Life Insurance | Coverage recommendation

Welcome! I'm Wallis, here to help make life insurance easy.

Answer a few questions to calculate the coverage needed to replace your income (or care you provide for free) for your loved ones.

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What state do you live in?

How old are you?

What age do you plan to retire? Hint: 67 is a good assumption for many people.

Now, let’s get some numbers. No need to be exact here, a ballpark estimate will work!

First, two questions about you, as an individual.

What's your annual, pre-tax income?

Don't include income from a spouse or partner.

If your primary role is providing unpaid care, enter at least $60,000.

How much life insurance coverage do you already have?

Just you, exclude any spouse's coverage.

Do not include coverage that you plan to drop if you were to buy a new life insurance policy.

We generally recommend excluding any life insurance from your work, too.

Learn why.

Great, now a few questions about your household. Include yourself and any spouse or partner.

What debts do you have? Enter total amount owed - a ballpark estimate is OK.

Mortgage

Student Debt (exclude any federal loans)

Auto Debt

Credit Card Debt (ignore this if you pay in full each month)

Other Debt

Would you want your mortgage paid off in full if you died? If you're not sure, don't worry - choose one for now and you can change it later.

Yes - I want to provide extra cushion so my loved ones can pay off the mortgage in full, in addition to replacing most of my income.No - paying off the mortgage in full is not necessary. My loved ones would be OK handling the mortgage so long as my life insurance replaced most of my income.

About how much are your household savings?

Exclude your home equity.

Include your (and any spouse or partner's) brokerage accounts, retirement savings and bank accounts. We're just making sure we don't suggest too much insurance!

Next, just a few questions about your family and loved ones.

Do you have any children?

Tip: Include any children you plan to have in the next couple of years

Also include any children in your life who you support financially (niece, nephew, stepchild, etc).

YesNo

How old are your children? Enter '0' for a newborn, baby arriving soon (congrats!), or child you plan to have.

Child's age:

Add a child
What type of post-secondary education do you plan for your children?

Why do we ask?

We ask because covering some portion of your kids' education - even if you're not around - is important for many families.

Private - $65K/yr (expensive)Private - $45K/yr (average)Public, out-of-state - $35K/yr (average)Public, in-state - $20K/yr (average)2 year - $12K/yr (average)

How many years into the future do you expect your kids will rely on your income?

Most parents assume their children will be financially dependent at least until age 21. Some parents plan to provide support beyond then (i.e. grad school).

If you don’t work for compensation (say you’re a stay-at-home parent), consider how many years into the future your family would need to hire a paid caregiver.

Do you have a spouse or partner?

YesNo

If the income you earn were suddenly gone, would that be financially disruptive for your surviving spouse?

YesNo

Now let's figure out whether your spouse will be financially dependent on you longer than your kid(s).

Let's fast forward 0 years - to the day your children become financially independent. Now imagine that you have no life insurance and you die. At that future date, would your spouse be on track to retire comfortably without your income?

Yes, we are on track to have enough money saved in 0 years that my spouse's solo retirement would be on track by thenMaybe, but I would feel better about giving my spouse some buffer. I like the idea of replacing my income for 5 years, to give an extra 5 years of cushion to my spouseNo, my spouse would need my income for the full 67 years until my retirement to be on track for their own solo retirement.

Now let's figure out the financial cushion that would be best for your spouse.

If you were to die today and had no life insurance, would your spouse be on track to retire comfortably without your income?

If I died, my spouse would just need a year or two of "breathing room" to get back on their feet and be self-supportingMy spouse would need my income replaced for 67 years, all the way to my planned retirement ageSomewhere in between: if I died, my spouse would need my income for awhile, but if my coverage replaced my earnings for ~35 years, they would be fine financially

Are there other people in your life (financially dependent parents or siblings, for example) who rely on your income?

YesNo

How many years into the future do you expect they will rely on your income?

Until my planned retirement ageNumber of years:

Some people want to leave an additional amount for loved ones to cover other goals, such as final expenses (funeral or celebration of life event), legal bills, an additional inheritance, etc. If you'd like to do that, you can enter an amount here. It's OK to leave this as zero. This is usually a number between $0 and $50,000.

Life Insurance | Coverage Recommendation