How much life insurance does your family actually need?
Start from what your family would still owe and still need, not from a multiple of your salary. Add up the debts that would not disappear, the years of income they would need replacing, one-off costs like education, and final expenses. Then subtract the coverage and savings that already exist. What is left is your gap, and that gap is the number worth insuring.
The rule of thumb is a starting point, not an answer
You have probably heard ten times your income. It is a reasonable place to begin a conversation and a poor place to end one, because it does not know anything about you. It does not know your mortgage balance, whether your spouse works, how old your children are, or whether your business would survive a month without you.
Think of it the way a builder thinks about a quote over the phone. He can give you a number before he has seen the house. He would just rather see the house.
Start with what would still be owed
The honest method is arithmetic, and you can do most of it at your own kitchen table in about twenty minutes. Add up what your family would still owe and still need. Then subtract what already exists. The gap is your number.
| Add up | Why it belongs | Where to find the number |
|---|---|---|
| Debts that do not die with you | The mortgage, car loans, credit cards, and any business debt you personally guaranteed. | Your latest statements. Use the payoff figure, not the monthly payment. |
| Income your family would need replacing | Your take-home pay, multiplied by the number of years they would need it. Until the youngest finishes school is a common marker. | A recent pay stub, and an honest guess at the years. |
| One-off costs ahead | Education, a wedding, or a lump sum you always intended to leave. | Your own intentions. Nobody else can supply this line. |
| Final expenses | Funeral, last medical bills, and the loose ends that arrive in the first month. | Ask us. Local costs are the ones we see every week. |
Then subtract what is already there. Existing policies, including anything through work. Savings genuinely earmarked for this. Any survivor benefit your family would receive. What is left over is the coverage gap, and that gap is the number worth insuring.
A worked example
Take a couple near Gettysburg, both working, two children aged nine and twelve. The mortgage payoff is $180,000. They want the surviving parent to have ten years of the higher income replaced, which is about $55,000 a year after tax, so $550,000. They would like $40,000 set aside per child for schooling, and $15,000 for final expenses. That totals $825,000.
Now subtract. There is a $100,000 group policy through his employer and $60,000 in savings they would genuinely use for this. The gap is $665,000.
So the answer is not "ten times income." It is roughly $665,000, and it came from their own numbers rather than a magazine. Change one fact, say the mortgage is nearly paid off, and the answer moves by most of $180,000.
Two things people get wrong
Counting the group policy as permanent. Coverage through an employer usually ends when the job does, and it rarely follows you into retirement. It is a real number, but it is a number on loan.
Insuring only the earner. If one parent is at home, replacing what they do costs real money: childcare, transport, the hundred jobs nobody invoices for. That work has a market price even though it never appears on a pay stub.
The number is not permanent either
A mortgage shrinks. Children finish school. A business grows or sells. The figure that was right when your youngest was in nappies is usually too high by the time they leave home, and the coverage you bought as a newlywed is often too low the year you buy the bigger house. It is worth looking at again when something large changes, and telling us when it does.
None of this requires a spreadsheet you dread opening. It requires an hour, your actual statements, and someone who will tell you when the answer is "you already have enough."
Where we fit
We work the arithmetic with you, then shop the number across multiple carriers, because the same coverage is not the same price everywhere and health history moves the answer more than most people expect. You decide what to buy. We do the legwork and the paperwork.
This is general education about how coverage is sized, not a recommendation about your situation, and it is not tax or legal advice. What your family actually needs depends on facts we would have to see. If a policy is right for you, we will say so, and if you are already covered we will say that too.
While we are on the subject.
Is ten times my income a good rule?
It is a reasonable starting point and a poor finishing point. It knows nothing about your mortgage balance, your spouse's income, or how old your children are. Use it to begin the conversation, then do the arithmetic properly.
Does my policy through work count?
It counts today and it usually ends when the job does. Group coverage rarely follows you into retirement, so treat it as a real number that is on loan rather than a permanent part of the plan.
Should we insure a parent who is not earning?
Usually yes. Replacing what an at-home parent does costs real money: childcare, transport, and a hundred jobs nobody invoices for. That work has a market price even though it never appears on a pay stub.
How often should the number be revisited?
When something large changes. A mortgage paid down, a child finishing school, a business sold or grown. The figure that fit when your youngest was small is usually wrong by the time they leave home.
What if my health history is complicated?
There is almost always a path. Because we represent multiple carriers, a history that one company declines is often accepted by another. Bring us the diagnosis and let us do the shopping.
Bring us the version of this question that is actually yours.
The first conversation is free, and it stays in plain English.
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