Life Insurance Cover Calculator
"Ten times your annual income" is a rule of thumb, and like most rules of thumb it is wrong for most people. What a family needs is the money to run the household for as long as it would have depended on that income, plus whatever is owed, plus the goals already committed to — less what the family already has. This calculator does that sum.
Free to use · no sign-upEverything is worked out in your browserBuilt by Naveen Kumar Pandey, ARN-276664
Your numbers
Change anything below — the result updates as you type. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
What the family would need each year in your absence — not total household spending, since your own costs stop.
Until the youngest child is earning, or until your spouse reaches retirement — whichever is longer.
Home loan, car loan, personal loan, and anything you have guaranteed for someone else.
Children's higher education, a wedding — priced in today's money.
Do not include the house you live in — the family still needs somewhere to live.
Include employer group cover, but remember it usually ends when the job does.
A grieving family should not be taking market risk with this money, so keep the figure conservative.
Cover you should be looking at
₹1,75,00,000
Calculated need ₹1.65 Cr, rounded up to the next ₹25 lakh
- To replace household income
- ₹1.10 Cr
- To clear loans
- ₹25.00 L
- For future goals, at their future cost
- ₹40.24 L
- Less what the family already has
- ₹10.00 L
- Income replacement₹1,09,92,019 · 63%
- Loans₹25,00,000 · 14%
- Future goals₹40,24,393 · 23%
That works out to roughly 27.5 times the annual amount you are replacing. The familiar "ten times income" rule is a starting point, not an answer — a large home loan or young children push the real figure well above it.
Buy this as a term plan, not as an investment-linked policy. A term plan pays nothing back if you survive the term, which is exactly why it buys so much more cover for the same premium. Keep protection and investment separate.
What this calculator assumes
- The payout is invested and earns the return you enter, while the household's costs rise with the inflation you enter. The gap between the two is what makes the money last.
- The household expenses figure should be what the family would need in your absence, not total current household spending — your own costs stop.
- Any existing savings and any life cover already in force are subtracted, so enter both.
- The suggested sum assured is rounded up to the next ₹25 lakh, because that is how policies are actually sold.
Please read this
Insurance is the subject matter of solicitation. This is a planning estimate, not a quote and not an offer of cover. Your actual premium depends on your age, health, habits, occupation, income proof and the insurer's underwriting decision, and cover is subject to the terms, exclusions and waiting periods in the policy document issued by the insurer. Answer every question in the proposal form truthfully — non-disclosure is the most common reason a claim is rejected.
The figures shown are an illustration produced from the numbers you typed in. They are not a quote, a guarantee, an offer or personal financial advice, and nothing here takes account of your own circumstances. Read the full disclaimer before acting on any of it.
Questions people ask us about this
Term plan or an endowment or ULIP?
For pure protection, a term plan — it buys the largest cover for the smallest premium precisely because it pays nothing if you survive the term. Mixing insurance with investment usually gives you too little of both. Keep them separate: term cover for protection, mutual funds or deposits for growth.
How long should the policy run?
Until your dependants no longer depend on your income — commonly until the youngest child is earning and any home loan is repaid, which for most people is somewhere around age sixty. Cover beyond that is rarely worth its rising cost.
Do I need cover if I do not earn a salary?
Possibly. If a homemaker were gone, the household would have to pay for the work that person does. And any loan you have guaranteed or co-signed does not disappear. It is worth ten minutes of arithmetic rather than an assumption.
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This tool does arithmetic. It does not know your income, your other commitments, how you would react to a bad year, or what tax you pay. Send us the figure you arrived at and we will tell you honestly whether the plan behind it holds up.
Ready when you are
Want us to run the numbers with you?
Bring your own figures and we will work through them with you — including what could go wrong.