Insurance Needs Calculator (Singapore)
Work out roughly how much life, total-and-permanent-disability (TPD) and critical-illness (CI) cover you may need, and how big your protection gap is after existing policies.
What you'll need
- Annual income
- Outstanding debts (home loan, etc.)
- Dependants and years of support
- Existing coverage (employer + personal)
- Liquid assets/savings
How it works
A common starting point from the MAS/MoneySense Basic Financial Planning Guide is roughly 9× annual income for death/TPD and 4× annual income for critical illness. Add liabilities and future family needs, then subtract existing cover and assets to find the gap.
These income multiples come from the Basic Financial Planning Guide (October 2023), a set of national rules of thumb developed under MoneySense together with the CPF Board, the Life Insurance Association, the Association of Banks in Singapore and the Association of Financial Advisers. They are aimed at working adults whose families depend on their income — if you have no dependants and no debts, your indicative need may be much lower than the multiples suggest.
The logic behind each multiple is different. The 9× death/TPD figure approximates replacing your income for the years your dependants would still rely on it — young children, ageing parents, or a spouse servicing a joint home loan. The 4× critical-illness figure is smaller because it targets a different problem: it assumes roughly a five-year period away from work while you recover, during which household bills and treatment-related costs continue even if hospitalisation insurance covers the medical bills themselves.
The gap calculation itself is simple subtraction. Start from the income multiple, add outstanding debts you would not want to leave behind, then subtract every layer of protection you already hold — personal policies, employer group cover, and liquid savings that could be redeployed. What remains is your indicative shortfall (or surplus) for each cover type.
Current Singapore rules
| Cover type | Rough guideline |
|---|---|
| Death / TPD | ~9 × annual income |
| Critical illness | ~4 × annual income (≈5-year recovery) |
Death/TPD vs critical illness: what each covers
The two guideline multiples protect against different events, so it helps to size them separately.
| Death / TPD | Critical illness | |
|---|---|---|
| What triggers a payout | Death, or total and permanent disability as defined in the policy | Diagnosis of a covered condition, per the policy's definitions |
| Who the payout mainly supports | Your dependants, after your income stops permanently | You and your household, during a recovery period away from work |
| Guideline sizing | ~9 × annual income | ~4 × annual income |
| Relationship to hospital plans | Separate — pays a lump sum regardless of medical bills | Separate — a lump sum on diagnosis, while hospitalisation plans reimburse bills |
TPD and CI definitions vary between policies — early-stage versus severe-stage conditions, exclusions and survival periods all differ. The multiples size the amount; the policy wording decides when it pays.
Worked example
On $60,000 annual income, the guideline suggests about $540,000 death/TPD cover (9×) and $240,000 CI cover (4×). If you already hold $200,000 of life cover, your indicative death/TPD gap is about $340,000.
The same example, step by step:
- Death/TPD benchmark: 9 × $60,000 = $540,000.
- Critical-illness benchmark: 4 × $60,000 = $240,000.
- Count existing death/TPD cover: a personal policy of $200,000. (If you also have employer group life cover, add it here too.)
- Death/TPD gap: $540,000 − $200,000 = $340,000 indicative shortfall.
- CI gap: if none of the existing $200,000 includes a critical-illness benefit, the indicative CI shortfall is the full $240,000.
In practice you would also add outstanding debts (such as the remaining home loan) to the benchmark, and subtract liquid savings alongside existing policies — benchmark plus liabilities, minus existing protection and assets.
Important assumptions
- Income multiples are general guidelines, not personalised advice
- Does not assess specific policy terms, exclusions or riders
- Inflation and changing needs over time are simplified
Cases not fully modelled:
- Detailed needs analysis (e.g. itemised future expenses)
- Health, occupation or underwriting loadings
- Hospitalisation/MediShield Life adequacy
Good to know: common oversights
- Forgetting employer group cover ends with the job. Group life and CI cover counts toward today's gap, but many people overlook that it usually lapses on resignation or retirement — often at the age when replacing it privately costs the most.
- Treating CI cover and hospitalisation cover as the same thing. A hospital plan reimburses medical bills; CI cover pays a lump sum you can use for anything — income replacement, caregiving, a helper, or non-covered treatments. One does not substitute for the other.
- Counting one policy twice. A CI rider that accelerates the death benefit reduces the death payout when it is claimed, so adding the same sum to both the death/TPD line and the CI line overstates your protection.
- Sizing off take-home pay instead of annual income. The multiples reference annual income; using monthly take-home pay after CPF deductions understates the benchmark considerably.
- Never revisiting the number. Marriage, a new child, a new home loan or a parent becoming dependent all move the benchmark.
- Ignoring inflation. A lump sum sized today buys less each year it sits unadjusted, especially CI cover meant to fund several years of expenses.
How the calculator helps
The PlanLiaoMah insurance-needs calculator models exactly the mechanics on this page. You enter your annual income, outstanding debts, dependants and years of support, existing cover (employer and personal) and liquid assets; it applies the ~9× and ~4× MoneySense guideline multiples and shows your indicative death/TPD and critical-illness gaps side by side. It is free, bilingual, runs entirely in your browser with no sign-up, and updates instantly — so you can test how a bigger loan or a new policy shifts the numbers.
Official sources and verification
Direct links to the relevant official pages. Rules and rates change; last checked 21 July 2026. Always confirm against the official source.
Open the free calculator →Frequently asked questions
How much life insurance do I need in Singapore?
A common MoneySense guideline is around 9× your annual income for death/TPD, adjusted for debts, dependants and existing cover. This calculator gives an indicative figure, not personalised advice.
How much critical-illness cover is suggested?
Roughly 4× annual income, reflecting an assumed multi-year recovery period before returning to work. Your own needs may differ.
Does employer insurance count?
Yes — include group cover from your employer when working out your gap, but remember it usually ends when you leave the job.