The short answer
The standard approach is debts + income replacement + final costs − what you already have. Clear the mortgage and other debt, replace the income your dependants rely on for as long as they rely on it, allow for funeral and estate costs, then subtract savings and any existing cover.
The calculator below does that. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.
Last reviewed 2026-07-30
Your numbers
Indicative cover
How to read the result
Treat it as a starting figure, not an answer. It deliberately does not try to be clever — it does not discount future income to present value, model inflation, or assume investment returns on the payout. Those refinements move the number in both directions and they require assumptions you would have to defend.
What this figure is genuinely good for: walking into a conversation knowing roughly what you are aiming at, and being able to tell whether a quote you have been given is in the right postcode.
The inputs people get wrong
- Annual living costs. People enter their salary. The right figure is what the household would need, which is usually lower than gross salary (your own costs go with you) but higher than people assume once childcare is included.
- Years to replace. Not "until retirement" — until the people who depend on you no longer do. For a family with a three-year-old, that is roughly fifteen to eighteen years.
- Existing cover. Include employer or group scheme cover, but know that it usually ends when the job does. Cover you would lose on resignation is not cover you can plan around.
- Savings. Only count what your family could actually access. Money tied up in the house they are living in does not help them stay in it.
Insure the gap, not a round number.
What this cannot tell you
Whether you should hold it as level or stepped premiums, who should own the policy, whether trauma should be bundled or standalone, and which insurer would underwrite your health history most favourably. Those decide what actually gets paid, and none of them are arithmetic. The life insurance guide covers them →
Common follow-up questions
Is 10x my salary a good rule of thumb?
It is a rough heuristic that happens to land near the right answer for a mid-career person with a mortgage and young children, and badly wrong for everyone else. Someone with no dependants and no debt needs far less; someone with a large mortgage and four children may need considerably more. A calculation built from your actual obligations beats a multiplier.
Should I include my KiwiSaver?
Your KiwiSaver balance is paid to your estate on death, so it does reduce the gap — include it under savings if you want the sharper figure. Bear in mind it is also the retirement provision for a surviving partner, so counting it fully against your life cover need may leave them short later.
Do I need cover if my partner earns well?
Possibly less, but rarely none. Test it directly: could their income alone service the mortgage and cover childcare, given they may also need to reduce their hours? For many households the answer is no, and that shortfall is the number.
Keep reading
This page is general information about how insurance works in New Zealand. It is not regulated financial advice and it does not take your situation into account. For advice about your own cover, talk to a licensed financial adviser.