NeedTally

NeedTally

Methodology

Last updated: August 8, 2026

Planning estimate only — not insurance, legal, tax, or investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy, keep, or cancel a policy. Confirm face amounts, beneficiaries, and policy terms with a licensed professional or your insurer.

NeedTally turns household obligations into a low / mid / high coverage planning range, then subtracts life insurance you say is already in force to show a coverage gap. Defaults are editable starting points stamped 2026-08. They are not underwriting standards, carrier rules, or personal advice.

Arithmetic runs in a classic Web Worker in your browser (/brand/ntl/needtally-worker.js). Change an input and the audit table updates without sending your amounts to a quote or lead server.

Income replacement method

The income method starts with annual income multiplied by the replacement years you choose (the calculator default is 10). That income-replacement line is added to debt to clear, mortgage balance, education fund, and a fixed final-expenses estimate of $25,000.

  • Obligation stack (gross) = income replacement + debt + mortgage + education + final expenses
  • Final expenses are a planning buffer for funeral and related costs, not a line-by-line funeral quote
  • Switch to DIME on the tally panel to see which rows stay and which drop off

DIME method

DIME here means debt, income replacement, mortgage, and education — the four obligation lines that often show up in needs worksheets. NeedTally adds them the same way whether you arrived from an income-multiple page or a DIME-focused slug.

  • Obligation stack (gross) = debt + income replacement + mortgage + education
  • DIME does not add a separate final-expenses row; the income method does. That is the main structural difference between the two tabs
  • Compare both tabs when one method feels too low or too high — the audit table shows which line moved

Low / mid / high bands

After the obligation stack is totaled, NeedTally applies three multipliers to that gross stack before existing coverage is subtracted for the gap strip:

  • Low = 0.68× gross
  • Mid = 1.00× gross (the stack itself)
  • High = 1.14× gross

The multipliers are planning rails, not statistical confidence intervals. A household that wants more cushion can lean toward high; one that already has substantial savings outside insurance might use low as a conversation floor — but that choice belongs with you and a qualified advisor, not with this page alone.

Existing coverage, midpoint, and gap

Existing life insurance in force is entered as a single total (group term, personal term, whole-life cash value is not modeled here unless you fold it into that number yourself). The worker then computes:

  • Planning range midpoint (audit footer) = obligation stack − existing coverage
  • Coverage gap = max(0, obligation stack − existing coverage)
  • When existing coverage exceeds the stack, the gap bar reads zero and the midpoint can go negative — that is a review signal, not an instruction to reduce coverage

The green coverage-gap strip uses the mid band of the stack minus existing coverage. Low and high bands help bracket uncertainty; they do not automatically become buy/sell triggers.

Defaults you can override

  • Replacement years, income, debt, mortgage, education, and existing coverage
  • Method tab: income replacement versus DIME
  • Tool-page copy may pre-fill a scenario (for example a 10-year income replacement conversation) — the math still comes from the same worker

NeedTally does not verify balances on your mortgage statement, policy status with an insurer, or whether group coverage is portable. Treat inputs as your planning story until a professional confirms them.

What this site does not model

  • Premium quotes, rate classes, smoker tables, or health underwriting
  • Product selection among term, whole, universal, or employer plans
  • Estate tax, trust funding, business buy-sell, or key-person arrangements
  • Social Security survivor benefits, pension continuation, or investment income
  • Inflation, discount rates, or present-value math on future obligations
  • A guarantee that any carrier will issue a given face amount

Premium and cost calculators are planned as separate pages with their own static bands and stronger disclaimers. The needs tally stays on obligations and gaps, not on what a policy might cost.

Questions or stale defaults

If a default multiplier, final-expenses estimate, or explanatory line looks wrong for how you use the site, email contact@needtally.com with the page URL and inputs. See also about, contact, and terms.