Guide
How much life insurance do you need?
A calculator and the reasoning it uses: supporting income years, covering debts, reserving for education, and accounting for current assets.
One common method: compute what your earnings would have financed and reduce it by anything you've already arranged for. Exactness is overrated—coverage amounts are set in $50k blocks, and the goal is a realistic amount to carry your family through the critical years.
Coverage estimate
Formula: (yearly earnings × years of support) + existing debts + schooling funds − what you've already saved (rounded to the nearest $50,000). This serves as a reference, not as expert counsel.
Why those inputs
Supporting years. A span of 10 to 20 years is common, based on how long your dependents require financial support. Families in Brentwood with small kids tend toward the longer side since child-related expenses—care, housing, and academics—peak during those middle years.
Outstanding obligations. For many households, the mortgage is the largest single debt. Having enough coverage to satisfy the mortgage gives your survivors genuine control over whether to keep the home rather than being forced out by financial necessity.
College and higher education. Estimate a reasonable amount per child in today's money. Setting aside education coverage at purchase time is simpler than taking out another policy down the road.
Current security. Rainy-day savings and workplace group coverage. Remember that employment-based coverage disappears if your job ends, so accounting for only part of it is practical.
After you've figured out your target, head to the quote tool to compare costs for 10-, 15-, 20-, 25-, and 30-year coverage windows and review all participating carriers. Increasing your face value by a bit typically costs just another dollar or two a month at younger ages.