The most effective way to calculate your Term Insurance Cover

Breaking Bad S2E1
Walter White: Adjusting for inflation - good state college - adjusting for inflation, say $45,000 a year, two kids, four years of college...$360,000. Remaining mortgage on the home, $107,000. Home equity line, $30,000, that's $137,000. Cost of living, food, clothing, utilities, say two grand a month? I mean, that should put a dent in it, anyway. 24K a year provides for, say, ten years. That's $240,000, plus 360 plus 137...737. $737,000, that's what I need.

Remember this scene?

While you were engrossed in this captivating episode where a nervous, worried Mr. White is calculating the money his family will need after he dies, you knowingly or unknowingly learned a big lesson in calculating the term life insurance coverage you need.

You buy Term Insurance to protect family members dependent on your earnings, from any financial disruptions, when you pass away. This will be caused by the financial gap between what you will leave for them and what they need.

How do you calculate this gap?

There are two major steps in calculating the gap, or the cover amount you need.

1. First, Calculate the amount you owe.

2. Then, Calculate the amount you own

The difference between these two amounts gives you the financial gap you need, to cover through term life insurance, to financially secure your dependent family members.

Let’s dig deeper.

THE AMOUNT YOU OWE

This is basically the amount your loved ones will have to foot in the absence of the primary earning member - including short-term everyday expenses as well as long-term expenses.

This can be sub-categorized and calculated under three headers, as follows.

A. Living Expenses: This fund is required to create a corpus that will provide regular passive income for your family’s everyday needs. You can calculate it by totalling both monthly as well as annual expenses like school fees, househelp pay, rent, utlity bills, grocery, etc. Then, divide the amount you have arrived at by the expected interest rate. You should take it as 3% - the current FDs interest rate after subtracting taxes.

B. Big Dreams: This fund includes big lump sum expenses in the long term, like your spouse's education, child's higher education, weddings, etc.

C. Major Liabilities: You need to take stock of any loans/liabilities you have taken. These will have to be repaid by your family if you pass away. Add all the loans (home loan, personal loan, vehicle loan, joint loan, etc.) to understand the amount you owe.

Next, moving to the amount you have.

THE AMOUNT YOU OWN

It might seem pretty straightforward that you will simply add up all the money and value of assets you’ve got. But, that's not the case.

All your assets will not be readily liquidable and they come with certain varying risk factors. What you need to do is multiply them with their respective risk factors to arrive at the “effective amount” you own. Here's how -

Existing Life Insurance Covers @ 100%
Savings, FDs & Cash @ 100% - You can consider these amounts at a 100% value
Equity investments @ 50% - Conservatively, take all your equity shares and equity-linked investments at half their total value
Gold & residential property@ 0%: Practically speaking, you would not want these assets to be liquidated for grocery purchases. So, take them at zero value.
Stock options @ 0%: As these are high-risk investments, take them at zero value. If any of them pay off, consider it a bonus.

Totalling all these calculations will help you arrive at the actual amount you own.

Now, you can calculate the total cover you will need using the formula -

But what about inflation?

For the sake of simplicity, this calculation considers a scenario where death happens today.

We strongly recommend you opt for the increasing cover option available with all leading term life insurance plans - this will ensure your cover increases systematically over a period of time beating inflation.

If you want to factor in inflation for the entire term right now, you may multiply this cover amount by 2.5 to 3X to calculate the inflation proof cover you need.

Haven't you read our eBook yet?

Our recently launched The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Term Insurance has detailed illustrated examples for the process of calculating the appropriate cover amount for oneself.

You must get a FREE copy and refer to the step-by-step process with examples - so you will never go wrong!

Grab your copy here: https://www.beshak.org/term-insurance/e-book/buy-guide

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Check out Beshak TruMatch - the first-ever term insurance recommendation engine that recommends the right cover amount for your family and the customizations you must pick so that your term plan is perfectly tailored to your family’s needs.