Murder Insured

MURDER INSURED is a business thriller. In America today, there are thousands of companies which insure millions of employees for billions of dollars, ostensibly as a way of offsetting the emerging cost of post-retirement benefits. If it were a straignt-forward arrangement there would be no story, but the devil is in the details. This novel exposes some frightening truths about how this coverage is actually arranged and its potential for malfeasance.

Reviews:

J. Stephen Read has been involved in the insurance industry for almost 40 years. He has worked for two large regional banks in the past eight years. Murder Insured is his first novel. Driven by the possibility of malfeasance that currently exists in the insurance industry, this novel is a sort of one-man crusade.Why would anyone want to murder bank executives? Could it be to collect on a rather complicated insurance program that banks take out on their upper-echelon executives? The program was conceived of to offset the increasing costs of retirement. The money the bank collected on death payments could be funneled into retirement. All of it, of course, is tax-free.But one particularly nasty and greedy bank executive who ran this program named Richard Trace earns a bonus based on the efficiency of his BOLI program...that is, Bank Owned Life Insurance. But the years that the treasuries dip, he has a problem. He solves it by hiring a hit man to "bump off" certain heavily insured bank executives. Of course, his company hires a bright young mathematician named Chris Masters, who uncovers some disturbing "anomalies" in actuarial trends that eventually point the finger of suspicion on to Mr. Trace:"He logged into Bloomberg on his computer, and within seconds, there it was; treasuries had indeed dipped in 1993 and 1998, and were above 6.5 percent in all other years. Only First Gotham had managed to offset those dips in both years. The only other bank to hit an excess claim year was Central States in 1998, and that was a double-dip that they shared with First Gotham on two of the larger claims. He scrolled down the column of numbers and soon realized that the yield on treasuries had been dropping weekly and was now at 5.63 percent, which was the lowest point since 1998, and the only the third venture below 6 percent in the last twenty years. Could there be more than the random influence of nature at work?"Mr. Reid sets up some very convincing "hit" situations, that are virtually untraceable. He does a great job of convincing the reader that, in our fast-paced world, there is potential for new crime...

This book was a real pleasure to read for several reasons. First, I love a good murder mystery, especially one that teaches you something. Second, I learned a lot about the insurance industry from this book. Murder Insured caused me to do some research, and I can now vouch for it's technical accuracy, which is pretty scary to say the least. Finally, I know the author, and am always pleased to see someone who finds the time to write a book, particularly one as enjoyable as this.

MURDER INSURED wouldn't have to be true to be exciting, heartfelt and real-feeling. But the fact that it's based on real business practices adds impact to this story of likeable investigators who put an end to a greedy bank executive's murder spree. The executive improves the bottom line by manipulating payoffs on Bank Owned Life Insurance policies -- that is, by having the insured employees killed. The murder, and the mob connections, FBI investigation, exotic hitmen and gruesome deaths are the stuff of thrillers. But the life insurance policies allowing bosses, and former bosses to profit when an employee dies are the stuff of current Wall St. Journal stories.Check it out if you work for a bank or other large corporation that might profit from your death. Or if you just like it when appealing good guys figure out a crime and stop it. It's a good read both because Reid knows the insurance and banking background so well, and because he skillfully sketches memorable characters and moments to keep you turning pages.