Dead Peasant Insurance

If you are not familiar with term "dead peasant insurance," you should be. I will explain more at a later time but I wanted to provide basics, and few links, and at least get the name of the companies out there.

Here are a few links about the topic for some in-depth reading, but I will explain the basics below.

Dead Peasant Insurance.Com
LegalZoom
Wall Street Journal
InsuranceNewNet

Dead Peasant Insurance or COLI (Corporate-owned life insurance) is life insurance bought on employees, usually without their knowledge and without the benefits going to the families. Besides the fact that the employees are not aware of the policies and do not receive the payouts, there are other major points...
First, profit... When a company has an invested in your well being, or in this case, lack thereof, it is a problem. This is also connected to the second problem...

Regulation. COLI started honest enough. It was used on high ranking executives that played important roles in the company. If their lives were lost the company would take a serious blow, so they were protecting against this. The problem started when regulations were relaxed and tax breaks were given. They expanded the insurance and it became a real problem when they started to take out policies on file and rank workers (the lower end employees.) I am not going to do into the detail but the policies and deaths became a source of profit, tax breaks, and interest-free loans. Those in favor of free market capitalism are always in favor of non-regulation because companies will “do the right thing.” This is a clear example of them not doing the right thing. When regulations were relaxed, they began to profit off the lives of their employees, this has been curbed since regulations and the IRS has gotten involved.

Back to profit…These companies claim that these policies are not to generate profit…except that they are. We have memos talking about forecasted profits. Their best argument is that they use these claims to “pay for other employee benefits.” In other words, it is profit. In what world, especially in the Conservative world, is it acceptable to distribute the money, which resulted due to the death of an employee, to anyone other than the family of that particular employee? Are we socialists now? The fact of the matter is that they profit from these policies and from the payouts. That leads back to my original point…

They profit when employees die. They make money based on people’s lives. They do not have their employees’ best interests in mind. Corporations only care about profit, nothing else.

Those are the basics and here are the companies which take out these types of policies on their 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