Life insurance
How much life insurance, and for how long?
If one of you died, your family's need for life insurance starts high and falls over time — the mortgage shrinks, the children age out, and Social Security survivor benefits cover part of the gap. This tool finds the amount and the duration, and shows when coverage is no longer needed at all.
Your numbers
Start with an example, then adjust any number to match your own:
The insurance need over time
The red line is what your family would need. The blue line is what they'd already have. When blue catches red, coverage is no longer needed. The green step line shows what the suggested policies would add.
What it works out to
What this does and doesn't account for
In this version: two adults (each can be the scenario person), up to 4 children, mortgage payoff, other debts, final expenses, college savings, extra childcare cost if a parent dies, Social Security survivor benefits for children and for the surviving parent caring for them (from numbers on each person's Social Security statement), the deceased's lost retirement saving, existing individual term policies, employer coverage (shown separately), a one-policy suggestion, a two-policy ladder suggestion, and optional quote comparison.
Savings are held at today's level for every death year. This is conservative, since real savings would likely grow.
Not in this version: whole life or other permanent insurance, disability insurance, estimated premiums (no pricing from mortality tables), single-parent households and guardianship, keeping the mortgage instead of paying it off, the survivor taking time off work, the surviving spouse's own survivor benefit at age 60+ (the gap-years note below covers this), child benefits past 18 (high school students until 19, children disabled before 22), taxes on investment earnings from the payout, three-policy ladders, and anything state-specific.
Social Security survivor benefits use a yearly approximation of the earnings test, which the Social Security Administration (SSA) actually applies by withholding whole months. Statement figures assume death this year, and benefits rise with cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs); this tool holds them constant in today's dollars.
This is information to help you think, not financial advice.