Castro-Wright Named to MetLife Board

Executive Vice President of Wal-Mart’s U.S. Stores, Eduardo Castro-Wright has now also been named to the board of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Wal-Mart has consistently come under fire for its life insurance policies, namely a “dead peasant” policy where the company stands to profit when low-level employees die. Since Castro-Wright surely can’t be taking this new position for the employees’ benefit, what could he possibly be doing with his time on the MetLife board?

MetLife names 2 to board [Associated Press via Boston Globe]

Insurer MetLife Inc. on Wednesday said it named the CEO of Wal-Mart Stores USA and the CEO of Tupelo Capital Management to its board of directors, effective Monday.
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Eduardo Castro-Wright, 53, is the president and chief executive of the U.S. division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer.

Earlier:
Wal-Mart’s ‘Dead Peasant’ Insurance Suit Gets New Life [Find Law, 6/13/2006]
“Dead Peasants” at Wal-Mart [Daily Kos, 4/4/2005]
The Trouble with Wal-Mart: An interview with Liza Featherstone [Stay Free]

Anyway, this woman’s husband was working 80 hours a week. I think he had a weak heart. One day, he was exhausted from working because he was understaffed, but he had to help a customer carry a TV to her car, and when he did, he had a heart attack and dropped dead. So, this is already a really sad story, but then his wife found out that Wal-Mart had an insurance claim on him. They were actually collecting money from his death.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, February 28, 2008

COMMENTS

I’ve always had a problem with those who object to “dead peasant” policies. Companies frequently buy “key employee” policies and no one seems to mind.

So what if the employer gets a payment on the death of an employee as long as the employee wasn’t being charged for the policy, and as long as they didn’t do anything to hasten the person’s death.

If I bet on a horse and it wins, do I have to share my winnings with the horse?

The only argument that I can see one could raise is that the cost of the policies could have been given to the employee as higher wages instead, so that Walmart is indirectly cheating the worker of some compensation.

Just because people get upset about things having to do with death doesn’t mean that they are correct. Currently several families of those who died in the World Trade Center collapse are suing the city to have the millions of tons of debris exhumed because there might be some human remains (which would have to be tiny since it was all scanned originally) still present.

This is irrational. Even the most religious must realize the the corporal remains are not what is important.

One cannot blame society for a person’s death because one feels grief.

robertdfeinman in Long Island, NY
Thursday, February 28 at 07:11 PM

....as long as they didn’t do anything to hasten the person’s death. ~ robertfeinman

I can resist anything but temptation. ~ Oscar Wilde

If I bet on a horse...

Poor analogy, robert. More like a cock or dog fight where you’re betting on death. The ‘just bidness’ argument aside, there are those who find this practice morally reprehensible and ghoulish.

You might want to brush up on the concept of insurable interest and the legal limitations on death wagering.

Ken V in Texas
Friday, February 29 at 04:46 AM

Why do you idiots still bring this up? It was a tax evasion attempt to save money and the money was supposed to go into the benefits budget. It wasn’t that big of a deal and they stopped doing it a long time ago. Apparently Walmart hasn’t been doing anything bad lately if this is the best that you guys can come up with.

Dave in
Friday, February 29 at 10:20 AM

It wasn’t that big of a deal and they stopped doing it a long time ago.

<u>Translation:</i> They (Wal-Mart) got busted!

GoogleResults 1 - 10 of about 8,810 for ‘walmart dead peasant’. (0.17 seconds)

Ken V in Texas
Saturday, March 01 at 05:30 AM

Ken V : Wonder if “dead Chinese peasant policies “have been taken out on WalMart associates over in Communist China?

ddrb in
Sunday, March 02 at 09:50 PM

Can anyone connect the dots linking healthclinic partnerships between WalMart and hospital systems,and having a WalMart executive on a life and health insurance company?

ddrb in
Thursday, March 06 at 11:47 AM

I wouldn’t get too comfortable, Eduardo. You may be returning south of the border to clean up a grow mess.

If we had universal healthcare, why would we need insurance?

Ken V in Texas
Friday, March 07 at 06:57 AM

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