Guide
How much life insurance do you need?
A tool plus its logic: years of income, liabilities, tuition, and current assets.
A standard technique: tally what your earnings would provide if you were here, then remove existing resources. Exactness isn't required: policies come in standard increments, so the target is a sum that maintains balance during critical years.
Coverage estimate
Formula: (income × years) + obligations + schooling costs − existing reserves, rounded to $5,000 increments. Use this as a reference point, not guidance.
Why those inputs
Earning span. Advisors typically recommend ten to twenty years of pay; your choice hinges on when support ends. In Fremont, households with young kids often lean toward the longer horizon because childcare fees, rent or mortgage, and school spending cluster.
Obligations. For most, the mortgage dominates. A benefit large enough to retire that debt gives your survivors freedom in where and how they live.
Schooling. A ballpark per-child sum in present dollars. Including it now beats layering on a second contract later.
Current assets. Liquid reserves and workplace group plans. Keep in mind that employer coverage stops when employment does, so most factor only a portion.
Once you settle on a figure, the quote tool displays monthly costs across all terms from 10 through 30 years. People frequently purchase above their estimate because expense growth stays minimal in earlier ages.