Ordinarily, one wouldn't buy life insurance in aggregate as an investment. The insurance company has done the calculations, and it would be a net loss to the bu

Ordinarily, one wouldn't buy life insurance in aggregate as an investment. The insurance company has done the calculations, and it would be a net loss to the buyer. (The buyer is willing to take that loss for security, which is just fine.) The only reason it's happening here is that the government gives tax breaks, and those tax breaks are higher than the insurance companies' profit margins, so it actually turns out to be a net gain for both the seller and buyer of life insurance. Surely, this is the result of lobbying by life insurance companies. It doesn't make any sense on its own. Similarly, it makes no sense for companies to buy their employees health insurance. The reason it started is because of the tax breaks which make it cheaper for the company to buy you health insurance than for you to buy it on your own. (Aside: I don't believe for a minute that it somehow results in some magical savings from group bargaining.) Now that's a big part of the mess we call our healthcare system. Direct your criticism to these special carve-out laws that make a mess of everything. Don't direct it towards the companies that rationally take a tax break that is already on the table.