Life insurance calculator
Add up your mortgage, debts, income and savings to see an estimate. Results are shown on screen.
About this calculator
This calculator adds up the main costs your family might need to cover — your mortgage, other debts, a number of years of income and future education costs — then takes away savings and any existing life cover.
Education costs are estimated at £20,000 per child. That figure is our assumption rather than an official cost, so you can change it in the calculator. The result is rounded up to the nearest £5,000. The amount of cover you choose is up to you.
Everything is worked out in your browser. The figures you enter aren’t sent to us or saved.
How much life insurance do I need?
Life insurance pays out if you die during the policy term, so a useful way to decide how much cover you need is to work out what that money would have to do. For most families that means clearing what you owe, replacing the income they would lose and paying for anything else you’d want taken care of. Then you take away the money that would already be there.
The calculator follows those steps. Here is what each figure covers.
-
Outstanding mortgageWhat’s left to pay on your mortgage today. Your latest statement or your lender’s app will show it. Clearing it would let your family stay in the home without the monthly payments.
-
Other debtsPersonal loans, car finance, credit cards and overdrafts that your family would otherwise have to keep paying.
-
Income to replaceYour yearly take-home pay multiplied by the number of years your family would rely on it. There is more on this below.
-
Children’s educationA set amount for each child, £20,000 unless you change it, towards costs such as further education, university or training. It is an assumption, not a known cost.
-
Final expensesA funeral and any other one-off costs. For reference, British Seniors’ Funeral Costs Report 2025 puts the average overall cost of a funeral in the UK at £5,212, and SunLife gives £3,828 as the average cost of a simple attended funeral. The calculator starts at £4,000.
-
Savings & investmentsMoney your family could use, such as savings accounts and investments. Leave out anything already set aside for something else.
-
Existing life coverAny cover you already have, including death-in-service benefit from your employer. Death-in-service is usually tied to your job, so it may stop if you leave.
Compare quotes from a panel of UK insurers
- Quick 3 step process
- 60 second form
- Free quotes, no obligation
A worked example
With the figures the calculator starts with, the estimate works out like this. Change any figure above and the estimate updates straight away.
| Part of the estimate | Amount |
|---|---|
| Mortgage Outstanding balance | £180,000 |
| Income replacement £28,000 × 10 years | £280,000 |
| Other debts Loans, car finance, cards | £8,000 |
| Children’s education 2 × £20,000 | £40,000 |
| Final expenses Funeral and one-off costs | £4,000 |
| Total costs | £512,000 |
| Less savings and existing cover £15,000 + £0 | −£15,000 |
| Costs less savings | £497,000 |
| Your estimate Rounded up to the nearest £5,000 | £500,000 |
Level or decreasing cover for the mortgage
The calculator counts your mortgage as one amount that stays the same for the whole term. That matches level term cover, where the payout stays the same until the policy ends.
With a repayment mortgage, though, the amount you owe falls over time. Decreasing term cover works in a similar way: the payout reduces over the term, roughly in line with a repayment mortgage. Because the cover falls, it is typically cheaper than level cover.
Each insurer works out how its decreasing cover falls using an interest rate set in the policy. Aviva’s Life Insurance Plan uses a fixed rate of 8%, Virgin Money models its decreasing cover on 6% and Zurich Personal Protection, sold through advisers, lets you choose a fixed rate between 2% and 18%. If the rate on your mortgage is higher than the policy’s rate, or your mortgage changes, the payout may not be enough to repay the mortgage in full.
The table shows a £180,000 repayment mortgage over 25 years at a steady 4.5%, next to decreasing cover that reduces at 8%. The balance falls slowly at first and faster towards the end. At the higher rate the cover falls more slowly, so it stays above the balance.
| Years into the term | Mortgage balance at 4.5% | Decreasing cover at 8% |
|---|---|---|
| Start | £180,000 | £180,000 |
| 5 years | £158,144 | £166,093 |
| 10 years | £130,785 | £145,374 |
| 15 years | £96,537 | £114,506 |
| 20 years | £53,666 | £68,517 |
| 25 years | £0 | £0 |
Our illustration, with rates that stay the same for the whole term. Each policy sets out how its own cover reduces in the policy schedule.
With an interest-only mortgage the balance stays the same until the end of the term, so level cover works in a similar way. Level cover over the same 25 years would stay at £180,000 throughout.
If you’d rather protect the mortgage with a separate decreasing policy, you could enter £0 for the mortgage here and use the mortgage life insurance calculator or the decreasing life insurance calculator for that part.
Replacing your income
Income replacement is often the largest part of the estimate. The calculator multiplies the yearly income you enter by the number of years your family would need it. It asks for take-home pay, after tax, National Insurance and pension contributions, because that is what your household lives on.
For the number of years, a common starting point is the time until your youngest child finishes full-time education, or until your mortgage ends. If your partner would need to work fewer hours to look after children, you could add the income they would lose.
The estimate is in today’s money. A level payout stays the same, so it may buy less in 15 or 20 years’ time. Some policies offer increasing cover instead: Guardian’s Increasing Cover rises in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI), and Legal & General gives the option each year to increase cover in line with RPI without further medical evidence.
Income can also be replaced with regular payments rather than one lump sum. Family income benefit gives your family a regular payout for the rest of the policy term instead of a lump sum. LV=’s Family Income Benefit, for example, is designed to pay a tax-free monthly income until the end of the term.
Reviewing your cover after life events
The figures above change as your life does. Buying a home, having a child, getting married, a pay rise or paying off a large debt can all change how much cover you need, so it’s worth running the calculator again when they happen.
Some policies let you increase your cover after certain life events without answering new medical questions. Legal & General lets policyholders increase cover on specified life events without further medical information, up to the lower of £200,000 or 100% of the original cover in total. Zurich Life Protection lets you increase cover within 90 days of a significant life event, such as moving house, getting married or having a child.
These options come with conditions. The Exeter’s guaranteed insurability option, for example, is only available to policyholders under 55, and increasing cover outside that option needs a new application. Your policy documents set out what applies to you.
Working out cover for a couple
Couples can take out one joint policy or two single policies. A joint policy covers two people but pays the cover amount once, usually when the first person dies, and Nationwide says it’s usually cheaper than two single policies. Our guide to joint or single life insurance compares the two, including what happens if you separate.
For a joint policy, run the calculator once with your shared figures. For two single policies, run it once for each of you: enter the income your household would lose if that person died, and the cover each of you already has.
Life insurance calculator questions
It depends on what the money would need to pay for. Add up your mortgage, other debts, the income your family would need for a number of years and any other costs, then take away savings and any cover you already have. The calculator on this page does this for you and shows an estimate on screen.
Some people use a multiple of their salary as a quick guide. Adding up your own mortgage, debts, income and costs, as this calculator does, gives a figure based on your circumstances rather than a general rule. Either way, the amount of cover you choose is up to you.
Take-home pay, because that is what your household lives on day to day. If your partner would need to cut their working hours to look after children, you could add that lost income too.
There’s no fixed answer. Common choices are the years until your youngest child finishes full-time education, or until your mortgage ends. The calculator starts at 10 years: change it to suit your family.
You can enter it as existing life cover. Death-in-service is usually tied to your job, so it may stop if you leave or change employer. Some people leave it out for that reason.
No. The figures are in today’s money, and a level payout stays the same over the term. Some policies offer cover that rises with inflation: Guardian’s Increasing Cover, for example, rises in line with RPI.
Aviva says its Life Insurance Plan payouts are currently free of UK income tax and capital gains tax, but may be subject to inheritance tax unless the policy is in a suitable trust. Zurich says a trust also means the money is usually paid more quickly, without waiting for probate.
No. The calculator estimates how much cover you might need, not what it would cost. The price depends on things like your age, health, whether you smoke, the cover amount and the term. The average life insurance cost calculator shows how these affect prices.
Sources
The facts on this page come from these sources.
- Insurer documents: Aviva, British Seniors, Guardian, Legal & General, LV=, Nationwide, Scottish Widows, SunLife, The Exeter, Virgin Money, Zurich. Each insurer’s policy documents, claims figures and announcements are listed in our review of that insurer.
Related pages
-
Term life insurance
Cover for a set number of years, with level or decreasing cover.
-
Family life insurance
Cover that helps your family with everyday costs.
-
Life insurance in trust
How a trust works and how it can affect the payout.
