How Long Will Your Life Insurance Last? Coverage Depletion Calculator (2026)

Most life insurance calculators answer one question: how much coverage do you need? Far fewer answer the question families actually live with after a claim is paid: how long will that money last?

A $500,000 death benefit sounds like a fortune — until you model it against a real household budget. Withdrawn at $4,000 a month to replace a lost income, and adjusted for inflation, a $500,000 policy with $100,000 of immediate obligations can be gone in under nine years. If your youngest child still has 18 years until independence, the math doesn’t work: the coverage runs out and the family is left with the same bills and no paycheck.

This Coverage Depletion Calculator simulates your death benefit like a depleting account. It shows the exact year the money runs out, the age at which it happens, and the coverage amount that would actually last your full obligation window. Enter your numbers below and watch the result update instantly.

How the Coverage Depletion Calculator Works

The calculator treats a death benefit like a self-managed income account. A trusted family member (or the estate) receives the lump sum, sets aside whatever is needed immediately, and then draws a monthly income from the remaining balance. Every year the withdrawal rises with inflation, and every year the remaining balance earns the return you specify. The money lasts until the balance hits zero.

Three numbers do all the work. The principal is your death benefit minus immediate obligations such as a mortgage payoff, debts, and funeral costs. The withdrawal rate is your monthly need expressed as a share of that principal — the single biggest driver of how long the money lasts. The return and inflation rates decide how fast the balance grows versus how fast the need grows. When the withdrawal rate is very high, the return barely matters, which is an uncomfortable but important result we show in the third table below.

The second headline number — coverage needed to last your window — is the death benefit that would keep the balance above zero for your entire obligation horizon. The tool solves for it directly, so the shortfall figure is exactly the extra death benefit that would make your family whole for the full period.

Why a Death Benefit Is a Depleting Asset, Not a Fixed Number

Buyers usually think of coverage as a target they hit once: I have $500,000, so I’m covered. But a death benefit is not a salary — it is a pool of capital that has to be spent carefully over a fixed number of years. The relevant question isn’t the size of the pool; it’s the ratio between the pool and the annual cost of running the household.

A million dollars sounds safer than half a million, and it usually is — but not automatically. A household that draws $80,000 a year from a $1,000,000 benefit is depleting it at 8% a year, a pace that historically outruns almost any conservative investment return. The same $1,000,000 drawn at $40,000 a year lasts more than twice as long, and may reach the point where a survivor’s own earnings, a paid-off mortgage, and Social Security survivor benefits carry the rest of the load. Coverage adequacy is a duration question, and duration is what this tool measures.

How Long Different Death Benefits Actually Last

The table below models a family that needs $4,000 a month, has $100,000 of immediate obligations, and assumes a 3% return against 2.5% inflation. The middle column is how long the pool lasts; the right column answers whether it reaches an 18-year obligation window.

Death benefit	How long it lasts	Runs out at age (from 40)	Covers an 18-year window?
$250,000	3.1 years	Age 43	No
$500,000	8.5 years	Age 48	No
$750,000	14.0 years	Age 53	No
$1,000,000	19.6 years	Age 59	Yes

The lesson is stark: to replace $48,000 a year of household income for 18 years, a family needs roughly a million dollars of coverage — not the rounded $500,000 that most buyers settle on. The $500,000 policy that felt generous at signing runs dry at year 8.5, right around the point a child would be entering high school.

Coverage Needed to Last Each Obligation Horizon

Obligation windows differ by household. A couple with no children may only need to bridge a mortgage and a few years of transition. Parents of a newborn are on the hook for nearly two decades. The table below shows the death benefit required to fund a $4,000 monthly income need for each common horizon, holding immediate obligations at $100,000.

Coverage horizon	Coverage needed	Typical situation
10 years	$570,000	Empty nesters, short bridge to retirement
15 years	$800,000	Teens in the house, mortgage nearly paid
20 years	$1,020,000	Elementary-age children
25 years	$1,235,000	Young children plus a long mortgage
30 years	$1,445,000	Newborn plus full career-income replacement

Run your own numbers in the calculator above rather than borrowing these figures — the right horizon is the number of years until your household’s income need drops, whether that is a child turning 18, a mortgage ending, or a spouse reaching retirement. If you would rather start from total needs than from duration, the DIME life insurance calculator builds the same coverage recommendation from debts, income, mortgage, and education costs.

Does a Higher Investment Return Rescue a Coverage Shortfall?

Many buyers assume the payout can be invested aggressively and stretched further. That helps — but far less than people expect when the withdrawal rate is high. The table below holds a $500,000 death benefit constant and varies only the assumed return.

Assumed return	Years of coverage	Runs out at age (from 40)
0% (cash)	7.7 years	Age 47
3% (conservative)	8.5 years	Age 48
6% (growth-tilted)	9.6 years	Age 49

Doubling the assumed return adds less than two years of coverage. That is because the family is withdrawing roughly 12% of the available balance every year — the withdrawals swamp the growth. Investment return extends duration at the margin; it does not fix a coverage shortfall. The only levers that reliably change the answer are more coverage or a smaller monthly draw, which is exactly why the tool solves for required coverage rather than assuming the market will rescue the plan.

Signs Your Coverage Will Run Out Early

• Your withdrawal rate exceeds 7%. Drawing $50,000 a year from a $500,000 benefit is a 10% withdrawal rate — far above anything sustainable over a long horizon.
• Your obligation window is longer than 15 years. Young children, a large mortgage, or a spouse who depends entirely on your income all lengthen the clock.
• Your coverage predates a raise or a new child. A policy sized at $300,000 five years ago may be funding a very different household today.
• You excluded mortgage payoff and debts. If the benefit has to clear a large lump sum before income replacement begins, the income pool is much smaller than the face amount suggests.
• You assumed an aggressive return. Plans that only work if the money earns 7% or 8% are fragile — a single bad market year forces larger withdrawals from a smaller balance.

How to Make Your Coverage Last Longer

1. Right-size the benefit for duration, not for a round number. Use the calculator’s “coverage needed” figure to see the true target, then round up.
2. Pay off the mortgage with the benefit only if it is cheaper than the alternative. Clearing a 7% mortgage preserves monthly cash flow, but it also shrinks the invested pool — model both paths.
3. Layer a laddered term policy instead of one large policy. A 20-year tier for the children and a 10-year tier for the mortgage drops premium as each obligation ends; see the term length recommender for how to match terms to obligations.
4. Add the permanent tail. A small whole life or final expense policy covers the costs that never expire; the final expense calculator sizes that layer.
5. Revisit coverage after every life event. A birth, a raise, a refinance, or a new business loan all change the duration math — re-run this tool and adjust.

Common Mistakes That Shorten Coverage Life

• Treating the death benefit as a lump sum the family can spend freely, rather than a pool that must fund years of income.
• Ignoring inflation — a $3,500 monthly draw becomes $5,600 in 20 years at 2.5% annual inflation.
• Forgetting survivor benefits that reduce the needed draw (Social Security survivors, a spouse’s own income), which this tool leaves to you to net out.
• Shopping coverage on price alone and never re-checking duration. The cost-per-day calculator shows what coverage really costs — but cheap coverage that expires early is not cheap at all.
• Assuming a beneficiary will invest the payout wisely. Settlement-option and trust arrangements can enforce a sustainable draw; the beneficiary payout planner compares lump sum, installments, and retained-asset options.

Watch: How Much Life Insurance Do You Actually Need?

This short explainer walks through the salary-multiple rule of thumb and why a flat multiple ignores the duration question this calculator is built around.

Key Takeaways

• A death benefit is a depleting asset: what matters is the ratio of coverage to the annual cost of running the household.
• At a $4,000 monthly draw, roughly $1 million of coverage is needed to fund an 18-year window — not the $500,000 most families carry.
• Doubling the assumed investment return adds less than two years of coverage when the withdrawal rate is high.
• The fastest fix is more coverage or a smaller monthly draw, not a more aggressive portfolio.
• Re-run the math after every birth, raise, refinance, or new debt.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should life insurance coverage last?

Coverage should last until the household’s income need drops — typically the point at which the youngest child becomes independent, the mortgage is paid off, or the surviving spouse reaches retirement. For most families with young children that is an 18- to 22-year window; a 20- or 30-year level term policy is the usual match.

Is a $500,000 life insurance policy enough?

It depends entirely on the withdrawal rate. A $500,000 benefit funding a $4,000 monthly income need lasts about 8.5 years once a $100,000 immediate obligation is set aside — well short of a two-decade obligation. For low-need, short-horizon households it can be plenty; for families replacing a full income for 20 years, it usually is not.

Can investing the death benefit make it last indefinitely?

Only if the withdrawal rate is low enough that investment growth keeps pace with withdrawals and inflation. At a 4% withdrawal rate a diversified portfolio can plausibly sustain itself; at 10–12% — common when coverage is undersized — no realistic return extends the money by more than a year or two.

Does inflation really change how long coverage lasts?

Yes, and it compounds. A $4,000 monthly need becomes roughly $6,500 in 20 years at 2.5% annual inflation. Because most payout plans raise the draw to keep pace with the cost of living, the balance depletes faster than a flat-withdrawal model would suggest. The calculator’s inflation slider lets you test both.

Should the death benefit pay off the mortgage first?

Often yes — clearing a mortgage removes the largest fixed monthly cost and reduces the income the pool must replace. But every dollar spent on payoff is a dollar no longer invested, so model both paths. If the mortgage rate is low and the pool is already tight, preserving the invested balance can extend coverage.

How often should I re-run the coverage duration math?

After every material change: a birth or adoption, a significant raise or job change, a refinance or new mortgage, a new business loan, or a change in a spouse’s income. A policy that fit your household three years ago may leave a multi-year gap today.

Related Resources

• NAIC Consumer Resources — state insurance departments, policyholder rights, and complaint handling.
• AM Best Ratings Search — verify a carrier’s financial strength rating before you buy.
• IRS Publication 525 — how life insurance death benefits are treated for federal income tax.

If you are deciding between term and permanent coverage, the IUL calculator shows how long cash value keeps growing once the cost of insurance starts eating into the premium.

Not sure which riders belong on your policy? Take our interactive life insurance riders quiz (2026) to get a personalized recommendation in under a minute.