About How Much Life Insurance Does Someone Need? 
The biggest factor influencing life insurance need is income and how much of that income needs to be replaced . For example , if someone is making $ 100k , they are probably bringing home about $ 5-6k / month , which is what needs to be replaced . You can initially use a multiple of salary to get a rough estimate . 8-10X income is a good rule of thumb , depending on their age and income level . In other words , if someone is young and they have kids and the wife is home , and cash flow is tight , they are probably going to need 12X income . If their income is higher , and/or they are older , then it is probably closer to 8X income . Capitalizing their monthly take home pay , if that is what it takes to run the house hold gives you the most accurate estimate.Using the example above , if they are taking home $ 5k/month , that is $ 60k/year . If you divide that number by 5 % , you get a pretty accurate figure of $ 1.2 million , which happens to be 12X income . 