The income-replacement case
The standard framework is “DIME”: Debt + Income replacement (typically 10-20 years) + Mortgage + Education. The output is the face value of term insurance that keeps the household whole if the breadwinner dies during the working years. Term policies are cheap, predictable, and structured to expire roughly when the income-replacement need does — kids grown, mortgage paid, retirement assets in place.
If you are in this category, the calculator below will hand you a defensible number in about 30 seconds. The right policy is almost always level-premium term from a highly-rated carrier; permanent insurance is rarely the right fit at this life stage.
The estate-liquidity case
The HNW conversation is structurally different. The federal estate exemption is at a historic high — $15 million per individual / $30 million per married couple in 2026 — but the households at and above that line typically hold their wealth in forms that do not convert smoothly into a tax check. A family business. Appreciated real estate. A concentrated equity position that became 60% of the portfolio. Art. Carried interest. The IRS wants the estate-tax payment within nine months. The wrong assets get sold under duress.
Properly-structured life insurance — usually permanent, usually held inside an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) so the death benefit sits outside the taxable estate — is the cleanest way we know to pre-fund that tax bill. Heirs inherit the business, the building, the position. The policy pays the IRS. We at T&T Capital Management coordinate this piece tightly with the client’s estate attorney and CPA; the ILIT structure and Crummey-letter funding cadence are not DIY work.
What this calculator does
Pick a mode. Fill in the inputs. The tool returns a recommended face value, a coverage gap (net of existing in-force coverage), and a product-type framing — what shape of policy actually fits the need.
Run yours.