Employers and Life Insurance

I watched a late night news report about employers taking out life insurance policies on their employees. The report was talking about how employers take out the policies (without letting the employees know) and that the money spent on the deductibles was tax deductible and money could be taken out of the policies without taxes or penalties ebing assessed on the money.

I'm sure that there are finer points in the laws and actual workings of this but this infuriates me. Why should my employer be able to take out a life insurance policy on me and then profit from my death? If I die then hire someone else but do not begin to think that you as my boss have any great investment in me and would need thousands of dollars in your pocket if I were to be run over by a bus while my family struggles to pay bills and make funeral arrangements!

Am I missing something or does this make other people mad too?

That has happened on movie sets and the director changes the movie to an extent to fit the event. The actor is also not getting paid the royalty and paycheck so that is money that is not being spent. I still believe that the person insured should know about the policy.

I can see in limited situation where it may be valid but from my understanding of the report (I would have to look up the specific report) these were not specific circumstances but a way for companies to make money tax free and benefit from the deaths of their employees.

I personally blame the insurance companies for being willing to put out policies in these situations. I think that my specific problem is that these policies are being written without the insured person's consent or knowledge.

I always wondered why some employers make employees take a physical or give medical information before being hired. I knew it did not have alot to do with health insurance because large group policies are treated different because the different physical conditions even out over the numbers.