How much life insurance does your family actually need?
“10 times your salary” is a rule of thumb, not a plan. The real number depends on your mortgage, your kids, your spouse's income, your employer benefits, and a dozen other things specific to your family. We calculate the real number.
A real calculation, not a rule of thumb
The insurance gap analysis calculates what your family would actually need if you weren't there. It adds up:
- Income replacement:Your annual income multiplied by the years remaining until your planned retirement — the capital needed to replace your paycheque.
- Debt payoff:Outstanding mortgage, car loans, lines of credit, student loans — everything your family would need to clear.
- Children's education: The gap between projected education costs and current RESP balances.
- Childcare costs:If a non-earning spouse dies, the surviving parent needs to pay for childcare they weren't paying for before.
- Immediate expenses: Funeral costs, legal fees, and an emergency fund to keep the household running while everything gets sorted.
Then it subtracts what your family already has: personal life insurance policies, employer group life coverage, short-term and long-term disability, critical illness coverage, and CPP survivor benefits. The gap is your real number.
For couples, each member gets their own analysis. Because the coverage gap is different depending on who you're protecting.
It reads your employer benefits automatically
Most Canadians have some insurance through work but couldn't tell you exactly what. Group life? Maybe 2x salary. LTD? Something about 60% of income. Critical illness? No idea.
When you enter your employment income, the app parses your employer benefit details — group life, short-term disability, long-term disability, and critical illness coverage. These get factored into the gap analysis automatically. No digging through benefits booklets.
The result is an insurance ladder: coverage broken down by purpose (income replacement, mortgage, education) and by term (how many years you need each type). So you can buy the right coverage for the right duration instead of one oversized policy.
Protecting your family isn't about fear. It's about math. And the math is specific to your family.
Insurance connects to your whole plan
Insurance isn't an isolated decision. It connects to everything else in your financial life. Your mortgage balance comes from your liabilities. Your children's education gap comes from your RESP plan. Your income comes from your household budget. Your retirement timeline comes from your lifecycle projections.
When any of those numbers change — you pay down the mortgage, your RESP grows, your income goes up — the insurance gap recalculates. Your coverage needs evolve with your life.
And when you're ready to think about what happens after insurance — where your assets go, what taxes your estate owes, who has power of attorney — that's where estate planning and legacy planning pick up.
One plan. Everything connected. Nothing falling through the cracks.
$99/year. That's it.
Calculators and learning content are free. The planning app is $99/year per household. No credit card required to start.
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