Life Insurance Calculator
How much life insurance, critical illness and income protection might you need? See the minimum, medium and maximum for your family, income and mortgage.
What would you like to see?
Pick any or all of them.
You and your family
Your income
A year, before tax. Self-employed? Use your profit, or your salary and dividends.
Your mortgage
Cover you already have
This comes off what you’d need.
Medium cover
- Life cover pays out if you die. This level clears what you owe and gives your family 50% of your take-home pay until your youngest is 18.
- Critical illness pays a lump sum if you’re diagnosed with a serious illness the policy covers, such as many cancers, heart attacks and strokes. This level clears the mortgage.
- Income protection pays a monthly income if you can’t work through illness or injury. This level is about the most insurers allow, for up to 2 years per claim.
The three levels side by side
| Minimum | Medium | Maximum | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Life cover | £190,000 | £425,000 | £755,000 |
| Critical illness | – | £180,000 | £245,000 |
| Income protection | £1,000/mo | £1,950/mo | £1,950/mo |
Worth knowing
Income protection would start after 4 weeks off work as you’d only get statutory sick pay. Savings could let you wait longer, which costs less.
This is cover on your life. If your partner earns too, run it again with their figures: couples usually cover both.
How we worked out the life cover
Take-home pay of about £31,600 a year, after Income Tax and National Insurance at 2026/27 rates. Funeral figure from SunLife’s Cost of Dying 2026 report. No allowance for inflation, investment growth or state bereavement benefits.
An idea of cover, not a recommendation. Figures are rounded and leave out the cost of cover, which depends on your age, health, smoking and the term. Every insurer has its own rules on how much it will cover.
This is an idea of the cover you might want to think about, not a recommendation. The right cover depends on your health, your budget, what your employer provides and your plans, and an advisor would look at all of that with you before suggesting anything.
Want a real figure, not an estimate?
Calculators give you a rough idea. Leave your name and number and a CeMAP-qualified advisor will call to talk you through your numbers and what lenders would actually offer.
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How much life insurance do you need?
There’s no single right answer. Most people start with what would need paying off if they died (the mortgage, other debts and a funeral), add an income for the people who rely on them, and take off any cover they already have. That’s how this calculator works, and it shows three levels so you can see the range.
The three levels
- Minimum protects the home: life cover to clear the mortgage and pay for a funeral, and income protection to keep paying the mortgage for up to two years if you can’t work.
- Medium also gives your family half your take-home pay until your youngest is 18 (or for two years, if it’s you and a partner), adds critical illness cover to clear the mortgage, and income protection at about the most insurers allow, for up to two years per claim.
- Maximum replaces all your take-home pay until your youngest is 21 (or for five years), adds two years’ take-home pay to the critical illness cover, and pays income protection until you’re 67.
Decreasing or level cover?
With a repayment mortgage the amount owed falls over time, so decreasing cover, which falls with it, usually costs less. With an interest-only mortgage the debt stays the same, so the cover needs to stay level too. Family income benefit pays a monthly income instead of a lump sum, until a date you choose, and is often a cheaper way to replace income.
Income protection
Income protection pays a monthly income if you can’t work because of illness or injury, after a waiting period you choose. Matching the wait to when your sick pay runs out keeps the cost down. Insurers usually pay up to about 60% of the first £60,000 of your income before tax, and less above that. Statutory Sick Pay is £123.25 a week, for up to 28 weeks.
Death in service
Many employers pay 2 to 4 times your salary if you die while working for them. It’s worth counting, but it stops if you leave the job, so it may not be there for the whole of your mortgage.
Writing cover in trust
Life cover can usually be written in trust, so it pays out quickly to the people you choose. We talk this through with everyone we arrange cover for.
What this calculator doesn’t do
It gives you an idea of cover, not a recommendation. It doesn’t show the cost of cover, which depends on your age, health, smoking and the term, and it doesn’t allow for inflation, investment growth or state bereavement benefits. Take-home pay uses 2026/27 tax rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For advice on your own situation, read our guide to protection or call us on 01202 733 809.
Next step: Our guide to protection and insurance