🇺🇸 Mortgage Rates Hover Near One-Year Highs at About 7.4% as Inflation Data and the Fed Loom — Freddie Mac🇺🇸 Hurricane Isaias Makes Landfall on the Florida Panhandle as Insurers Begin Assessing Damage — Insurance Business🇮🇳 IRDAI Proposes Sweeping Caps on Insurance Commissions as RBI Weighs In — Business Standard🇮🇳 RBI Raises Repo Rate to 5.50% and Shifts to Calibrated Tightening as Oil and the Rupee Weigh — GKToday🇬🇧 Volkswagen Sets Aside £725 Million for UK Car Finance Redress as the Industry Bill Climbs — Insurance Journal (Bloomberg)🇦🇺 ASIC Tells General Insurers to Fix Premium Disclosure, Cash Settlements and Claims Management Firm Conduct — ASIC🇺🇸 Mortgage Rates Hover Near One-Year Highs at About 7.4% as Inflation Data and the Fed Loom — Freddie Mac🇺🇸 Hurricane Isaias Makes Landfall on the Florida Panhandle as Insurers Begin Assessing Damage — Insurance Business🇮🇳 IRDAI Proposes Sweeping Caps on Insurance Commissions as RBI Weighs In — Business Standard🇮🇳 RBI Raises Repo Rate to 5.50% and Shifts to Calibrated Tightening as Oil and the Rupee Weigh — GKToday🇬🇧 Volkswagen Sets Aside £725 Million for UK Car Finance Redress as the Industry Bill Climbs — Insurance Journal (Bloomberg)🇦🇺 ASIC Tells General Insurers to Fix Premium Disclosure, Cash Settlements and Claims Management Firm Conduct — ASIC
PR

PolicyRix

Insurance & Finance Intelligence

Free Tool

Life Insurance Needs Calculator

Estimate how much life insurance your family would need by adding income replacement, debts, mortgage, education and final expenses.

Estimated cover gap

$1,020,000

Total financial need

$1,150,000

Resources already in place

$130,000

Gap as multiple of income

13.6×

Where the need comes from

  • Income replacement (10 years)$750,000
  • Non-mortgage debts$15,000
  • Mortgage balance$250,000
  • Education (2 children)$120,000
  • Final expenses$15,000

Estimates are for general education only and are not financial, insurance or tax advice. Calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to our servers.

The method behind the numbers

This tool uses the needs-based approach that many planners prefer over a rule of thumb such as "ten times income". It adds up what your household would have to pay for or replace if your income stopped — several years of income, outstanding debts, the mortgage, children's education and final expenses — then subtracts what you already have: existing life cover and savings your family could realistically draw on. The remainder is the gap that a policy would need to fill.

Choosing the number of years

The years box is the assumption that moves the result most. A common starting point is the number of years until your youngest child is independent, or until your partner could be expected to return to full earning capacity. If you are single with no dependants and no co-signed debt, your need may be close to just final expenses; if you have a young family and a large mortgage, it can be many times your salary.

Term versus whole life

Most families whose need is temporary — a mortgage and dependent children — are served by level term insurance, which is far cheaper per dollar of cover than permanent policies. Permanent cover can make sense for lifelong needs such as providing for a dependent with special needs or estate-planning goals, but it costs more and the details vary widely, so compare quotes and read the illustration carefully. Whatever type you choose, make sure the beneficiary details are current.

Things the calculator simplifies

  • It does not discount for investment growth or inflation; for long horizons you may want a margin on top of the estimate.
  • It ignores employer or government survivor benefits, which can be significant in some countries.
  • It treats savings as fully available, but retirement accounts may carry tax or penalties if drawn early.

Use the result to start a conversation with a licensed adviser or to compare real quotes, not as a recommendation to buy a specific product.