Free tool · No email required
Life insurance gap analysis & term ladder calculator
Precision underwriting means matching coverage to your actual financial shortfall. This models your mortgage amortization, income replacement, childcare, college, and final expenses year by year — minus the cash and coverage you already own — then stacks a term ladder against it.
Shown on the chart heading and the printed report.
Your situation
Answer the questions in order — or start from a preset.
Pick a realistic starting point, then adjust any number below.
What your family would need each year if you were gone — usually the income you earn.
Often until the kids are independent or your spouse retires.
One-time costs like funeral, probate, and final medical bills.
Scenario tools
Save a scenario to compare two options side by side.
Worst-year shortfall
$135,000
today
Current insurance gap
$385,000
Needed today
New ladder coverage
$250,000
In force in year one
Annual premium roll-off
$350/yr
Premium you stop paying as terms expire
Roll-off is the annual premium you stop paying once terms expire inside the 40-year model window — it is not a savings comparison against one large policy.
Required insurance vs. proposed ladder
The shaded area is what your family would still need each year after cash, savings, and coverage you already own. The stepped line is the ladder you proposed — each step down is a rung expiring.
In plain English
Your family's biggest need is $385,000 today, and your ladder covers $250,000 of it. At its worst — today — the plan is $135,000 short, right when your mortgage is still large. Adding a $135,000 rung would close that gap for roughly $189 a year. Laddering also trims premiums over time — you stop paying $350/yr as early rungs expire.
Fiduciary insight: your family has $50,000 in liquid resources plus $100,000 of existing life coverage — but it expires in year 10. We only need to bridge the remaining $385,000 today. A laddered approach keeps you from being over-insured as the mortgage, childcare, and college obligations disappear.
Year-by-year detail
Ready to price it for real?
Your family's coverage gap is real — $385,000 today. See how affordable closing it can be. Not sure which health class you would be offered? Check it in the health class estimator, or read the Texas term life page for carrier-by-carrier pricing.
Quote a ladder that closes $385,000 →What is laddering?
Instead of buying one big 30-year term policy, laddering splits your coverage into two or three smaller policies with different term lengths — for example 10, 20, and 30 years. Each rung covers you while a major obligation is still unpaid (the mortgage, income replacement, college), then expires once that obligation is gone. Short-term policies cost far less per dollar of coverage than long ones, so you pay premiums only for the protection you actually need at each stage of life.
How the model works
The mortgage is amortized properly, so the balance falls slowly in the early interest-heavy years and quickly at the end. Other debts decay to zero over the payoff years you set. Income replacement and childcare run for the years you specify. College is a timed block spread evenly over the funded years rather than a day-one lump sum. Cash, savings, and in-force life insurance are subtracted — and a term policy you already own stops offsetting the gap in the year it lapses, which is usually where a plan quietly falls short.
Model assumptions
Premiums are the ones you enter, not quotes: this tool models structure, not carrier pricing. It does not index needs for inflation, and it does not include carrier band discounts at $1M and $2M, which can make a large single policy cheaper than a ladder of smaller rungs. Real quotes decide — bring this analysis to a call and we will price it against 17 A-rated carriers. Underwriting classes are documented in our Texas underwriting guide.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a term life insurance ladder?
- A ladder splits your total death benefit across several policies with different lengths — for example 10-, 20-, and 30-year terms — so coverage steps down as the obligations behind it end, instead of paying for one large policy long after you need it.
- How much does laddering term life insurance save?
- Savings depend on how front-loaded your obligations are. Households whose largest need is a mortgage plus young children commonly see a meaningful reduction in lifetime premium versus a single 30-year policy, because the excess coverage expires early instead of being paid for across the full term.
- Are separate policy fees a problem with a ladder?
- Each policy carries its own annual fee, and the calculator includes them. On small face amounts those fees can erase the savings, which is why a ladder is generally worth modeling above roughly $500,000 of total coverage.
- Should every layer be bought from the same carrier?
- Not necessarily. Buying layers from different carriers can capture each one's best band pricing, but it also means separate underwriting decisions. The calculator assumes one health class issued on the same day, so re-run it if your layers are approved at different classes.