Important Facts

Calculating Your Life Insurance Needs

Calculating how much life insurance you need can be tough. Here are some websites that contain insurance calculators so you can accurately estimate your coverage needs when purchasing a policy.

The Life Insurance Calculator: Crunching the Numbers to Meet Your Needs

Today, there is an estimated $15.3 trillion dollars in unmet life insurance needs in the U.S.1 Not only are these numbers a clear indication as to how wide the life insurance gap is, but the importance of figuring out how to close it. Without taking the necessary steps to determine how much life insurance you may need, you might as well be sitting at the roulette table taking another spin and simply guessing.

A better way to crunch the numbers is with a life insurance calculator. To help get you started, try giving one of these a spin.

Calculate Your Needs.

Life Happens, a nonprofit organization that recognizes the need to better educate the public about the importance of insurance planning, has created an online life insurance calculator that can help you determine your life insurance needs. By taking into account your final expenses such as uncovered medical bills, funeral and estate-settling costs, outstanding debts, the balance of your mortgage, and college costs.

By answering a few simple questions, Bankrate's calculator can provide you with an estimate of how much life insurance coverage you may need based on your individual situation. At the end, you'll have a recommendation for approximately how much life insurance you may need.

Our own online life insurance calculator can provide you with a needs analysis so that you can quickly and easily calculate how much coverage may be necessary to meet your immediate obligations and to sustain your household after you die.

360degrees of Financial Literacy.

Here you'll find a unique calculator that can provide you with an estimate of your life insurance needs by taking into account your current assets, expenses, and income. It even allows you to adjust the inflation rate and your expected rate of return to see how these variables may impact your insurance needs. When you're finished with inputting the data, just press the "View Report" button to see a year by year breakdown of your family's future income and expenses.

A life insurance calculator can be a useful tool when it comes to estimating your life insurance needs. However, for a more detailed analysis, be sure to consult with a qualified life insurance professional or a financial advisor.

1. LIMRA Closing the Insurance Gap: One Household at a Time, 2012

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