident happen when he's low on money. (Sex tours, gambling, etc.)

[Deja Q]

9. That's been going on for rather a long time. It was in the media too.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1102-06.htm

And, oh graham crackers, it was in the MSM too!

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/P64954.asp

Oh my word, that's from 2003!

Moore's just regurgitating old news. Oh, I don't blame him, but for DUers to whine and rant about capitalism and manipulating people for their hard-earned money with his editorial movies, and yet giving Moore a FREE PASS just because he says something people want to hear... That's bull. Yanked fresh from the cow. Until proven otherwise, I maintain he's the left's version of Bill O'Reilly. At least I can't find the left's answer to Ann Coulter, which I really don't think is possible, but you never know...

By contrast, Al Franken ran for office and has shown he's not just some petty shill. The youtube clip of him defusing a situation with a bunch of right-wingers really shows how classy Senator Franken is. Now, apart from cashing in on glooooom and dooooooooom and giving minimal contributions to politicians who haven't exactly made a difference all these years, what has he actually DONE? Laugh his way to the bank?

Or is critical thinking a bad thing?

BTW: I'll let everyone know if or when I become a total hypocrite on this issue too... :D

[cornermouse]

13. I'm sorry.

I realize that I don't watch many commentators but I have heard O'Reilly in action and Michael Moore is nothing like him.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cornermouse]

11. dead peasant insurance - been talked about for several years now

2003
http://www.texassportfishing.com/editorial_5.htm

Apparently been around longer than that.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate-owned_life_insurance

[GreenStormCloud]

12. That's nothing new. It has been around for a looooong time.

Been around for over a century in fact. Some employees can be difficult and expensive to replace. The insurance covers that.

[treestar]

14. Key man policies are for high level employees

Whom they think that not having would cost the company - the lower level is supposedly replaceable, why would they take out a policy on them?

If this were true, the job market would be so good no one would be unemployed.

[Joanne98]

16. That's an outrage.

[redqueen]

17. Yep. I first learned of this on DU years ago, about Wal Mart.

It's horrifying, but too many people in this country practically worship money (and by extension those who can find creative - even if unethical - ways get more)... so sadly, I doubt most see anything wrong with it.

[Cass]

18. Michael Moore talked about this in one of his earlier books published in 1996.

'Downsize This! Random Threats From An Unarmed American'.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/dogeatdogfilms/ds.html this link has some chapter excerpts if anyone is interested.


Dead peasants insurance is such a smarmy practice.
Here's a pretty good article about it http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/P64954.asp
I think the article is a few years old but I can't find a date on it so I'm not certain when it was originally written. Nevertheless, it is very informative.

Broad-based or janitors policies that insure rank-and-file workers. Here the purpose is basically profit. The life insurance proceeds are tax-free. The policies have an investment component that allows companies to earn tax-deferred returns while the employee is still alive. And, of course, companies can take out tax-free loans on the policies. All these gains and income are used to fund operations, pay for executive compensation or boost other benefits.

[lynne]

19. It's actually called "KEY MAN LIFE" insurance and is nothing new -

- it's a policy for key executives of a business. If the death of that key executive would cause a hardship to a business, the company can secure a "Key Man Life" policy to protect their financial interest in the executive. The funds are used to search for and train a replacement executive and recoup any financial loss due to the death of a key executive.

Not a new concept, these policies have been around for decades.

[Cass]

20. Actually there are 2 types of these life insurance policies...key-man and dead peasant policies

Corporate-owned life insurance actually comes in two flavors:
Executive or key person policies that insure the lives of top executives. This coverage has been around for decades and has a clear business purpose, since losing the expertise, knowledge and contacts of top managers can be financially devastating for companies.

Broad-based or janitors policies that insure rank-and-file workers. Here the purpose is basically profit. The life insurance proceeds are tax-free. The policies have an investment component that allows companies to earn tax-deferred returns while the employee is still alive. And, of course, companies can take out tax-free loans on the policies. All these gains and income are used to fund operations, pay for executive compensation or boost other benefits.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Insurance/P64954.asp

[backwoodsbob]

21. im 44 years old

every mid to large company I've ever worked for has done this and I'm still alive

[ipaint]

23. Tax shelters

And for every penny these greedy corporations don't pay in their fair share of taxes American workers get to pay for them out of their own meager, non-growing wages.
I'm sure negative wage growth and enormous debt workers have experienced over the last 2 decades does wonders for the tax free payout amounts on these slimy ins. policies. Throw in the loss of 401k, health insurance and/or retirement and you get a large segment of the aging baby boomer population working to the day of their premature deaths.

Corporations may live and breathe quarter to quarter but they have no problem quietly planning for the long term.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

24. Here's a wiki link that says it's been illegal since 2004

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate-owned_life_insurance

which is my memory of it as well. It caused a lot of embarrassment for companies like Walmart, etc. It is supposed to currently be limited to higher level "key man" type employees.

I would be really surprised if Michael Moore is wrong about this - I think he known for doing decent research, so I would guess that I am mistaken, but when I googled, I found only older articles about the practice.

[ipaint]

25. It's still happening at least at the banks, from feb 2009...

"It appears that there are a substantial number of policies on employees that are still being written and purchased by the national banks. And the amount of insurance on each individual bank employee is staggering. We may be talking about seven figures," said Mike Myers, a partner at Houston's McClanahan Myers Espey, who is planning to file dead-peasant lawsuits against some major banks in the coming weeks. "I think the banks have become savvy enough for litigation purposes that they're going to have a sheet of paper to wave around that has the word consent on it, but whether it's an informed consent . . . I don't know."

Myers, who has settled dead-peasant class actions against Wal-Mart and Fina Oil and Chemical Co. in recent years, claimed that, while many banks are getting employee consent for life insurance policies, they're leaving out a crucial detail: how much money the policy is worth.

"That's the part that makes people say, 'Wait a minute. What are you talking about here?' " Myers said."

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticlePrinterFriendlyNLJ.jsp?id=1202427898741&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

It seems the law change in the mid 2000's just said you need the employees consent. The employer always holds the position of power over low level employees so "consent" is pretty much a meaningless technicality.

[Obamanaut]

27. There are many who are worth a lot if they die. Parents take out

insurance policies on each other, on the children, some even on the pets. This "life" insurance that pays off upon death is not new.