They are only in$uring profits for life:
"A common but little-known practice in corporate America: Companies are taking out life insurance policies on their employees, and collecting the benefits when they die. Banks are especially fond of the practice, and despite a 2006 law to curb the practice, it remains a growing, opaque, and legal source of millions in corporate profit. The New York Times Co. has taken out life insurance policies on some top employees."
It is not a little known practice. I heard about it years ago. Called them "Dead Peasants" back then.
That is the mind$et of my pre$$ which is why I feel they are no longer for me. What an insult!
"To fatten balance sheets, companies insure staffers’ lives" by David Gelles | New York Times June 23, 2014
NEW YORK — Employees at The Orange County Register received an unsettling e-mail from corporate headquarters this year. The owner of the newspaper, Freedom Communications, was writing to request workers’ consent to take out life insurance policies on them.
But the beneficiary of each policy would not be the survivors or estate of the insured employee, but the Freedom Communications pension plan. Reporters and editors resisted, uncomfortable with the notion the company might profit from their deaths.
After an intensive lobbying campaign by Freedom Communications management, a modified plan was put in place. Yet Register employees were left shaken.
The episode reflects a common but little-known practice in corporate America: Companies are taking out life insurance policies on their employees, and collecting the benefits when they die.
Because company-owned life insurance offers employers generous tax breaks, the market is enormous; hundreds of corporations have taken out policies on thousands of employees. Banks are especially fond of the practice. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. hold billions of dollars of life insurance on their books, and count it as a measure of their ability to withstand financial shocks.
But critics say it is immoral for companies to profit from the deaths of employees, while employees themselves do not directly benefit.
We are talking corporate AmeriKa here!
And despite a 2006 law to curb the practice, it remains a growing, opaque, and legal source of corporate profit.
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Companies and banks say earnings from the insurance policies are used to cover long-term health care, deferred compensation, and pension obligations.
Why didn't you manage those accounts properly in the first place?
I wonder how well they are looking out for your health and pension when THEY BENEFIT if you DIE!
“Life insurance is one of the ways of strengthening the long-term health of the pension plan and ensuring its ability to pay benefits,” said Freedom’s chief executive, Aaron Kushner.
These guys boggle my mind. They obviously don't hear a word they are saying, or smell the shit they are shoveling -- or don't mind.
And because the company-paid premiums are tax-free, as are any investment returns on the policies and the death benefits eventually received, they are ideal investment vehicles.
I'm glad corporations and the 1% that control them and benefit from the inflated stock prices are getting phat.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go prepare some corporate slop for my lone meal of the day.
Companies argue that if they had to finance pension obligations with investments taxed at a normal rate, they would incur losses and would not be able to offer the benefits to employees, but determining the exact size of the market is impossible. With the exception of banks, companies do not have to report their insurance holdings.
Waa, waa, waa, waa.
“There is no reliable reporting of the use of who’s buying life insurance, of what they’re buying it for,” said Steven N. Weisbart, chief economist for the Insurance Information Institute.
Banks have to report their holdings because regulators want to know how much cash they could access if they had to redeem the policies in a pinch before the death of the insured employee.
That figure, known as the “cash surrender value” — or the amount they could withdraw immediately — provides a glimpse of just how big such policies can be.
Bank of America’s policies have a cash surrender value of at least $17.6 billion. If Wells Fargo had to redeem its policies tomorrow, it would reap at least $12.7 billion. JPMorgan Chase would collect at least $5 billion, according to filings with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
Insurance industry experts say that most big banks have delayed new life insurance purchases, in part because of limits on how much insurance they can hold. Yet the value of existing policies continues to grow, with the gains from invested capital outpacing the benefits paid out as employees die.
Corporate- and bank-owned life insurance grew out of so-called key person insurance policies that protected companies against the economic consequences related to the death of top executives. The New York Times Co. has taken out life insurance policies on some top employees.
We are all ATMs, folks.
But absent meaningful regulation of the practice, it grew unchecked, and soon companies were taking out policies on many poorly paid employees, reaping millions in profit when they died.
A string of class-action lawsuits went after companies abusing the practice. Several companies, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., settled the suits, paying millions to low-ranking employees. The IRS took companies including Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. and Camelot Music to court for using policies as tax avoidance schemes.
Efforts have been made to better regulate the practice. The 2006 Pension Protection Act included a set of best practices. Still, the notion of life insurance policies benefiting company balance sheets, rather than individuals, remains subject to criticism.
Related: Pooled pension plans are at risk
Also see: Pooled Pensions Post
$ee who $tole the pen$ions?
Kushner defended himself in a letter to employees. “Life insurance is not ghoulish, nor are the people who sell it, nor are those who buy it,” he wrote. “Life insurance, by its very nature, was created to benefit the people we love and care about most.”
Obviou$ly!
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