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Article: Companies Gain a Death Benefit; Life Insurance Taken on Rank-and- File Staff to Fund Programs
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 30, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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For many years, employers have insisted that their workers are
their most valuable asset. Recently the phrase has taken on new
meaning.
Tax litigation and damage suits reveal that many corporations are
taking out life insurance on their employees with the company as the
beneficiary. In many cases, the workers do not know of these
policies, and when some have died their families were shocked to
discover that insurance companies were paying hundreds of thousands
of dollars to the employer.
This kind of insurance is a new twist on what is called corporate-
owned life insurance, or COLI.
Such policies have long been used to cover key executives, whose
untimely death might cause a problem for a ...