Insurance Fraud mentions murdering for life insurance.
Insurance is listed in the description as valid, and I don't see how the policy was setup/aquirred would substantially change the fundamental nature of the trope - When person X dies I will get something, I want it now instead of waiting, so I kill them.
BTW, the employer getting insurance when the employee dies is generally limited to the more important employees (C-level executives, major actors in a movie) where the loss of the specific person is likely to cause the company itself substantial difficulties. No reputable insurer would issue a policy to pay a fast food place for the death of the guy running the fryer, since they could just hire someone new the next day with minimal loss of efficiency.
Edited by Zyffyr on Oct 5th 2020 at 1:03:48 AM
Had a question about Inheritance Murder and how broad it is.
So, in the most recent season of Endeavour, there's a murder plot in which the killer makes money by buying insurance policies from people who need the money in return for him receiving the full payment when they die. Then, the killer murders them in engineered accidents.
And I wondered if this would count for that trope or if I should suggest a new trope to cover that (or is there another one that already exists?)
Also, that example reminded me of two other examples that I'm less sure would qualify as Inheritance Murder, although the latter is kind of like the "tontine version" mentioned.
First, one chapter of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service has an insurance company employee who engineers murders that look like million-to-one-accidents so that the company doesn't have to pay. IIRC (it's been a long while since I read it), he isn't making money himself, but the company wouldn't have to make a payment.
Also, there's an episode of The Last Detective called "Dead Peasants Society" that refers to a type of insurance policy where an employer benefits when the employee dies
(I'm not sure how that works myself). The episode was about mysterious deaths among people who had such a policy through a Masonic-type organization. IIRC, they weren't actually guilty.
Edited by Hodor2 on Oct 3rd 2020 at 9:19:57 AM