Ghoulish?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

We have a local situation that is peculiar. WAL-MART secretly bought life insurance policies on hourly employees, and is making some big money when these people die. These folks arent management, theyre hire by the hour-fire by the hour cashiers and stockers.

It seems ghoulish to me.

And they dont share the money with the survivors.

Should your employer be able to harvest your death?

 

[jomar]

That's a heck of a business strategy. On the surface, why not. On the other hand, yes, ghoulish - big PR and ick factor which could also affect the bottom line.

Where i used to work years ago, we joked about taking out insurance on a certain person because of their risky lifestyle.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

JOMAR

It wont surprise me to learn that some people make a living predicting who will succumb to cancer or heart attacks or strokes. On the other-hand insurance companies will cut you off if you win too often. Their sense of humor is less than Vegas casinos.

 

[jomar]

Indeed.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

OMG... that's twisted. They deny medical insurance to smokers and the obese, and then buy life insurance so they can cash in when they die?

Our world is so f---ed up. :x

 

[Pure]

love it! thanks, jbj.

free enterprise at work.

these are known in the industry as 'dead peasant' policies.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/666837/posts

http://consumerist.com/consumer/big...loyees-collected-after-their-death-274682.php

 

[cloudy]

love it! thanks, jbj.

free enterprise at work.

these are known in the industry as 'dead peasant' policies.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/666837/posts

http://consumerist.com/consumer/big...loyees-collected-after-their-death-274682.php

I love this comment on the second article:

Step One: Hire the elderly, sick and frail

Step Two: Take out secret life insurance policy on them.

Step Three: Have them stand by the door for 4-6 hours straight, push carts around in hot parking lots, use deadly recalled but still on shelf products etc. Watch Darwin's cruel hand thin the herd accordingly.

Step Four: Profits!

Step Five: Repeat, if caught claim that random cart-pushing types as valuable to company as a CFO. Try not to snicker until after the press conference. If pressed, accuse reporter of hating freedom.

 

[Pure]

the best part, apparently is that the premium paid by walmart are on the books as business expense, but the income, the payouts, is off the books and non taxable. law no doubt crafted with walmart and other places in mind.

some convenience stores whose employees are in danger of being robbed take out policies on them and forbid them to carry firearms.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Yes. Ghoulish is one word that springs to mind...

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Better double check this one - there are laws on the books limiting this practice. This has the whiff of urban legend, or something grossly misreported.

 

[Pure]

some refs re 'dead peasant' insurance policies of Walmart and others.

does not sound like 'legend' at all.

check pelosi's site, and the 'austin chronicle,' for example

http://www.house.gov/pelosi/prPelosiandGreen050202.htm

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid:93226

==========

Reprinted at
http://liverpoolfirst.com/newspaper.html

WAL-MART INSURANCE SETTLEMENT TOTALS $10.4 MILLION
By L.M. SIXEL

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Wal-Mart agreed to pay $10.4 million to the families of 380 employees who died while they were covered by so-called "dead peasant" life insurance, according to the settlement documents filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in New Orleans.

Wal-Mart insured the lives of about 350,000 employees in Texas between 1994 and 2000 without telling them. The families of the deceased workers sued to recover the millions of dollars collected by Wal-Mart after they they learned about the policies in 2001.
During the time it owned the policies, Wal-Mart received $30.7 million in insurance proceeds from the deaths of the 380 employees, according to the settlement agreement.

Wal-Mart received between $65,000 and $80,000 when each of its hourly wage workers died and hundreds of thousands of dollars when each of its management employees died.

The settlement must be approved by U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in Houston. The amount of money each family receives will be determined by the number of families that come forward.

During much of the time Wal-Mart owned the policies, Texas law did not permit employers to buy corporate owned life insurance on its nonexecutive employees. The law allowed such polices only on key executives. That prohibition ended in 1999 when Texas legislators voted to allow employers to profit from the deaths of their low-level employees as long as the employees consented in writing.

The 5th Circuit ruled against Wal-Mart just hours after the retailer and the families reached their settlement.

A Wal-Mart spokesman and lawyers for the families would not comment.
When the agreement was reached last week, Wal-Mart refused to release the financial details.

----

Google for 'dead peasant' life insurance.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

RA

Naaah. WAL-MART confirmed it, but sez they stopped doing it. A husband is suing them in court here. His wife died of cancer and the insurance company needed a death certificate with cause of death on it...in Florida only next of kin gets the cause of death, so WM needed a copy with cause of death. And the cat was out of the bag.

So the husband was a little shocked that WM was cashing in on the wife's death.

 

[gauchecritic]

Still sounds like legend to me. If someone is actually named on a policy then the receiver of any money must be nominated by that person. Otherwise the money goes to nearest surviving relative.

 

[SeaCat]

LOLOL

Sounds like something my corporation would do.

Then again my corporation has been known to do some pretty shady things with insurance in the past. (And they keep getting caught.)

Then again my corporation does seem to think they own their employees.

Cat