A cover figure that
survives being questioned.
Most term policies in India are sized by whatever premium felt comfortable. This is the other way of doing it — from your dependents, your liabilities and the goals you have already promised. Work through the checklist, then run the numbers below.
The arithmetic underneath term insurance is not complicated, and it is worth understanding rather than delegating:
Everything below is that one line, broken into questions you can actually answer. Tick as you go; progress stays in your browser. There is a live estimator further down, and a link to it in the sidebar.
Who depends on your income
Term cover is not for you. Start by naming the people it is actually for.
Income to be replaced
The largest component for most households, and the one most often guessed at.
Goals already promised
Inflate each one to the year it falls due. A cost quoted in today's rupees will understate the requirement badly.
Liabilities that outlive you
Debt does not die with the borrower. It becomes the family's first problem, before grief has finished.
Immediate cash the family needs
The first six months, when the income has stopped and the paperwork has not started.
What already exists, and gets subtracted
Insurance fills the gap between the requirement and what the family already has. Skip this step and you overbuy.
Assumptions, stated openly
Every cover figure rests on assumptions. Writing them down is what makes the answer reviewable later.
Sanity checks before you buy
Run these against whatever figure you have arrived at. If any answer is no, the number is wrong.
Your numbers, the arithmetic
done in front of you.
All amounts in ₹ lakh. Nothing is sent anywhere — the calculation runs entirely in your browser. This is a starting range for a conversation, not a recommendation.
Cover is not sized by what feels affordable. It is sized by what stops if you do.
Reading the output honestly
- It is a range, not an answer. Move the inflation and return assumptions by one percentage point each and watch the figure shift. That sensitivity is the real lesson — precision here is false comfort.
- Round up, not down. The marginal premium for the next ₹25 lakh of term cover is usually small. The marginal regret is not.
- Buy it now rather than perfectly later. Premiums are set by your entry age and health, and both only move one way. An adequate policy today beats an optimal one in three years.
- Cross-check against the rule of thumb. Ten to fifteen times annual income is crude, but if your calculation lands far outside it, something in the inputs deserves a second look.
- Revisit after any large change. A child, a home loan, a job change, a business started. Cover set once and never reviewed drifts out of date quietly.
It does not recommend an insurer, quote a premium, or account for your tax position, and it treats goals at today's cost rather than inflating each to its own target year. It is a structured starting point — the version that accounts for goal-specific inflation, education costs and your spouse's own retirement is worth doing properly, together.
Read next.
Why a life has no market price
Life cover is the exception to indemnity, which is exactly why the sum assured has to be reasoned rather than picked.
Read →Which term riders are worth it
Waiver of premium, accidental death, critical illness — and why return of premium usually is not.
Read →What contests a term claim
Section 45, non-disclosure of smoking, stale nominations. The things that matter years later.
Read →Bring your numbers.
Leave with a figure.
Worth twenty minutes to go through properly — particularly the goal inflation and your spouse's retirement, which the estimator above deliberately keeps simple.