Are you a "Dead Peasant" to your employer?

[MrScorpio]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cLrXYmUurE

Sponsor unsure how to proceed "Dead Peasants" bill

POSTED BY MICHELLE MILLHOLLON | CAPITOL NEWS BUREAU | ON MAY 12, 2011 | 12:30 P.M.

House Speaker Pro Tem Joel Robideaux said Thursday that he is uncertain whether he will push forward with legislation that would allow the state to insure the lives of state workers.

House Bill 386 generated criticism by state retirement system officials, some of whom called the proposal morbid.
Robideaux, No Party-Lafayette, said the uproar is not influencing him. He said he is uncertain whether the proposal pitched to him by lobbyists for tax attorneys would even work.

“I’m not convinced it’s a good investment,” he said.

HB386 would give the state retirement systems what is known as an insurable interest in its members and retirees.
Insurable interest determines who can apply for life insurance policies. The law limits who can be the beneficiary on such policies. Spouses can insure spouses. Parents or guardians can insure children in their care.

The limitations stem from a once common corporate practice of using life insurance policies as tax shelters. Companies would take out policies on employees without their knowledge and without any payout for their families. The benefits were derided as “dead peasant” policies because they often targeted low income workers.

Under HB386, the state retirement systems would pay the premiums on life insurance policies in exchange for receiving a portion of the proceeds when a member dies. Workers and retirees could cancel the policies as long as they object within a 10-day timeframe.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/blogs/politicsblog/121717974.html

[tularetom]

1. I don't have no stinking employer

I'm retired, but if I weren't and my employer took out a policy like that on me, I'd immediately stop eating red meat, drinking beer and double my exercise routine. I'd be determined to live a long time and make the sumbitch pay out a ton of premiums before he collected anything on me.

The proposal seems sort of ghoulish and a slimy way for an employer to profit, even though it might help financially strapped public pension funds meet their obligations.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. More insidious

I know of a man who surreptitiously took out a life policy on his wife (six figures). He didn't want to risk losing his assets to a divorce, so that option was out. His friend had taken out a policy on HIS wife, and that wife found herself in front of a dumptruck without brakes (conveniently). The wife of the man I know found out b/c the insurance company called the house and she took the message.