Coverage calculator
This uses the DIME method — Debt, Income, Mortgage, Education — the same arithmetic a licensed agent starts from. It runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to us unless you ask us to look at it.
Estimated coverage gap
$1,030,000
This is a general estimate, not a recommendation or an offer of insurance. The DIME method is a starting point — it doesn't account for taxes, inflation, Social Security survivor benefits, your spouse's income, or anything specific to your situation. A licensed agent will work through the real number with you.
So you have the numbers, no call required.
Every balance that would outlive you — car loans, credit cards, student loans, medical bills — plus the cost of settling an estate.
The paycheck your household would lose, multiplied by the number of years your family would still need it.
What's left on the house, so the people you leave behind get to stay in it without a monthly scramble.
What it would cost to get each child through school, at today's tuition rather than the number you remember.
Same arithmetic, three households. The point isn't the totals — it's how differently they land for people who earn similar money.
The group policy through work covers roughly 3% of the need. Assuming employer coverage is enough is the single most common miscalculation we see.
The need has shifted away from income replacement and toward estate and legacy questions — which is where permanent coverage starts to make sense rather than more term.
There's no group plan underneath this one, and the business debt is personally guaranteed — so it would follow the estate rather than dissolve with the business.
Eligible surviving spouses and dependent children can receive monthly benefits on the deceased worker's record. Amounts depend on earnings history and circumstances, so we can't estimate them here — but for a family with young children it can be meaningful, and it argues for a smaller number than the raw arithmetic.
DIME replaces your whole income. If your spouse works and would continue to, the real gap is smaller.
Twenty years of income replaced in today's dollars isn't twenty years of purchasing power.
Group coverage through an employer usually ends when the job does, and it's often only one or two times salary.
Most consumer debt is settled from the estate, but a personally guaranteed business loan or a co-signed obligation can land on someone else.
This is why the number is a starting point for a conversation, not a recommendation. The right answer is usually within a range, not a single figure.
Fast, and better than nothing. It's also blind to everything specific to you — how much is left on the house, whether you have children to put through school, and what coverage you already carry. Two people with the same salary can need wildly different amounts.
A floor, not an answer. It keeps the house, which matters, but it replaces none of the income the household ran on and none of the costs that come after — and it quietly assumes someone will still be earning.
DIME asks for the handful of numbers that actually move the total — debt, income, mortgage, education — and subtracts what you already have. It takes two minutes instead of two seconds, and it lands close enough to be worth talking about. It still isn't a recommendation: that requires knowing your household, your health, and your budget.