Find the right cover amount for your family — based on income, debts, and dependents — without an agent talking you into more than you need.
Use this free term life insurance calculator to model how much cover protects your family for the years they actually need it, using the income-replacement and DIME methods side by side.
Direct answers to the most common questions, in plain language. Skim if you're in a hurry; dig deeper below.
Usually 10–20 times your annual income, adjusted for debts and dependents.
For most working adults with a family, 15× annual income is a defensible starting point. Add outstanding home loan balance, subtract any cover you already have. The calculator does this and the DIME method side by side.
Long enough to cover your dependents until they're independent — usually 25–30 years.
Pick the term so the policy ends roughly when your youngest child finishes education or your spouse hits retirement age. Cover beyond that is usually unnecessary.
Yes — by 10× or more, for the same cover.
Term plans are pure protection with no investment component, which makes them dramatically cheaper. $1M of cover for a 30-year-old typically costs $300–500 per year. The same cover bundled with investment (ULIPs, endowment, whole life) costs 10–20× more for the same protection.
Only if someone is financially dependent on you.
If no one relies on your income — no spouse, no children, no parents you support — you don't need life insurance. Buy it when dependency starts, not before.
The mechanics in short answers — no jargon, no upsell.
The cover should be enough to replace your income for the years your family needs it. Multiply your annual income by the number of years your dependents will rely on you, then discount for the return they'd earn on the lump sum.
Home loan, car loan, personal loan, education loan. Whatever's outstanding becomes a burden on your family if you're not around. The cover should clear all of it.
Children's education, marriage, parent care. These are predictable future expenses your family would need to fund — so they belong in the cover calculation, adjusted for inflation.
Any existing term cover, employer life insurance, and liquid investments are already protection. The recommended cover is the gap — what's missing, not the total need.
Designed so anyone can model their situation in under a minute, with or without a finance background.
The single most common mistake — buying $500K of cover on a $200K income — leaves families short when it matters most.
Agents earn commission on cover amount and on bundled products. A clean calculation gives you a number to push back with.
A 10-year term is too short for most parents. A 50-year term is wasteful. The calculator aligns the term to when your dependents actually become independent.
Walking into a comparison site knowing you need $2M cover for 25 years takes 90% of the noise out of the buying process.
Term plans cost a fraction of bundled products. The calculator shows the pure protection number, so you can invest the rest where it actually grows.
A $1M cover today is worth roughly $400K in 30 years at 3% inflation. The calculator factors this in so the cover holds its value across the policy term.
Everything you might ask before, during, or after using this tool.
It's a starting point, not an answer. A 10× rule ignores how many dependents you have, how much debt you carry, and how many years your family will need support. Use it as a sanity check against the calculator's recommendation — if the gap is large, one of your inputs probably needs a second look.
Include it for the calculation, but don't rely on it. Employer cover disappears when you leave the job, and it's usually a flat multiple of salary that's too small to be the whole plan. Treat it as a top-up to your own term policy, not a replacement.
Term insurance covers you for a fixed number of years and pays only if you die during that period. Whole life covers you until you die, whenever that happens, and accumulates a cash value. Whole life is 10–20× more expensive for the same death benefit, which is why most financial planners recommend term for protection and investing the difference separately.
Critical illness rider is genuinely useful — for a small extra premium, you get a lump sum on diagnosis of major illnesses, which separately funds treatment without depleting family savings. Accidental death rider is less useful because accidents are a small share of deaths, and the same cover is typically achieved more cheaply by simply buying more term cover.
As soon as someone is financially dependent on you, ideally before 35. Premiums roughly double every decade of age, so buying at 30 vs 40 can mean half the lifetime premium for the same cover. If you're past 40, buy now anyway — waiting won't make it cheaper.
Standard term plans pay nothing at maturity — that's why they're cheap. "Return of premium" variants give your premiums back at the end of the term, but they cost 2–3× more, which usually wipes out the benefit. Most planners recommend the cheaper pure-term version and investing the saved premium separately.
Yes, significantly. Smokers typically pay 50–100% more for the same cover. Diabetes, hypertension, and heart conditions can result in higher premiums or, in some cases, declined applications. Disclose everything honestly — undisclosed conditions are the leading reason claims get rejected.
Most insurers cap cover at 15–25× annual income, depending on age and policy. Above $1M, expect medical tests and income proof. Above $2M, expect detailed financial scrutiny. The calculator's recommendation may exceed what a single insurer will offer, in which case splitting cover across two insurers is standard practice.
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The standard $500K or $1M cover most households carry was set when those numbers felt large. They no longer are.
A 35-year-old earning $150K per year, with two young children, a home loan, and a non-working spouse, needs roughly $2.5–3M of cover. $1M would leave the family scrambling within four to five years. Yet $1M is what most people in this exact situation actually have.
The reason is partly historical (premiums used to be higher) and partly inertial (people buy cover once and never revisit it). Cover should be reviewed every time a major life event happens — marriage, child, home loan, salary jump. The right cover for you at 28 is rarely the right cover at 38.
The most common approach: multiply annual income by the number of years your family will need support, then discount for the return they'd earn on the lump sum.
If you earn $180K and your family needs income support for 25 years (until your youngest child is 25), the raw need is $4.5M. But your family won't need it all on day one — they'll invest the lump sum and draw down over time. At a conservative 4% real return, the present value of that $4.5M income stream is closer to $2.8M. That's your income-replacement need.
This method is clean for income earners with stable, defined responsibilities. It breaks down if your income is highly variable or if your family's lifestyle needs don't track your income linearly.
DIME stands for Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education. The method adds these four buckets to get a total cover need.
Debt: total non-mortgage outstanding — car loan, personal loan, credit card, education loan.
Income: a multiple of annual income, typically 10×, to fund ongoing expenses.
Mortgage: outstanding home loan balance.
Education: future cost of children's education, inflation-adjusted, until graduation.
DIME is more transparent than income-replacement because each bucket is independently auditable — you can check the home loan balance against your statement, the education cost against current fees, and so on. It tends to produce slightly higher recommendations than pure income-replacement because it adds debts and goals explicitly.
The calculator shows both numbers and recommends the higher of the two, minus what you already have. This is conservative on purpose — under-insurance hurts more than slight over-insurance.
Critical illness rider is the one worth paying for. For a few thousand a year extra, you get a lump sum on diagnosis of cancer, stroke, major heart conditions, kidney failure, and similar — separate from your death benefit. This funds treatment without depleting family savings, and the diagnosis often comes during your earning years when you most need the cushion.
Accidental death rider is usually skippable. Accidents are a small share of deaths overall, and the same outcome is achieved more cheaply by simply buying more pure term cover, which covers all causes of death.
Waiver of premium on disability is worth considering if your job has any physical risk — it keeps the policy alive without premium payments if you're permanently disabled.
Return-of-premium variants are almost always a bad deal. They cost 2–3× more, and the "return" you eventually get back is worth far less in inflation-adjusted terms than the extra premium you paid.
Two short notes worth reading before you trust any number on this page.
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We are not a bank, NBFC, advisor, broker, or distributor of any financial product. The numbers shown here are estimates for educational purposes only, based on the inputs you provide.
Results are not financial, legal, or tax advice. Please consult a qualified professional before any decision about your loan, investments, or personal finances. Actual loan terms and charges depend on your bank and individual circumstances.