Questions About Dead Peasants Insurance?

[LGilmore]

"It became a big issue when a bunch of lawyers got together and decided to sue Walmart for having bought coverage on their employees without their knowledge."

And that was bad because??? Are you saying you'd be fine with people owning coverage on you without your consent or knowledge and your family wasn't the beneficary but the corporation was?

I seriously seriously doubt that situation had anything else to do with any other benefit decision Walmart made.

Sorry I don't agree with that practice, that doesn't make me liberal or conservative. It makes me ethical.

 

[Franz Kafka]

"It became a big issue when a bunch of lawyers got together and decided to sue Walmart for having bought coverage on their employees without their knowledge."

And that was bad because??? Are you saying you'd be fine with people owning coverage on you without your consent or knowledge and your family wasn't the beneficary but the corporation was?

I seriously seriously doubt that situation had anything else to do with any other benefit decision Walmart made.

Sorry I don't agree with that practice, that doesn't make me liberal or conservative. It makes me ethical.

It would be unethical if death benefit was solely for increasing company profit. Company Owned Life Insurance has traditionally been used as an informal way to fund employee benefits.

Here's the deal (think about it). You have hundreds of thousands of employees and you want to provide benefits to all of them "equally" (as required by the law). You have a pool of money that is set up for that purpose and you want to maintain that pool by buying equal amounts of life insurance on all of your employees.

You can't go around each of them and ask whether or not it's O.K. for them to buy a policy on them. It's either all of them are insured or none of them are insured because that pool of money is set up for all of them. This is why they had to drop the benefits altogether. JMO

 

[LGilmore]

Can you cite any other corporation that does this? I've been in this business 23 years, I've never heard of this as a common business practice by anybody else other than Walmart and you saw how defensible their position was....

COLI as I learned it back in the day was used to fund golden handcuffs and key man situations. No one besides Walmart adapted that idea to the rank and file, or am I mistaken?

Who else is doing this or did this on that scale?

Can you link any articles where Walmart cites this as reason they were dropping their limited benefits? I thought it had more to do with Obamacare coming and the basic elimination of limited benefit plans. But please provide a link to something that confirms your comments.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Can you cite any other corporation that does this? I've been in this business 23 years, I've never heard of this as a common business practice by anybody else other than Walmart and you saw how defensible their position was....

COLI as I learned it back in the day was used to fund golden handcuffs and key man situations. No one besides Walmart adapted that idea to the rank and file, or am I mistaken?

Who else is doing this or did this on that scale?

Can you link any articles where Walmart cites this as reason they were dropping their limited benefits? I thought it had more to do with Obamacare coming and the basic elimination of limited benefit plans. But please provide a link to something that confirms your comments.

Here you go.
http://deadpeasantinsurance.com/which-employers-bought-policies-on-the-lives-of-employees/
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• ADAC Laboratories
• Advanced Telecommunication Corp.
• Aeroquip Vickers Inc.
• Alabama Power Co.
• Alfa Corp.
• Allegheny Technologies Inc.
• Allergan Inc.
• Allfirst Financial Inc.
• American Business Products, Inc.
• American Electric Power
• American Express Co.
• American Greetings Corp.
• American Management Systems Inc.
• American Seafoods Group LLC
• Ameritech Corp.
• Amerus Group Co.
• Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
• Appalachian Power Co.
• Arch Chemical
• Aristech Chemical Corp.
• AT&T Communications
• Atlantic Richfield Co.
• Avery Dennison Corp
• Avon Products Inc.
• B. F. Goodrich Company
• Ball Corporation
• Bank Boston
• Bank Of America
• Bank One Corp.
• Barnett Banks Inc.
• Bassett Furniture Industries Inc.
• Be Aerospace Inc.
• Bear Stearns Companies
• Bellsouth Corporation
• Boise Cascade Corp.
• Boston Company
• Boston Federal
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Company
• Camelot Music, Inc.
• Carolina Power & Light Co.
• Carpenter Technology Corp.
• Catskill Financial Corp.
• Central Power & Light Co.
• Ch2m Hill Companies Ltd.
• Charming Shoppes, Inc.
• Checkfree Corp.
• Chemical Banking Corporation
• Citibank, N.A.
• Citizens Bank
• Clark Inc.
• Clorox Company
• CNF Inc.
• Coca-Cola Company
• Columbus Southern Power Co.
• Commercial Intertech Corp.
• Compass Bank (Florida & Alabama)
• Computer Technology Associates Inc.
• Consolidated Natural Gas Co.
• Consolidated Rail Corporation
• Cox Enterprises, Inc.
• CTA Inc.
• Cymer Inc.
• Diamond Shamrock Inc.
• Diebold Inc.
• Dime Bancorp Inc.
• Dow Chemical
• Earle M. Jorgensen Co.
• Eastman Kodak Company
• Eaton Corp.
• ECC Capital Corp.
• Enserch Corp.
• F&M Bancorp
• FiberMark Inc.
• Figgie International Inc.
• Fina Oil & Chemical Company
• First Bank System Inc.
• First Commonwealth
• First Midwest Bancorp Inc.
• Fleet Bank
• FleetBoston Financial Corp.
• Flightsafety International Inc.
• Frontier Bank
• Fulton Financial Corp.
• GATX Corporation
• Georgia Power Co.
• GNC Corp.
• Great Plains Energy Inc.
• GTE Corporation
• Gulf Power Co.
• HCR Manor Care Inc
• Hechinger Company
• Heritage Commerce Corp.
• Herman Miller Inc.
• Hershey Foods Corporation
• Hillenbrand Industries, Inc.
• Hosiery Corporation of America
• Houghton Mifflin
• Household Finance
• Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
• Hughes Supply Inc
• ICI Americas, Inc.
• Idaho Power Company
• IKON Office Solutions Inc.
• Indiana Michigan Power Co.
• Integra Bank Corp.
• Intermark Inc.
• Iowa First Bancshares Corp.
• Iroquois Bancorp Inc.
• J Jill Group Inc.
• JP Morgan Chase & Co.
• Kansas City Power & Light
• Kansas Gas & Electric Co.
• Keithley Instruments Inc.
• Kentucky Power Co.
• Keycorp Ohio
• Kimberly Clark
• Korn Ferry International
• Laser Master Int’l. Inc.
• Linens N Things Inc.
• LKQ Corp.
• Louisiana Pacific Corp.
• Manor Care Inc.
• Marriott International Inc.
• McDonnell Douglas Corp.
• Media General Inc.
• Medicalcontrol Inc.
• Menasha Corporation
• MidAmerican Energy Co.
• Miix Group Inc.
• Mississippi Power Co.
• MNC Financial Inc.
• Mueller Industries Inc.
• National City Corporation
• NationsBank
• Nestle Enterprises
• Norfolk Southern Corp.
• Norfolk Southern Railway Co.
• Northern States Power Co.
• Ohio Power Co.
• Old National
• Olin Corporation
• Owens & Minor Inc.
• PacifiCorp
• Panera Bread Co.
• Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company
• Parker Hannifin Corp.
• Penn Treaty American Corp.
• Penns Woods Bancorp Inc.
• Phibro Animal Health Corp.
• Philipp Brothers Chemicals Inc.
• Phoenix Companies Inc.
• Pinnacle Financial Services Inc.
• Portland General Electric
• Potlatch Corporation
• PPG Industries
• Procter & Gamble Company
• PSS World Medical Inc.
• Public Service Co. of New Mexico
• Public Service Co. of Oklahoma
• Public Service Enterprise Group
• Questech Inc.
• R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company
• Ruddick Corp.
• Ryder System Inc.
• Sallie Mae (Stud Ln Mktg Assoc.)
• Savannah Electric & Power Co.
• Sequa Corp.
• Service Merchandise Co., Inc.
• Shearson Mortgage
• Sherwin-Williams
• Sky Chefs
• Smart & Final Inc.
• Smith Barney
• Sonoco Products Co.
• Southwest Bank
• Southwest Water Co.
• Southwestern Bell Corp.
• Southwestern Electric Power Co.
• Southwestern Public Service Co.
• Star Banc Corp.
• Stauffer Management Company
• Steelcase Inc.
• Sturgis Bancorp Inc.
• Summit Bank of N.J.
• Swank, Inc.
• Tellabs Inc.
• Tenet Healthcare Corp.
• Texas Eastern Transmission Corp.
• Tompkins Trustco Inc.
• TXU Corp.
• TYCO International
• UniFirst Corp.
• Union Bank
• United National Bancorp
• Urocor Inc.
• Vineyard National Bancorp
• W. R. Grace & Company
• Wachovia Corporation
• Walgreen Company
• Wal-Mart Stores
• Walt Disney
• Wang’s International, Inc.
• Wells Fargo, N.A.
• West Coast Bancorp
• West Texas Utilities Co.
• Westar Energy Inc.
• Western Aire Chef Inc
• Western Resources, Inc.
• Westpoint Pepperell
• Winn Dixie
• Winnebago Industries Inc.
• Woolworth Corporation
• Xcel Energy Inc.
• York Water Co.
• Zale Corp.

 

[Biggin]

Wang's International........the jokes write themselves.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Interesting on how the name "Dead Peasants Insurance" came about. It was termed by INSURANCE AGENTS. What a cold heartless bunch they are. LOL

Winn Dixie Stores bought life insurance policies on approximately 36,000 of its employees, without their knowledge or consent, and named itself as the policies’ beneficiary. The insurance brokerage firm that placed the policies prepared two memos describing the deceased employees as “Dead Peasants.” These memos were part of the court’s record in a lawsuit in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held that Winn-Dixie’s policies were a sham transaction for federal income tax purposes. The memos were later used by reporters such as Ellen Schultz and Theo Francis of the Wall Street Journal and L.M. Sixel of the Houston Chronicle and incorporated into articles about this type of insurance.

 

[somarco]

InsureBlog: Search results for dead peasant

Once you open the page you can use your browser search function to find lines where "dead peasant" appears

 

[Crabcake Johnny]

If anyone has taken a life insurance policy out on me, I feel I have an absolute right to know about it. It might affect my decision to continue working for that employer - it might not. But that decision should be up to me.

I might come to the conclusion that the company may "care a bit less" about my welfare including job assigns, where I work, etc...if they can cash in on my death or I might not have a care in the world.

But again, that decision is mine to make.

 

[LGilmore]

mustafastpitch?

While your list is impressive you forgot to post the "may have" in the paragraph above. But thank you for posting the link.

Now, in the same breath are you telling me as Franz did that these companies are using death benefit claims to fund other benefits offered?

I just don't think that passes the sniff test as how do you know enough employees will die in a given year to pay premiums for other plans?

But thanks again for the link, I may look a little myself.

 

[somarco]

these companies are using death benefit claims to fund other benefits offered?

In some cases the proceeds were funneled in to general revenue funds.

Hank Stern has some interesting posts and links on our blog (see earlier post).