Introduction
This whole life insurance calculator shows what a policy could cost you and what it could be worth later. Enter your age, gender, tobacco use, risk class, and the death benefit you want. The calculator then works out the net premium, the reserve the policy builds and the death benefit over time, from the mortality tables U.S. regulators set for life insurance reserves.6
Whole life insurance is different from term life. It covers you for your whole life, and it builds cash value you can borrow against.1 The trade-off is a higher premium.3 This tool helps you see that trade-off in plain numbers.
With the calculator you can:
- Estimate your yearly and monthly whole life premium
- Project the reserve behind the cash value at any age
- Compare Level Pay, 10-Pay, 20-Pay, Pay to 65, and Single Premium plans
- See the chance of dying before any age, from the same table
You also get a year-by-year table, a chart, and the math shown step by step. The premium is a net premium: the mortality cost alone, with no expenses, commissions or profit, so an insurer's premium for the same policy is higher.
How to use our Whole Life Insurance Calculator
Enter a few facts about your age, health, and the coverage you want. The calculator shows the net whole life premium, total premiums paid, the reserve, the death benefit and the chance of dying before an age you choose.
Current Age: Type your age at your nearest birthday, from 18 to 75, which is how the mortality tables count age. Younger ages pay less.
Gender: Pick Male or Female. The mortality tables are separate for men and women.6
Tobacco or Nicotine Use: Choose Yes if you smoke, vape, or chew. Smokers have their own mortality tables, which cost more.6
Risk Class: Pick the class an insurer would place you in: super preferred, preferred or standard, each with its own table.6 Super preferred is for nonsmokers only. If you are not sure, keep "All classes", the table for every class together.
Face Amount: Type the death benefit you want, from $25,000 to $5,000,000. You can also drag the slider or tap a quick button like $250K or $1M.
Payment Schedule: Choose how long you want to pay. Level Pay means paying for life. 10-Pay, 20-Pay, Pay to 65, and Single Premium finish sooner but cost more each year.
Reserve Projection Age: Enter the age at which you want to see the reserve and the premiums paid so far. It must be higher than your current age.
Survival Projection Age: Enter an age to see the chance of dying before it, from the same mortality table. It must also be higher than your current age.
Click Calculate to see your results, the step-by-step math, the chart, the schedule comparison, and the year-by-year table. Click Reset to start over.
What Is Whole Life Insurance?
Whole life insurance is a type of permanent life insurance.3 It covers you for your whole life, not just for a set number of years.1 As long as you pay the premiums, the policy stays in force and pays a death benefit to your beneficiaries when you die. Whole life also builds cash value, which is money that grows inside the policy that you can use while you are alive.1
The Two Main Parts
- Death benefit (face amount): The tax-free money your family gets when you pass away.4 In a basic whole life policy, this amount is guaranteed and does not shrink as you age.1
- Cash value: A savings part that grows each year at a guaranteed rate. Growth is slow in the early years because part of your first premiums pays for the cost of insurance and setup costs.2 The engine behind it is the same compound interest math that drives any long-term savings account.
How Premiums Are Set
The insurance company looks at your risk of dying and prices your policy from there. The main things that change your whole life premium are:
- Age: The younger you buy, the lower the yearly cost. Rates rise fast after about age 50.
- Gender: Women usually live longer, so they often pay less.
- Tobacco use: Smokers are priced on separate, higher mortality tables.6
- Health class: Insurers sort applicants into classes such as super preferred, preferred and standard, and the better classes pay less.6
- Face amount: More coverage means a higher premium.
Once the policy is issued, the premium is level.1 It never goes up, even if your health gets worse later. Because it is a fixed lifetime bill, it belongs in your monthly budget right next to your mortgage and car insurance payments.
Payment Schedules
You can choose how long you pay. Shorter payment plans cost more each year but you finish sooner, and the cash value builds faster.1
- Level Pay: You pay the same amount every year for life. Lowest yearly cost.
- 10-Pay or 20-Pay: You pay for 10 or 20 years, then the policy is "paid up" and coverage continues for free.
- Pay to 65: Payments stop at retirement age.
- Single Premium: One large lump sum at the start. The policy is paid up right away.1
Dividends: Participating vs. Non-Participating
A participating policy comes from a company that may share extra profits with policyholders as yearly dividends.1 Dividends are not guaranteed, so this calculator does not project them. A non-participating policy pays no dividends and usually costs a bit less.1
If you get dividends, you pick what happens to them:
- Paid-Up Additions (PUA): Buys small chunks of extra paid-up insurance. This grows both your death benefit and your cash value, and is the most common choice for long-term growth. It works much like a dividend reinvestment plan on a stock.
- Accumulate at Interest: The money stays with the insurer and earns interest.
- Reduce Premium: The dividend pays part of your next bill, lowering your out-of-pocket cost.
- Cash Payment: The insurer mails you a check each year.
Guaranteed vs. Illustrated Values
Every whole life illustration shows two sets of numbers. Guaranteed values are written into the contract and the company must honor them. Illustrated (non-guaranteed) values assume today's dividend scale keeps up. Plan with the guaranteed column. This calculator shows no illustrated values: its premium and reserve come from the regulators' mortality table and New York's maximum valuation interest rate for 2026, 3.50% for whole life.7 Remember that decades of inflation will also shrink what a fixed death benefit buys.
Cash Value, Loans, and the Reserve
After a few years, your cash value grows large enough to borrow against. A policy loan lets you take out money against the cash value without a credit check. But loans charge interest, and any unpaid loan is taken out of the death benefit.3 If you cancel the policy, you get the cash surrender value instead, and coverage ends.1
The reserve this calculator shows is the net premium reserve: the death benefit still to be paid for, less the net premiums still to come, both valued on the mortality table. A policy's cash value is built on its reserve, but in the early years it is lower, because the first premiums also pay the insurer's costs.2 That is why whole life is a long-term plan, not a short-term savings tool.
Who Whole Life Suits
Whole life fits people who want coverage that never expires, a fixed premium, and slow but steady tax-deferred growth. Common uses are final expenses, leaving money to heirs, paying estate taxes, funding a business buy-sell deal, and covering a lifelong dependent. It can also be one line on your net worth statement alongside your 401(k) and taxable accounts. If you only need protection while the kids grow up or the mortgage is paid off, term life gives far more coverage for the same money.
These figures are estimates. Real premiums and values depend on the insurer, the exact product, and full medical underwriting.