Free tool

Life insurance needs calculator

Adds up the money your household would need to replace, then subtracts what is already in place, and shows every line of the arithmetic.

What it needs from you: Your income, your debts and what cover you already hold
What you get back: A coverage amount with every line of the sum shown

Income to replace

The largest line in this sum is almost always the income, which is why it gets a slider: the number of years changes the answer more than anything else on the page.

Your annual income

Before tax, in current dollars.

Years of income to replace

How long your household would need that income. Often until the youngest child is independent.

0 years40 years

What would have to be paid

Leave anything that does not apply empty. An empty field counts as zero and nothing is assumed on your behalf.

Mortgage balance

What is outstanding today, not the original loan.

Other debts

Cards, car loans, student loans.

Education costs to fund

What you would want set aside, as a total.

Final expenses

Funeral costs and the immediate bills that follow a death.

What is already in place

These come back off the total, which is the part a rule of thumb usually skips.

Life insurance already in place

Include employer coverage, and remember it usually ends when the job does.

Liquid assets

Savings and investments your household could actually reach.

Result

Coverage need

A starting point for a conversation, not a recommendation.

The arithmetic

Income replacement

Final expenses

Other debts

Mortgage balance

Education costs

Total need before offsets

Existing life insurance

Liquid assets

Coverage need

What this does not tell you

It does not tell you what a policy of this size costs. Premium depends on your health, your age and each company’s filed rates, none of which this site holds, so any figure we printed here would be made up.

Ask two or three companies to quote this amount and compare what comes back.

Methodology

How this tool works, and what it will not tell you

This is a DIME-style sum, stated openly as such. Income replacement is your annual income multiplied by the number of years you want that income replaced. Final expenses, other debts, the mortgage balance and education costs are added to it. Existing life insurance and liquid assets are subtracted. The result is held at zero rather than shown as a negative number, because a negative coverage need is not a meaningful figure. Nothing is adjusted for inflation, nothing is discounted to present value and no investment return is assumed, because each of those needs a rate, and a rate we made up would move the answer more than any of your inputs. Treat the result as a starting point for a conversation, not a recommendation.

Assumptions

Income is replaced in flat annual amounts, with no raises and no inflation adjustment.
No rate of return is assumed on the payout, so the figure is not discounted to a present value.
Existing coverage and liquid assets are treated as fully available to your household.
All amounts are in current dollars, rounded to the cent.

Limitations

It produces a coverage amount, never a premium. What a policy costs depends on underwriting and rate filings this site does not hold.
It does not know your tax situation, and life insurance proceeds and your assets are not taxed the same way.
It does not distinguish term from permanent coverage, or model coverage that steps down as a mortgage is paid off.
It is not licensed insurance advice, and it does not account for state-specific rules.

This tool cites no outside source, because it adds up the numbers you type and nothing else. Where a figure comes from somewhere, the figure carries the citation.

Tool last reviewed 2026-09-30