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Had Comcast CEO Brian Roberts died during 2007, the company would have had to pay his heirs $60 million for five years of salary and bonus, a $223 million life-insurance payout and another $14 million in stock awards and other payments. Add it up and Roberts's heirs get a $298.1 million "golden coffin" if the Comcast CEO croaks in office. Roberts's 88-year-old father — Ralph Roberts, chairman of Comcast's executive committee — earns his family $87 million if when he goes, too. Such "golden coffins," much like "golden parachutes" have been around as estate-planning tax dodges for years, reports the Wall Street Journal in an exposé, but until a new law 18 months ago, it was easy for companies to bury how much they would pay families after executive deaths "in the fog of proxy-statement language." No longer. (Photo by Bruno Girin)