Life insurance was created to protect families against financial ruin when tragedy strikes. But in the hands of corporations, this safety net was twisted into something darker.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, companies quietly insured the lives of their workers without telling them — collecting millions when employees died. Families received nothing. Critics dubbed this practice “Dead Peasant Insurance,” and for good reason: it reduced human lives to profit margins.
What follows is the story of how corporations turned workers into financial assets, how laws eventually caught up, and why the issue still matters today.
📌 SEO Keywords: dead peasant insurance, corporate-owned life insurance (COLI), life insurance scandal, key person insurance, corporate greed
What Is Dead Peasant Insurance?
“Dead Peasant Insurance” is a slang term for Corporate-Owned Life Insurance (COLI).
Who’s insured? Ordinary employees — not just executives.
Who pays premiums? The corporation.
Who benefits? The corporation, not the family.
The rationale given was “risk management,” but in practice, these policies became corporate investments. The death of a worker meant a tax-free payout that could be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars per employee.
📖 Resource: Hastings Law Journal, Peasants’ Revolt: Why Congress Should Eliminate COLI (2014) link
Historical Origins of COLI
Life insurance has existed since the 18th century, with companies like the Equitable Life Assurance Society (founded in 1762) pioneering actuarial science. By the 20th century, businesses discovered they could use life insurance not just for families, but for corporate protection.
Key Person Insurance: Initially designed for founders and executives.
Expansion in the 1980s–1990s: Corporations began covering entire workforces.
Tax Sheltering: COLI became a popular way to exploit tax loopholes.
By the mid-1990s, it was estimated that corporations held over $100 billion in COLI policies nationwide.
📖 Resource: New York Times, “Corporations Profiting on Workers’ Deaths” (2002).
Real Cases That Exposed the Truth
Wal-Mart and the “Dead Peasants” Outrage
Wal-Mart secretly insured hundreds of thousands of workers in the 1990s. Some policies remained in force even after employees left the company.
When a worker died, Wal-Mart collected death benefits.
Families often didn’t know these policies existed until lawsuits revealed them.
Public anger was so strong that “dead peasant insurance” became a household phrase.
📖 Resource: Wall Street Journal, Schultz & Francis, Companies Profit on Workers’ Deaths Through ‘Dead Peasants’ Insurance (2002).
The Tillman Case (Camelot Music)
Felipe Tillman, a young employee at Camelot Music, died suddenly. His family later discovered the company had collected money from a COLI policy on his life.
Lawsuits challenged whether Camelot had an “insurable interest.”
The case became a landmark example in exposing COLI abuses.
📖 Resource: Hastings Law Journal case analysis.
Journalists at Freedom Communications
In 2014, Freedom Communications, a newspaper publisher in California, proposed insuring its journalists and other employees — not for families, but for the company’s pension scheme.
Journalists called it a betrayal.
The Guardian reported extensively on the backlash, reigniting debate about COLI ethics.
📖 Resource: The Guardian, “US Newspapers Fall Out Over ‘Dead Peasant’ Insurance” (2014).
Other Major Corporations
Banks and Retail Chains: By the 1990s, many large firms used COLI to manage balance sheets.
Energy Companies: Some utilities used COLI payouts to stabilize pension funds.
Estimates: By 1996, more than 35 of the largest U.S. corporations had COLI programs in place.
📖 Resource:Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Firms Can No Longer Take Out Dead Peasant Insurance on Workers” (2005).
Why Companies Did It
Profit: Tax-free death benefits padded earnings.
Tax Loopholes: Premiums were often deductible, making COLI a tax shelter.
Accounting Trick: Policies could inflate balance sheets and stabilize pension plans.
Disguised Justification: Companies claimed it was “risk management,” but lawsuits showed it was about financial gain.
📖 Resource: Tax Policy Center, Corporate-Owned Life Insurance: Issues and Implications.
Legal and Ethical Fallout
The “Insurable Interest” Problem
Insurance law requires a beneficiary to have an insurable interest in the insured person’s life. For executives, this makes sense. For ordinary employees, the claim was tenuous at best. Courts began striking down policies that lacked genuine insurable interest.
Lack of Consent
Many employees were never told. Outrage led to new laws requiring written employee consent before companies could insure workers.
Tax Reforms
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 tightened loopholes, limiting tax advantages and requiring notice and consent.
Public Trust
Scandals permanently damaged the reputation of corporations caught using COLI on ordinary employees. Wal-Mart, Camelot, and others became poster children for corporate greed.
Ethical Debate: Are Lives Assets?
Dead peasant insurance raises the ultimate moral question: should companies profit when their employees die?
Proponents: Say it provides financial stability for pensions or business continuity.
Critics: Argue it dehumanizes workers, reducing them to profit streams.
As author Ellen Schultz put it in the Wall Street Journal, “When death becomes a revenue source, it tells you who really benefits in corporate America.”
Where Things Stand Today
While widespread COLI practices on rank-and-file workers have declined due to legal reforms, variations still exist:
Executive COLI: Still common for top leaders.
Pension-Linked COLI: Used to fund retirement liabilities.
STOLI (Stranger-Originated Life Insurance): Investors profit from strangers’ policies.
The loopholes may have narrowed, but the mentality persists: when profit is prioritized over dignity, human lives remain at risk of exploitation.
Why This Story Matters Now
Dead peasant insurance isn’t just a historical scandal. It’s a reminder of what happens when corporations prioritize shareholder value over human value.
Today, as companies experiment with new financial products and exploit gray areas in law, the lesson is clear: vigilance matters. Workers deserve transparency and respect — in life, and in death.
References & Resources
Wall Street Journal: Companies Profit on Workers’ Deaths Through ‘Dead Peasants’ Insurance
Hastings Law Journal: Peasants’ Revolt: Why Congress Should Eliminate COLI
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Firms Can No Longer Take Out Dead Peasant Insurance on Workers
The Guardian: US Newspapers Fall Out Over ‘Dead Peasant’ Insurance
Tax Policy Center: Corporate-Owned Life Insurance: Issues and Implications
Pension Protection Act of 2006 (U.S. Federal Law)
Disclaimer
This article is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not provide legal, financial, or insurance advice. For personal concerns about insurance or corporate practices, seek advice from a qualified attorney or licensed insurance professional.
About the Author
I’m A.L. Childers, an author and researcher dedicated to exposing hidden truths about money, power, and history. My work shines a light on how corporations and governments manipulate systems — and how ordinary people can see through the lies.
In the intricate web of global politics, the United Nations (UN) stands as a beacon of hope, striving for peace and cooperation among nations. However, the shadow of American influence looms large over this institution, shaping its actions and policies to align with U.S. interests. This influence, deeply rooted in the military-industrial complex, has had profound implications for global peace and stability.
Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell address in the 1950s, warned of the burgeoning power of the military-industrial complex. This complex, he noted, had the potential to dominate American economic and political life, driven by a perpetual state of war and conflict. Eisenhower’s prescient warning has proven accurate, as the U.S. economy has long been entwined with military endeavors, with the UN often serving as a vehicle for these pursuits.
Since its inception in 1945, the UN has been instrumentalized by the U.S. to propagate violence and conflict. The Korean War, which erupted a mere five years after the UN’s formation, saw the U.S. committing atrocities with impunity, exemplified by the massacre of hundreds of Korean refugees. This pattern of unaccountable violence continued through Vietnam, with the My Lai Massacre, and the deployment of Agent Orange and napalm, wreaking havoc on civilian populations.
The first Gulf War in 1991 marked another chapter in this narrative, as the U.S. spearheaded a coalition to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. The subsequent invasion of Iraq in 2003, under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction, further highlighted the U.S.’s readiness to employ military might, leading to widespread civilian casualties and the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah.
Afghanistan, too, became a theater of unending conflict, with drone strikes and torture at Bagram Air Base adding to the litany of U.S. war crimes. The CIA’s torture and rendition program epitomized the depths of human rights abuses committed in the name of security.
Beyond overt military actions, the U.S. has orchestrated numerous covert operations, coups, and assassinations, each altering the global landscape and eroding trust in international norms and justice. These actions reverberate across the world, shaping collective beliefs about justice, peace, and the rule of law.
The U.S.’s manipulation of the UN has not only perpetuated global conflicts but also shielded its allies, like Israel, from accountability. The enduring conflict in Palestine serves as a stark example, with U.S. support enabling Israeli actions that would otherwise face global condemnation.
Despite these transgressions, the power dynamics within the UN could shift. Article 6 of the UN Charter provides a mechanism for expelling member states that persistently violate its principles. The changing geopolitical landscape, marked by emerging powers and shifting alliances, suggests that the next few decades could see a dramatic realignment of global governance.
The historical narrative of American dominance, and the often catastrophic consequences of its policies, may one day serve as a cautionary tale. Future generations might look back in disbelief at the era of U.S. hegemony, questioning how such a system, marked by injustice and inequality, was ever deemed acceptable.
As we move forward, it is imperative to hold powerful nations accountable and strive for a global order that truly embodies the principles of justice, fairness, and human rights. The story of America and its influence over the UN underscores the need for vigilance and reform to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
Looking at the last few decades; Humanity is on the eve of a great change. Humankind has had fantastic achievements that we’ve brought under our control. For instance, famine, contagious diseases, sanitation, Hygiene, antibiotics, and the creation of other Antimicrobial Medicines. The 1st time in history humans are dying from the products they have created to consume and use along with being slowly poisoned for profit. At the same time, we are destroying more ecosystems and animals into extinction. This new power that we have is creating a pathway to transform us into our very own extinction. It seems that humans are undermining their very own existence. This greed is also creating alarming gene mutations and in the near, future we may not even be able to recognize a true human genome. There is enormous power within our government, religion, the industry, the media, and the 1% elite idealists in our world. Yes, the scientists and researchers are creating but the reality is the money behind them is paving the way. The funding behind the research isn’t always truthful and the data has been swayed to benefit the funding party. In this book, I have done an intensive job of investigative work where you will learn the current profit environment in the many aspects of the American healthcare industry, the Food Industry, and the Chemical industry. This is not only harmful to us but for future generations to come. You will also learn how Americans Are Deliberately Being Poisoned for Profit and see the Price Tag Stapled to our ears. We are just disposable pawns in their game of chess.
It is criminal and dare I say genocide what the food industry is doing to us. The FDA sits backs and allows this to happen. Our bodies are now a chemical dumping ground for the food industry and we need to wake up! These chemicals mimic our very own hormones and start to rearrange our bodies ‘ chemistry. We are not asking enough questions and not demanding change therefore, we are allowing our very own toxic environment to be created, both external and internal, which none of us will be able to escape.
With all of Monsanto’s biochemical wizardry, one would think that they could find another way to create pesticides besides dumping estrogen-mimicking carcinogens onto the world’s food supply. Next on their agenda is artificial meat and it may be the “meat of the future”, maybe the only meat?
The pure stupidity and lack of basic human compassion involved in all of this illness and moneymaking are astounding. It is very important to understand that we have ended up in this mess for many reasons. Some of these people do believe they are doing what is best for humanity then you have the ones who simply do not give a damn how they are ultimately destroying what it is to be human and you certainly should never underestimate how low these people will go to gain profit off our health dismay. Americans are just in one big petri dish that seems to be poisoned, and controlled like lab rats.
It is very frustrating when you have doctors and scientists who try to help their patients and the government bureaucracies, private and secretive foundations who do everything in their power to block the science. They are sabotaging us deliberately and the real research controlled.
Accidents seem created more intentionally to murder people who are speaking out where it looks like a plausibly deniable manner – it is just a standard operating procedure for the Our Military Intelligence complex. When you start speaking out and against what is happening you become the Enemy of the State.
The ones controlling the narrative will do anything to discredit, dismantle, and destroy anything or anyone who begins to stand in their way. There are higher powers that are controlling the narrative and they are brainwashing all of us. This whole thing seems a bit sick and twisted. These people need to own and control every aspect of our lives. Anything that goes into your body or on your body they want to control. Every thought, every breath, every bite of fake food, medication, vaccine, environmental chemicals, household chemicals, and fluoridated water. They have pulled the wool over our eyes to blind us from the truth. We have been guinea pigs for the entire industry far too long. Our fabric of what it means to be human appears torn at the core.
Our society systematically learned social conditioning while passively adjusting to indoctrination that they seem too randomly if ever think out of the box.
Congress, large corporations that donate funding, the power elite, insurance companies, big pharma, and our lobbyist all play a major part. We are in a baseball game, where we the American people are in the last inning of the World Series, and we are up one run but all of their bases loaded with the other team. The American people are like the pitcher on the mound. We are stuck in classic doubt. We seem to be saying to ourselves,” Can I make this Pitch?”
Due to outrageous political influences on medicine and government policy, the vast majority of patients will not be able to receive the correct diagnoses. Correct diagnosis is vital in obtaining the correct treatment too.
Marketing, misconceptions, miss-information, “buying doctors”, outright lies and even conspiracy by pharmaceutical companies throughout the world have led to the unsuspecting public taking billions of pills that do not help us and may even harm us.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, premenstrual syndrome, ADD/ADHD, pre-diabetes, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, hormone replacement, and other “diseases” are really “symptoms, not diseases.” So how did they get to be diseases and produce billions of dollars in drug sales to treat them?
How does that happen? Doctors, medical schools, clinical journals, and even the FDA employees are all dependent on pharmaceutical company dollars and that leads to journal articles that are “ghost-written” by big pharma employees, sent to physicians who “assume” that they are true and disseminated by pharma reps whose considerable income and continued employment depend on convincing doctors to write more of their product.
Just in the last few hundred years what we call modern medication has become a reality for us. You see nutrition history came to life within the context of World Wars, Famines, Politics, and individuals dedicated to saving lives but the idea of nutritional theorizing began, like most everything, with the ancient Greeks. Hippocrates (ca. 460 BCE–370 BCE) is often credited with developing the theory of the four senses of humor—blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm—and their influence on the body. Galen’s understanding of anatomy and medicine influenced primarily by Hippocrates’s theory of bodily humor in the second century CE, in which these teachings lasted for centuries. Most of us seem educated by certain facts from our doctors, scientists, pharmaceutical researchers, our government, and other organizations that have gathered and created data that presented to us throughout our lives to convince us that what we see is truthful.
We all are going to die. There is no way to achieve immortality. However, if you take effort to improve your health by eating clean food, drinking clean water, also by doing detox cleansing to remove the many thousands of toxins we are exposed to in our modern society then you will be able to optimize your health and be more resistant to any kind of disease. Our body has the ability to heal any attack but what is missing from the narrative is we have to actually take care of our body. We cannot continually put poison in our body and think it will be ok. We must be aware of what we are eating. They say, “You are what you eat”. That is true in every aspect of the phrase. We must stop putting these poisons in our body where we can recognize our full health potentials.
After becoming critically ill with a “so-called” long-term condition. I healed myself with research, knowledge, and courage (induced by our toxic food, metal loaded toxic vaccines, a chemically enhanced water system, and current “health” care system practice); it has become even more important to me to spread the word about how dispensable we are to our capitalistic culture.
We should not be startled when we see a decline in our health because it is completely predictable with all the manipulations with viruses being made to our DNA. Besides the fake foods, toxic medications, and the poisons that are in our environment along with the crap we slather on our body.
We can always place the blame of our demise at the feet of those who are guilty but somewhere, somehow we must take the responsibility. Sure, we trusted those who were supposed to be trusted. The deep fake state establishment cares zero about the well-being of the American people. We are just animals with price tags stapled to our ears. You can be the smartest person in the room but still, people will not listen. Humans are undermining their very own existence.
Everyone is walking around has a dollar amount attached to them. Humans have been for years blindly walking around with an invisible bar code printed across their forehead with a price tag stapled to their ear like a herd of cattle. The amount is completely up to that person. Are they sick? Are they healthy? Do they have a disorder, disease, condition, or syndrome? How much medication do they consume? How many vaccines will they allow to inject into their body? How many times will they need to visit a doctor? How many procedures will they need? What can we get out of this “animal”? How much in taxes can we tax this person? The more services you need the higher the value of your dollar amount becomes.
There is enormous power within our government, religion, politicians, corporations, the media, and the 1% elite idealists in our world.
Our ‘trusted’ watchdog agencies, both non-profit and government, are secretly “in bed” with these big companies. Accepting money in return for their silence about the dangers of processed fake foods, toxic vaccines, pharmaceutical medications, toxic-tainted tap water, and chemical trails raining from above, Persistent organic pollutants (POPs), corporations poisoning our land, air, and water supply along with and pesticides on the food we consume.
We are in a war for the sake of all of humankind. Clean water, clean food, clean land, and clean air is something we should not have to demand. Forced vaccines, misrepresented disproportionately medications, media propaganda & endorsed environmental toxins is something from a fictional Hollywood movie but unfortunately, it is our current America. They create hate among us individually; it makes their job so much easier. Divide and conquer. Blinded by fake narratives to keep our attention away from the atrocities currently done to the American people.
It is every living beings right on this planet to have a healthy planet but yet it is also humanity’s responsibility as one of the smartest species on the planet to not pillage, plunder and destroy this given privilege. Perhaps, evolution made a mistake allowing us humans to be the dominators over the animal kingdom.
They view us as disposable lab rats with a dollar sign attached to our ears like animals heading to slaughter.
Why do you believe what you believe? At some point in your life, you trusted the information that you learned and that person told you how to read the language that you speak, count numbers, and learn to spell. The things you learned help to form our perception of what we believed to be facts. You have listened to, read, and watched a ton of content from birth until now. Have you ever stopped and listened to the content that you are viewing? Motion pictures, television shows, social media, and the news are the world’s greatest forces for influencing the public’s thoughts and opinions. Think about a movie you seen like Jaws for example. Did that make you scared to go into the ocean? How about the movie Top Gun? Did you all of a sudden want to become a pilot and a freedom fighter for justice? Think about when you are listening to the radio while driving, on some sort of social media app, watching television, or watching a movie at the theaters; what are you listening too? One word. Programming. Since birth, we have been programmed by television shows, movies, music, games, and now social media. Our government has always controlled our content but we have never paid attention to it. Now, what if they did not have our best interests in mind. Would you change your views if you found out this to be true? The gatekeepers want to control us. Years of research has left a missing element in my quest for the truth.
This desire for the answers is the reason why I must continue to seek it out. This is why I have become an alchemist by heart and by nature. There is a means to teach, transform the health of others, and to show people how to prolong their life.
If we do not find a balance between the conservation of nature and the flourishing of humans, there will not be a future on this earth for us. We have taken nature for granted and so arrogantly at that. I have spent a lot of time making small changes in my life over the last few years to try to avoid chemicals that these large companies expose us to increase their profits. This book opened my eyes to so much more than what I had already researched on my own. I have listed many resources, books to read, and videos in this book for you to seek more education. Never take anyone’s word for granted. You must find the truth yourself. This book has been extensively researched and referenced.
I am not here to argue with an unbeliever or persuade anyone to agree with my hypothesis but the truth appears written not only by me but also by other people. Many will have a difference of opinion but that does not mean we all will have a difference of principle.
So, what happens when we become sick?
We need treatments, medications, and procedures. Which all of these add to that price tag stapled to our ears. That hidden barcode on our forehead.
There once was a land where happiness, health & prosperity flourished. People lived with the earth. The earth flourished and so did the humans who lived on it.
Author-
A.L. Childers
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Audrey Childers is a published author, blogger, freelance journalist and an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in research and editorial writing. She is also the creator and founder of the website the hypothyroidismchick.com. Where you can find great tips on everyday living with hypothyroidism. She enjoys raising her children and being a voice for optimal human health and wellness. She is the published author of : A survivors cookbook guide to kicking hypothyroidism booty, Reset your Thyroid, The Ultimate guide to healing hypothyroidism and A survivors cookbook guide to kicking hypothyroidism booty: the slow cooker way. You can find all these books on Amazon. This blog may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
Disclaimer The information and recipes contained in blog is based upon the research and the personal experiences of the author. It’s for entertainment purposes only. Every attempt has been made to provide accurate, up to date and reliable information. No warranties of any kind are expressed or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaging in the rendering of legal, financial, medical or professional advice. By reading this blog, the reader agrees that under no circumstance the author is not responsible for any loss, direct or indirect, which are incurred by using this information contained within this blog. Including but not limited to errors, omissions or inaccuracies. This blog is not intended as replacements from what your health care provider has suggested. The author is not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of any of the suggestions, preparations or procedures discussed in this blog. All matters pertaining to your health should be supervised by a health care professional. I am not a doctor, or a medical professional. This blog is designed for as an educational and entertainment tool only. Please always check with your health practitioner before taking any vitamins, supplements, or herbs, as they may have side-effects, especially when combined with medications, alcohol, or other vitamins or supplements. Knowledge is power, educate yourself and find the answer to your health care needs. Wisdom is a wonderful thing to seek. I hope this blog will teach and encourage you to take leaps in your life to educate yourself for a happier & healthier life. You have to take ownership of your health.
