FIN3403 Ethics Case: Profiting From Death: “Janitor’s Insurance”
(1)The definition of unethical is “not morally correct”. If just going off of that definition alone and not doing any research, I would say yes, that COLI is unethical from reading the case involving employers taking out COLI policies for their employees. After doing research on other examples of unethical business practices, I found some very serious cases, such as Toyota’s example where the company was ignored safety concerns to save money. This caused hundreds of rollover accidents and caused deaths as well. This is clear as day example of an unethical business practice. Now for this case, I believe an employer being able to take out Company Owned Life Insurance (COLI) policies out for their employees is not unethical. As long as the employees are given life insurance as an option under their benefits package, then I don’t see a problem with it one bit. In the case “Profiting from Death: “Janitor’s Insurance””, there is one example that I do believe is unethical. The Stillwagoner family asked the owner of the company where their diseased family member worked, if the company provided life insurance. The owner stated that it did not. A couple of months later, the Stillwagoner family learned that the company had a $200,000 life insurance policy out on their loved one. Lying in general is wrong, but when it involves someone’s death and a family trying to figure out possible money to help fund things such as funeral expenses and existing bills, it is downright immoral. So to answer the question in the general scheme of things, no I do not find COLI unethical, since the company is paying for the insurance out of their own pockets. A specific example, such as the Stillwagoner family example, is an exception, and I believe that is unethical.

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