Reply #22: This is nothing new...or sinister....

[CherokeeDem]

As part of your benefit package at no expense to you, most companies do, or at least did, carry a term life insurance policy on their employees for 1x your salary. You should have been given a document to sign designating who your beneficiary was. Wal-mart did the same thing but didn't inform their employees and they named themselves beneficiary. That is not quite the way things are done. The life policies are terminated when the employee leaves the position with no cash accrual.