My husband left his job at an unnamed hospital. He is in not great health so we wanted to take his life insurance policy with us because no company would issue him a new policy. This was incredibly difficult.
The company wouldn’t (and still won’t) let us pay online. Payments were “delayed”. HR was no help. Neither was the insurance company. We finally penetrated the bureaucracy and figured out how to get them to accept our premium payments. We now have to go old school and send them an actual check every quarter.
I work at a different company with similar benefits. I was talking with my friend who works with our union and mediates with the benefits council. Yesterday I learned why the difficulty carrying the policy over.
Our employer, his former employer and most large corporations offer employees life insurance. Ours in really generous, which is unusual. We’ve never had to fight for good life insurance coverage. We get $250,000 to $500,000 in coverage, depending on health factors.
It turns out, most folks drop that coverage when they leave a given employer. They either have their own insurance or just opt into the next plan at the new employer. Well, because the employer also pays into that benefit when you leave they have to option to take over the full premium if you don’t carry the policy with you. Which they generally do.
Why? Because even though you aren’t an employee you are still a good investment. They quietly pay the premium until you die and then collect. My company has over 17,000 current employees and is one of the largest employers in our state. Former employees dying is literally a revenue stream for them. That is why they are so “generous” with the benefit.
My husband had two heart attacks in a single year. They made it difficult for us to get and maintain his work policy because he is a $250,000 payout that is likely to happen sooner rather than later.
I suspect the checks work for payment because the nameless minimum wage worker who opens envelopes all day just puts it into that days’s deposit and it doesn’t ping any electronic flags.
I am not surprised this is legal but it is completely despicable.