The policies you mention at WalMart are called "dead peasant insurance". There were even investment funds that engaged in betting on the deaths of nearly random

The policies you mention at WalMart are called "dead peasant insurance". There were even investment funds that engaged in betting on the deaths of nearly random people that had little to no connection to those taking out insurance, but about which the investors had more information about their health and longevity than insurance adjusters. These were good investments because the money you put into it in many cases was tax deductible, but life insurance benefits paid out are completely tax free. So the thing in essence was a legal money laundering operation that converted possible taxable corporate profits into completely untaxed death benefits.