Start with the responsibilities your family would need to fund. A cover amount is an assumption-led starting point for a conversation, not a policy selection.
Identify the income your dependents actually use
Start with annual income after tax rather than gross salary. Separate the part spent only on yourself from the amount supporting dependents. This is a household estimate: a fixed percentage will not describe every family's circumstances.
The Human Life Value method projects that family-income stream through the remaining earning years and discounts it to today's rupees. Increasing income growth raises the estimate; a higher discount rate reduces it. Neither input is a forecast. Try several assumptions rather than treating the initial screen as your answer.
Read one year of the calculation
For an illustration with ₹12 lakh annual take-home income and 30% personal spending, ₹8.4 lakh is available to the family in the first year. At a 6% discount rate, a payment at the end of that year has a present value of about ₹7,92,453. The calculator repeats this calculation for every selected year, applying income growth from the second year.
This is an illustration, not a promised or guaranteed return. The example excludes policy underwriting and does not determine the premium or cover an insurer will offer.
Add obligations without counting them twice
Add outstanding home, car and personal-loan balances if the intention is to settle them immediately. If those balances are added, avoid also replacing the same EMI stream as part of family spending. Separate goals such as education may need their own assessment.
Deduct existing life cover only after checking when it is available and whether it depends on employment. Deduct liquid assets only when the family can actually use them for these obligations. A home, money earmarked for another goal and an inaccessible retirement asset are not automatically substitutes for income replacement.
Take useful questions into the conversation
Review the projection horizon, affordable premium commitment, disclosures, nominee details and exclusions. Ask what happens to employer cover after a job change. Include unpaid care responsibilities and other reliable household income when discussing the bigger picture.
An indicative figure to start the conversation, not a policy recommendation. Actual eligibility and premiums depend on insurer underwriting.
Explore the term-insurance calculator
Explore an income interruption