Life insurance
How much life insurance does your family need?
Six questions, about a minute. The same math our agents use at the desk — debts, income replacement, final expenses and college. No contact details, no email required.
Estimated need
$0
An estimate for planning purposes, not a quote or an offer of coverage. What you actually pay depends on your age, health and the carrier. Oregon License #100171326.
How this is calculated
- Your mortgage balance plus other debts, paid off in full.
- Your yearly income replaced — 5× if you own your home, 10× if you rent, since renters have no home equity behind them.
- $25,000 in final expenses per adult.
- $100,000 per child under 18 toward college.
- Rounded up to the nearest $50,000.
Why the number is usually higher than people expect
Most families think of life insurance as covering the funeral. The bigger job is replacing the paycheque — the mortgage still has to be paid every month, and a surviving spouse with young children rarely wants to also take on a second job. That's why income carries the largest share of the estimate above.
Term life is what makes those amounts affordable. A healthy 35-year-old can often cover $500,000 for roughly the price of a phone bill, and the policy is sized to the years when the kids are at home and the mortgage is still large.
Want this checked against what you already have through work? Group coverage usually ends when the job does, and it's rarely enough on its own — how life insurance works in Oregon.