Banks Use Life Insurance To Pay Bonuses

Wall Street Journal:

Banks are using a little-known tactic to help pay bonuses, deferred pay and pensions they owe executives: They're holding life-insurance policies on hundreds of thousands of their workers, with themselves as the beneficiaries.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[PerryLogan]

And Obama has funneled unprecedented amounts of our money into these instutitions.

The man is not a Democrat. :(

[MadHeart]

Wrong. That was Bush/Paulson. Obama just inherited the scam. He's trying to be responsible but he's no miracle worker. It will take time to clean up 8 years of neglect of the American people.

[schatsie]

Try 30 years of Trickle Down Free Market fantasies.­...The real reason Hillary was not elected was because the Clintons were tied to Wall Street Via Summers and Rubin..

[957]

And your wrong too. Obama is pouring billions into banks and the scam continues, with no more transparancy than bush had. the saga continues under Obama. His had done nothing to clean up these institutions, any more than bush did.

[MadHeart]

Don't use their banks, don't use their credit cards. Take care of your own finances in a responsible way. Cut out the middle man who's making a fortune from so many.

You might have to do without a few toys, but it's time to hunker down and rid the country of these irresponsible, greedy criminals.

[lcdbsez]

mad --

Agree. Credit unions are the way to go.

[DACC]

Less than 24 hours since Ms. Ari was on her bankington post express.
I see she has everyone riled up over this AGAIN

I think she musta lost a bundle that last go-round

[DanteLabon]

And WHY isn't this illegal?

[justsaynotofascism]

Ask your Congress critters.

[DACC]

so now you want to regulate whether anyone can purchase insurance policies???

Seriously?

[CostaDelBarto]

If I'm self employed, can I onsell my own house insurance as though it's an asset and give myself a bonus in the process?

[DC]

It is their equity built into those insurance policies. They own it.

It is not using the life insurance policies that are the real issue. Actually I see no problem with it at all. The issue is the bonus based compensation structure in banking.

[WhatDaBleep]

Must be nice to write laws for yourself! I say it is time to close down some of these banks.

[DanteLabon]

I agree. The law makers let them threaten all of us...but I say "Bye Bye". For every one of those greedy sob's in the banking industry, there are 5 in college right now who are qualified to take their place....a­nd will likely do the job for a 10th the pay.

[DanteLabon]

I'm not very religious, but the people who wrote the bible were sure right on with the phrase "the love of money is the root of all evil". I have seen some things over the past 8 years that left me speechless­...and this is one of them. Can you imagine how bad this country could be right now if repugs had regained power in Novermber? The thing that scares me is that they WILL eventually come to power again. All we can do is hope that all of the good things the Dems do (like healthcare reform, closing tax loopholes, ect.) are made permanent.

[schatsie]

but but but Bush was appointed by God... didn't you see those DOD memos....

[schatsie]

Yep universal healthcare for children has been a long time coming...R­oosevelt and Truman were for it,,,Then we have got all the Faux Republicans in power since Eisenhower­... Think about it, the only thing the Repugs have done for healthcare is ENABLE HMOs under NIXON and look where we are almost 40 years later... That was supposed to cut costs, what it did was totally screw up the mind sets of the Health Industry and turn it into Health DENIAL Care industry..­..

[ReealOne]

Um...... I'd be real leary of having my employer take out a life insurance policy to pay for money they owe me in big bonuses. Let's say that the employer starts adding up what he owes and starts thinking that it could all be theirs, if I wasn't around, and decides to get rid of the middleman, whose between them and that life insurance policy.... says to me "it's not personal, it's just business".­....if you know what I mean. They get to kill 2 birds with one stone, and you're both the birds..... just thinkin' is all.

[j0hnwi11iams]

The deaf elites can't hear the ethical alarms bells. Betting against your own employees to live seems slightly conflicted of interest.

[williamwilliam]

You have to admit though, our betters are not without a certain sense of humor.

[don]

This tends to explain why they oppose health care reform so vigorously.

[Xavieer]

Bud in ya pocket brew in our cup no time for explainati­ons.......­......One -time gafleled'em up.....So get your @$$ in da car ya coming wit us........­..Yea Ihear ya Coyote....

[Pierpier]

allthough I have allways disagreed with this form of insurance (basically it's a legal tax evasion) some thing have to be made clear. This is differed pay. part of your salary is regularly allocated to this sc "insurance". Death is not necessary to cash the money, and this is why I do not consider it insurance, usually leaving the job or the expiration of a pre determined time period are sufficient. But this has nothing to do with bonuses. It is an entirely different matter. Why insurance is allowed to issue these kind of policies, a financial investment, granting the beneficiaries tax exemption, should be questioned. These are not risk based products as should be for all insurance policies.

[justsaynotofascism]

This insurance scam should be illegal. Only family members or the individual should be able to take out life insurance on that individual. Enough is enough!

[DC]

That is absurd. If a key employee suddenly dies or is disabled, the employer experiences disruption and likely financial loss. Why should that not be insured? It is simply good governance.

[prosha]

Life finds a way, so does money. Regulate all you want, the smart folks will beat it. Deal with it, strive to get to be a smart folk.

[Coyote2]

Jezus!

[DanteLabon]

And that kind of thinking is why the rest of the world hates the US.

[williamwilliam]

Monkeys, cockroaches, and kings are smart.

When you draw the straw that says human, its expected that you'll
make the effort to try for something more creative.

[schatsie]

If that was true, then why would we even try to root out FRAUD in the Health Care industry..­..???
Or maybe Bush didn't....­.

[climatebabes]

Doesn't this incentivise murder?

[prosha]

Just a bit. Don't worry about it. Reduces health care costs.

[schatsie]

and social security and medicare costs....

[prosha]

All life insurance does that. Calm down, go watch American Idol.

[unkn1]

You are being rude.

[whoknew---]

Crazy....w­hat's next....

Hiring people with one foot on a banana and the other in the grave to reap the rewards of these policies a wee bit sooner?...

Geesh....

Anybody know how you can find out if anybody placed an insurance policy on you without your knowledge or consent?

[scjk67]

these executives are like a bunch of "terrible 2's" screaming and jumping up and down for money. if they aren't already muti-millionares, they have no shame for being greedy b@sters.

[FogBelter]

Come on, at what point do you take away the car keys and ground these a-holes? I mean, enough is enough with this hubris. Time to start dumping CEOs and putting the fear of God in the executives left behind. This is absolute BS.

[Coyote2]

May I suggest an egg party at the Insurance co.?