Guide
How much life insurance do you need?
A tool and the logic behind it: years of income protection, debts to be addressed, education funding, and existing safeguards.
A straightforward approach: sum the years of household income to protect, add debts requiring payment, factor in education savings, and subtract what you already have in place.
Coverage estimate
Coverage target = (income × years) + debts needing payment + education needs − existing safeguards, rounded to the nearest $5,000.
Why those inputs
Income years. A typical planning range spans 10 to 20 years of income coverage; the appropriate length depends on how long your dependents will rely on your earnings.
Debts. For many households, a home loan represents the single largest liability. Selecting coverage to eliminate it leaves your family with a home owned outright.
Education. A reasonable per-child amount in current dollars. Building this explicitly works better than trying to forecast future college costs and price changes.
What you have. Available cash reserves and employer-sponsored group life insurance. Remember that group plans typically end when you leave your job.
With a coverage figure in mind, our quoting system displays the cost across 10-, 15-, 20-, 25- and 30-year periods.