'Secret' life insurance triggers suits

They're known as "dead peasant" policies — secret life insurance policies taken out on unwitting employees — and they've ignited a forest fire of litigation that won't die down.

Since emerging several years ago, dead-peasant policies have landed numerous employers in court, accused of profiting off the deaths of rank-and-file employees. More recently, the insurance industry and banks have been dragged into the legal morass, both accused of illegally benefiting off these policies, formally known as corporate-owned life insurance policies (COLI)...

Law: 'Secret' life insurance triggers suits