Does your boss have 'Dead Peasant' insurance on you?

[mangaman]

are such policies even legal in uk insurance/tax law.....

As a non-lawyer it does all sound highly improbable you can take out life insurance policies on your entire workforce, not tell them and claim if they die.

Where's Patrick when you need him - maybe we should put a little sexual innuendo into the thread title to tease him over

 

[GrumpyGregry]

they were a tax dodge in the states; you got tax relief on the premiums paid. given most of your employees won't die in harness for you to claim on 'em you make more money out of the tax relief than you do from the insurance payouts on those who do die on the payroll.

death and taxes. both certain. both certainly strange bedfellows.

 

[Brains]

So if I were head of HR at Wal-mart I'd be employing lots of men, over the age of 50, morbidly obese that smoke 50 a day, and are seriously into their guns.
I'd then as a company perk give them cut price burgers and fags.

I can see a very profitable plan forming here .....

 

[andrew-the-tortoise]

If Wal-mart have done there sums - I am sure it is very profitable for them.

It is also an incentive to work the dispensable bottom of the pyramid into the ground.

[Assuming all this is true].

 

[ASC1951]

I can see a very profitable plan forming here ....

Don't give up the day job, Brains.

The premiums and payouts are set by the insurance companies, who do it on the basis of hard facts not sentiment. You could take out policies on one or two people and make a profit it they die unexpectedly, but not by insuring your entire workforce. That would be like backing every single runner at a two day race meeting and expecting to come out on top i.e. impossible.

That alone makes me think that Moore's film is based on distortions and selective facts. His films always are, but so what? He is a politician and that is what they do.

 

[goo_mason]

Have checked with MrWC - who deals in such matters. As regards the example given of husband & wife, there is deemed to be an automatic insurable interest in each other, so husband can take out insurance on wife's life & wife on husband's. If they later split up, as long as the premiums are still being paid, the life insurance is valid. But obviously, if you bump-off the ex, the insurance company may just be a bit suspicious and refuse to pay out.

Well, my endowment mortgage would be paid off if the worst happens to her. Then I'd have more money to spend looking after my daughter. Comforting news!

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Who's been sacked?

You will find Key Man Insurance in a lot of small businesses. For example, I'd be very surprised if Patrick hasnt got it.

I haven't.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

Don't give up the day job, Brains.

The premiums and payouts are set by the insurance companies, who do it on the basis of hard facts not sentiment. You could take out policies on one or two people and make a profit it they die unexpectedly, but not by insuring your entire workforce. That would be like backing every single runner at a two day race meeting and expecting to come out on top i.e. impossible.

That alone makes me think that Moore's film is based on distortions and selective facts. His films always are, but so what? He is a politician and that is what they do.

This is quite right. Srw will correct me on the figures, but from what I recall of maths at school, once you get a sample of more than say a thousand then you have accuracy to within one per cent. If you've got a work force bigger than that then you have to factor in the the insurer's margin as well and you will always be paying out more in premiums than the amount you recoup.

 

[mangaman]

I haven't.

Hey - Patrick . Good evening

What's the legal status for the Walmart type malarkey in the UK ie are they currently doing the same to all ASDA workers?

You're a lawyer, and I'm relying on you here

 

[mangaman]

This is quite right. Srw will correct me on the figures, but from what I recall of maths at school, once you get a sample of more than say a thousand then you have accuracy to within one per cent. If you've got a work force bigger than that then you have to factor in the the insurer's margin as well and you will always be paying out more in premiums than the amount you recoup.

You cross posted me

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Patrick's only here because he read the heading as 'dead pheasant'

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I haven't.

Cheers mate!

 

[Crankarm]

A few years ago in some big Americam Bank didn't a chap die at his desk, only to be noticed 3 weeks later that he had indeed died as he started to smell ? Apparently his colleagues thought that he was having a nap ......

I could understand employers taking insurance out on key workers but for the policies to still payout when the employee has since died having left their employment with the previous employer is wrong. The insurance industry are effectively underwriting the employer's cost of employing that worker.

 

[ASC1951]

I could understand employers taking insurance out on key workers but for the policies to still payout when the employee has since died having left their employment with the previous employer is wrong.

I agree. Insurers aren't charities and I can't see them paying out in those circs, nor why an employer would pay premiums on a policy that continued after the key man had left.

Walmart may be an evil set of sharks, if you believe the OP, but they certainly aren't fools. The more you consider the allegations, the more you realise they just don't make sense.

 

[ASC1951]

I haven't [got key man insurance].

I'm slightly surprised, Patrick. We do. All the partners insure each others lives against death in service, simply so that if one of us dies the others don't have to sell the office to pay out that share and the dead partner's family get a payout straight away instead of waiting while we look down the back of the copier for some cash.