Estimate how much life insurance coverage your family might need — free, private, and no email required. Choose a quick estimate or walk through a detailed breakdown.
What you earn per year before taxes. This is the income your family would need to replace.
How many years your family would need support. A common starting point is until the youngest child turns 18, or 10–15 years for most households.
Include any employer group life insurance or existing individual policies.
LifeInsureCalc estimates a starting coverage number using two well-established, publicly documented approaches: a quick income-replacement method, and a more detailed method based on the DIME framework (Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education) that carriers and financial educators commonly reference. Neither method is proprietary or exact — they're structured ways to think through what your family would actually need to replace if your income stopped, not a guarantee of the "right" number.
The Quick Estimate multiplies your annual income by a number of replacement years and subtracts any coverage you already have. It's a fast starting point, similar to the "10x income" rule of thumb many people have heard, but with an editable years input instead of a fixed multiplier.
The Detailed Estimate adds up the specific obligations a policy would need to cover — your mortgage, other debts, an education or childcare fund, and final expenses — then subtracts liquid savings and existing coverage you could already draw on. This tends to produce a more household-specific number than a flat income multiple, because it accounts for what you actually owe and have saved, not just what you earn.
Consider a household with $65,000 in annual income, a $180,000 mortgage, $8,000 in other debt, a $40,000 education fund goal, $15,000 in final expenses, $20,000 in liquid savings, and no existing coverage, over a 10-year replacement window. The detailed method would estimate: $650,000 (income replacement) + $180,000 (mortgage) + $8,000 (debt) + $40,000 (education) + $15,000 (final expenses) − $20,000 (savings) − $0 (existing coverage) = $873,000. That's meaningfully different from a flat "10x income" rule, which would suggest $650,000 — the gap comes from debts and goals a pure income multiple doesn't account for.
This tool does not know your health, age, smoking status, state of residence, or the actual premium a carrier would quote you — those depend on underwriting, not arithmetic. It also does not include Social Security survivor benefits, employer-sponsored group coverage beyond what you enter, or retirement account balances unless you count them as savings. Treat the output as a starting conversation number, not a policy quote.