Dead peasants insurance

[threaded]

Why is that a problem? The employer pays the premium, the employer gets the pay out of the employee dies. It's nothing to do with the employee. Anybody who wants to insure me is welcome to do so.

The only issue here is that they're getting tax breaks on policies for employees that no longer work for them.

The problems start because these are nothing but tax shelters, and when the tax go investigating, as they occasionally do, the surviving relatives get a nasty shock several years after the death. The shock is not just that this sort of thing was done, but also accountants and lawyers have to be paid to tell the tax man to fsck off, usually eating all the side bet (the insurance policy publicly told to the now deceased employee as a sweetener to get them to sign up, thereby allowing the secret jackpot for the company) which off course has already been distributed and spent.

It has also led to some criminal conduct in this sort of scenario: relative A investigates how much was really left, and they see in court documents that deceased was worth several £100k, but they only saw a few £, and thereby think relative B pocketed the lot, get all outraged, and go searching for 'their' money, which of course is a total surprise to relative B. One can easily see that with some people this can rapidly spiral into violence.

[VectraMan]

Companies were doing this for non-valuable employees.
Companies were continuing to do this for ex-employees.
Companies were not obtaining permission from the employees beforehand.

Why is that a problem? The employer pays the premium, the employer gets the pay out of the employee dies. It's nothing to do with the employee. Anybody who wants to insure me is welcome to do so.

The only issue here is that they're getting tax breaks on policies for employees that no longer work for them.

[d000hg]

I'm not sure, I only skimmed your posts before replying.

[Clippy]

Where did I say that.

Chill out.

[d000hg]

What are you talking about? You don't want us to be informed to comment but then you complain if we make uninformed comments? Too many beers with your Sunday dinner?

[Clippy]

I listened to the first couple of minutes and they didn't mention those things, maybe you should have summarised before-hand rather than expect us to watch the whole video if you wanted an informed discussion?

Yet you felt the need to comment anyway.

[d000hg]

I listened to the first couple of minutes and they didn't mention those things, maybe you should have summarised before-hand rather than expect us to watch the whole video if you wanted an informed discussion?

[Clippy]

How come when your employer takes out a policy on you it's "wishing you were dead" but if it's your wife then you don't (normally) expect to find razor blades in your packed lunch?

Why shouldn't a company insure their most valuable assets... having to replace/train a key person could cost many £thousands, and losing someone critical to a project at the wrong time could end up much more expensive.

Once again, you've missed the points.

Companies were doing this for non-valuable employees.
Companies were continuing to do this for ex-employees.
Companies were not obtaining permission from the employees beforehand.

[TroubleAtMill]

And they were getting payouts for former employees.

Nice.

[Bunk]

How come when your employer takes out a policy on you it's "wishing you were dead" but if it's your wife then you don't (normally) expect to find razor blades in your packed lunch?

Why shouldn't a company insure their most valuable assets... having to replace/train a key person could cost many £thousands, and losing someone critical to a project at the wrong time could end up much more expensive.

That's what it was originally intended for, but due to tax breaks companies figured out it was financially beneficial to insure every single employee and cash in if any died.

[d000hg]

How come when your employer takes out a policy on you it's "wishing you were dead" but if it's your wife then you don't (normally) expect to find razor blades in your packed lunch?

Why shouldn't a company insure their most valuable assets... having to replace/train a key person could cost many £thousands, and losing someone critical to a project at the wrong time could end up much more expensive.

[Clippy]

Stumbled across this and, initially, couldn't believe it but hey, we're all just a number, right?