Yes, my employer wants to take out a life insurance policy on me, but instead of my spouse being the beneficiary, my employer would get the money.

Is this legal?
Is this ethical?
Can an employer do this?

Oh yeah, I'd also have to submit to a physical which I'm sure my employer would have access to lab results, etc.

I've heard of movie companies insuring the big name actors like Tom Cruise so that if 3 quarters of the way through the movie and hundreds of millions spent on production, if he has a heart attack and dies the film company will not go bankrupt.

PS, I'm no big name actor.


kcoruol

You raise an interesting question. Employers can legitimately take out life insurance on key executives and employees for a number of reasons. These include key person coverage, and partnership agreement funding. Under these circumstances the policy is both legal and ethical, and insurance companies would issue the coverage and pay the benefit to the employer.

You would be the insured. As such, you would control access to personal medical information. The employer would not have access to this information unless you authorized it, even though they would be the owner and beneficiary.

This use of life insurance is typical in large scale applications such as Hollywood productions; it is also widely used by small- and middle-sized businesses.

Regards,
Steve

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