Life Insurance Coverage Calculator

CALCULATOR

Life Insurance Coverage Calculator

Estimate the coverage your family may need to protect their future and close the gap.

This calculator provides a starting point for the conversation—not a final coverage recommendation. Everyone’s situation is different.

Life Insurance

How Much Coverage Do You Need?

A few quick questions to estimate your coverage gap. There’s no wrong answer here — this gives you a starting point, not a final number.

Income

What’s the annual income you’d want to replace?

Think about what your household relies on to cover everyday expenses — your own income, or a partner’s. If the person you’re insuring doesn’t earn a paycheck (for example, a stay-at-home parent), it’s okay to leave this at $0 — you’ll capture the value of what they do for your household in a later step.

Annual income

How many years might that income (and the other support below) be needed?

10 yrs

A common anchor: the number of years until your youngest child is grown, or until you’d planned to retire.

Debts & Goals

What obligations would this coverage need to help with?

Leave any field blank or at 0 if it doesn’t apply.

Mortgage & other debt

Include your remaining mortgage balance plus other debts your family would still owe — auto loans, credit cards, personal loans, or co-signed debt.

Future education goals

Families often use a rough figure per child — for example, $50,000–$150,000, depending on whether you’re picturing in-state public tuition or a private school. Multiply by the number of children.

Annual retirement contribution you’d want to keep funding

If your household is currently saving for retirement — a 401(k), IRA, or similar — that saving would likely slow or stop after a loss. Enter the annual amount you’d want to keep contributing; we’ll multiply it by the number of years you selected on the first question.

Final expenses & other obligations

Funeral and burial costs commonly run $8,000–$12,000. Add any estate-settlement costs, legal fees, or medical bills you’d want covered.

Household Role

Does someone in your household manage things a paycheck doesn’t cover?

This step is easy to underestimate. Families frequently price a stay-at-home or primary-caregiving parent’s contribution at $0 because there’s no paycheck attached to it — but if that parent were gone, someone would have to pay for the childcare, housekeeping, meal prep, and household management they currently provide for free. Those replacement costs add up fast, especially with young children in the home.

Include the value of household & caregiving responsibilities Adds an estimated annual replacement cost to your total, for the number of years selected above

Current Resources

What do you already have in place?

This is subtracted from the total — existing coverage and assets reduce the gap.

Existing life insurance

Include both any personal policy and coverage through an employer — but remember employer coverage usually ends if you leave that job.

Assets available for these needs

Savings, investments, or other funds your family could realistically use for this purpose — not retirement accounts you’d still need, or accounts already earmarked for something else.

Income your household would still have coming in (optional)

If there’s a spouse or partner whose own income would continue, enter their annual take-home pay here. Leave blank if not applicable — we’ll ask about a few other income sources, like Social Security, separately.

Your estimated coverage gap

Based on what you told us, here’s roughly where you stand.

Already covered Estimated gap

How we got here

Your result is a starting point. This estimate doesn’t account for taxes, inflation, employer benefits, or how your goals might change over time. It’s meant to give you a reasonable range to start from — not a final number.

A few things worth a conversation, not a calculator field. Some pieces of this picture depend on details that aren’t practical to estimate on your own — an advisor can help you factor in:

Social Security survivor benefits — children and a surviving spouse may be eligible for meaningful ongoing monthly payments, but the amount depends on the deceased’s earnings record.
Pension or retirement plan survivor benefits, if either spouse has one.
Health insurance after a loss — if coverage came through an employer, continuing it (COBRA, marketplace, or a new plan) is a real ongoing cost that’s easy to overlook.
Estate or tax considerations that could affect how much your family actually keeps.
If the deceased was a business owner — this calculator estimates what your family needs, not what your business needs. Business debt you personally guaranteed, a buy-sell agreement with a partner, or key-person coverage for the business itself are typically separate policies with their own calculation, based on the business’s value and structure rather than your household’s.

Want to talk through your results?

Everyone’s financial picture is different — we’re happy to go over what this means for you, no pressure.

Thanks — your results are on their way, and a member of our team will follow up soon.

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How It Works

Answer a few simple questions about your income, obligations, household needs, and existing resources. We’ll estimate your potential coverage gap and show you a breakdown of how we arrived at that estimate.

Important Considerations

This estimate doesn’t account for taxes, inflation, employer benefits, or changes in your goals over time. It’s meant to give you a reasonable starting range—not a final number.

Your Privacy & Security

We use your information only to provide your results and help our team respond if you request assistance.

Explore Life Insurance

Learn about coverage options, how life insurance works, and questions to consider as part of your broader financial plan.