Corporate-owned life insurance (COLI), is life insurance on employees' lives that is owned by the employer, with benefits payable either to the employer or directly to the employee's families. Other names for the practice include janitor's insurance and dead peasants insurance. When the employer is a bank, the insurance is known as a bank owned life insurance (BOLI). COLI was originally purchased on the lives of key employees and executives by a company to hedge against the financial cost of losing key employees to unexpected death, the risk of recruiting and training replacements of necessary or highly trained personnel, or to fund corporate obligations to redeem stock upon the death of an owner. This use is commonly known as "key man" or "key person" insurance. Although this article refers only to practice and policy in the United States, key person insurance is used in other countries as well. Primarily in the 1990s, some companies aggressively insured a broad base of employees, as part of general hiring requirements. During the hiring process, employees sign many documents, including life, health and welfare coverage agreements or applications for insurance. Additionally, up until 1984, certain premiums for life insurance were leveraged and deducted. Even today, when a COLI plan's death benefits are paid to an employees family directly, the company paying the premiums can deduct them from corporate profits and earnings. Today, COLI is most common for senior executives of a firm, but its use for general employees is still sometimes practiced. Tax law history Under the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) dealing with life insurance benefits paid due to the death of the insured, the benefits are usually excluded from the taxable income of the beneficiary. Because of the tax-free nature of death benefits, the IRC prohibits the deduction of the premiums paid for life insurance when the premium payor is also the beneficiary of the death benefit rather than the individual employee and their family. In addition, loans from insurers secured by policy values are not income and earnings credited to an owner's policy values (known as "inside buildup") by the insurance company are not currently taxed (and may escape taxation altogether if such earnings are not distributed other than as part of the death benefits paid upon the death of the insured). 1950s: Leveraged insurance Interest incurred on indebtedness has historically been deductible, (although the deduction of "personal" interest was largely eliminated