“Dead Peasant” Life Insurance on the Rise

Posted in Life Insurance

October 21st, 2009

A recent report from ABC News highlighted the increasing trend of “dead peasant” policies and their impact on victims and families. According to the report, this trend was highlighted in Michael Moore’s recent movie, Capitalism a Love Story.

So what are dead peasant policies? They are corporate-owned life insurance policies that pay benefits to an employer when its employee dies. These policies have been under a great deal of scrutiny in recent years as they are said to be taken out only to give an unbelievable profit to the company – sometimes to the tune of a million or more dollars.

In the story, Irma Johnson was highlighted as the widow of a worker under a “dead peasant” policy. Apparently, her husband died of a brain tumor, and when he did, his employer – not Irma – cashed in a life insurance policy for $1.5 million. While she could have used the money to help take care of her family, the company used it instead as an investment scheme.

Originally, “dead peasant” life insurance policies were meant to insure just a handful of crucial executives. However, after companies realized their profitability and inherent tax-free benefits, they began to insure the everyday, or “peasant” worker. Now, some companies and banks have billions of dollars worth of these policies – and they’re not looking to stop buying them anytime soon.

What’s worse is that, according to the report, some employers are even holding on to these policies after their employee stops working there. In other words, years down the line, when this former employee dies, the employer still cashes in on their policy, unknown to the families.

Some families have begun to fight back by suing the companies because the government mandates that employers obtain the consent of employees before taking out these policies. But some say they did receive consent, probably by sneaking the consent form in with the mounds of other paperwork they ask a new hire to fill out during orientation.

This means, it’s up to workers to make sure they know and understand everything they sign on the job – and conduct as much research as possible – to make sure their employer isn’t making a “peasant” out of them.