Dead Peasant Policies

Few Americans are aware that for at least 16 years big business and banks have been secretly taking out millions of life insurance policies on their rank and file workers and naming the corporation the beneficiary of the death benefit without the knowledge of the worker. The individual policies are frequently in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the employee leaves the company, no problem; big business is still allowed to collect the death benefit and they track the employee through the Social Security Administration to keep tabs on when they die. These policies are commonly known as "dead peasant" or "janitor" policies because they insure low-wage earners including janitors. Some of the largest corporations in America have been boosting their income statements by including cash buildup in the policies as well as receiving the death benefit tax free.

http://www.counterpunch.org/martens02022008.html

This should be illegal. We are forced to give our SSN to our bank and employers in order to comply with the US Government's policies regarding taxation and social security. If the employers are then taking our SSN and taking out life insurance policies on us, with themselves as beneficiaries, then they are using our SSN in ways we did not authorize.