End-of-life financial cushion.

Terminal illness cover pays out the life insurance amount early when terminal illness is diagnosed (life expectancy under 12 months typically). Allows family time to manage finances together rather than dealing with claim after death. Standard inclusion in most modern life insurance policies at no extra cost.

300,000 life cover, 12-month diagnosis, 50,000 current savings, 4,000 monthly essentials. Total accessible: 350,000. Monthly available over 12 months: 29,167. Total essentials needed: 48,000. Surplus: 302,000 - covers care costs, family transition expenses, and provides cushion for surviving partner.

Most adults underestimate value of terminal illness cover. Without it: family must wait for death + probate (often months) before accessing life insurance. With it: funds available immediately on diagnosis, allowing dignified end-of-life planning, paying for private healthcare, settling debts, taking final family trips. Worth confirming policy includes this feature - most do but check the fine print.

A worked example

Try the defaults: life cover amount of 300,000, time to death of 12 months, current savings of 50,000, monthly essentials of 4,000. The tool returns 350,000.00. You can adjust any input and the result updates as you type — no submit button, no reload. That's the real power here: seeing how sensitive the output is to one or two assumptions.

What moves the number most

The result responds to Life Cover Amount, Time to Death (months), Current Savings, and Monthly Essentials. Not every input has equal weight. Flip one at a time toward extreme values to feel which ones move the needle most for your situation.

The formula behind this

Total accessible = life cover + savings. Essentials = monthly × months. Surplus = accessible - essentials. Everything the calculator does is shown in the formula box below, so you can check the math against your own spreadsheet if you want.

What to do with a low result

A disappointing result is information, not a judgement. Pick the single input that dragged the figure down most and focus the next quarter on that one factor. Breadth-first improvement rarely works; depth-first on the worst input usually does.

What this doesn't capture

The score is a composite of the inputs you provide. Life context — job security, family obligations, health, housing — doesn't appear in the math but shapes the real picture. Use the number as a prompt, not a verdict.