Final Expense Insurance Calculator
The costs, and the policy meant to cover them
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- United States — insurance is regulated state by state, so the rules behind a premium are your state's, not a federal schedule
- Rules and time period
- Premiums, limits and deductibles are the figures you enter. Health plan cost-sharing caps, Medicare amounts and state filings all reset annually.
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Rates, required coverages and available discounts differ by where you live. Your premium is set by an insurer's own underwriting — driving record, claims history, credit-based insurance score where permitted, the property itself — and only a quote is binding. What a policy pays depends on its exclusions and limits, not on this estimate.
- Source links checked
- Sep 19, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
Primary sources
How to use
- 01
Enter what the funeral and burial would cost, from a real price list rather than an estimate. The FTC's Funeral Rule requires any funeral provider to quote prices over the telephone and to hand you a printed general price list, to keep, as soon as you begin discussing arrangements or prices (16 CFR 453.2). Two or three of those from local providers will move this figure more than anything else on the page.
- 02
Add the final medical bills and estate costs the household would actually be left with. This is unpaid deductibles and coinsurance, the cost of administering the estate, and any debt the estate has to settle before it distributes anything. It is separate from the funeral, and it is the part people forget when they size a policy against a casket price.
- 03
Enter the savings already set aside for this. Only count money that would be reachable quickly — a payable-on-death account, a joint account, cash — rather than assets that have to go through probate first, because the timing problem this policy solves is that the funeral bill arrives long before the estate settles.
- 04
Enter the monthly premium you have been quoted, and set your age now against the age you are planning to. The two ages do nothing but fix how many years of premiums the page counts, and that is the whole argument: the payout is fixed and the premiums are not, so the longer you live the worse the arithmetic becomes.
- 05
Read the cover needed first, then go straight to the break-even age. Cover needed is what the policy has to be sized at. The break-even age is the age at which the premiums you have paid overtake the payout, and whether that age sits before or after the one you are planning to is the real verdict on the policy.
Formula
The cover needed is the funeral and burial plus the final medical and estate costs, minus the savings already set aside, floored at zero — so once the savings cover the costs, the answer is zero rather than a negative. The years are the age you are planning to minus your age now, also floored at zero. The annual premium is the monthly premium × 12, and the premiums paid are that annual figure × the years, with no compounding: this is a straight sum of payments, not a future value. The page then reports the difference between the cover needed and the premiums paid, labeling it as payout beyond premiums when the policy is ahead and paid in beyond payout when it is not. The break-even age is your age now + the cover needed ÷ the annual premium — the age at which the running total of premiums first equals the payout — and the schedule marks each five-year step from your current age as 'Policy ahead' or 'Paid in more' by the same test. Three things are deliberately left out, and all three flatter the policy's alternatives rather than the policy: the funeral cost is not inflated over the years, the money you would otherwise have saved earns no interest, and no graded death benefit reduces what is paid in the first years.
Example
A 66-year-old prices a policy against $9,000 of funeral and burial costs and $4,000 of final medical and estate costs, with $2,000 already set aside, and is quoted $70 a month while planning to age 84. The cover needed is $11,000. The premium is $840 a year, and over the 18 years to 84 that comes to $15,120 — so they would pay in $4,120 beyond what the policy pays out, and the break-even age is 79. The schedule steps through it in five-year jumps: $4,200 paid by age 71 and $8,400 by 76, both with the policy ahead; $12,600 by 81, $16,800 by 86 and $21,000 by 91, all with more paid in than the policy will ever return. Three labeled alternates show where the answer moves. With nothing set aside, the cover needed rises to $13,000, the shortfall narrows to $2,120 and the break-even age moves out to 81. Planning to age 75 rather than 84 — a shorter horizon, not a better policy — the premiums come to $7,560 and the payout exceeds them by $3,440. And a lower quote changes it outright: at $45 a month the premiums to 84 are $9,720, the policy pays out $1,280 more than was paid in, and the break-even age moves to 86. The same $11,000 of cover is a reasonable purchase at one price and a poor one at another, which is why the quote is worth shopping.
Definitions
- Funeral and burial
- What the disposition itself would cost. Take it from a provider's general price list, which the FTC Funeral Rule entitles you to receive in print and to keep, rather than from an estimate.
- Final medical bills and estate costs
- Unpaid deductibles and coinsurance, the cost of administering the estate, and debts the estate must settle. Separate from the funeral and routinely left out when a policy is sized.
- Savings already set aside
- Money reachable without waiting for probate — a payable-on-death account, a joint account, cash. Subtracted from the costs, because a policy only has to fill what is left.
- Premium (monthly)
- What the policy costs each month, for life. Level on most whole life final expense policies, which is what makes the total predictable and the total large.
- Your age now
- The age at which the policy is issued. It fixes the start of the premium stream and, with the age you are planning to, the number of years of premiums the page counts.
- Age you are planning to
- A planning assumption rather than a prediction. Moving it later adds premiums without adding a dollar of payout, which is the arithmetic the page exists to show.
- Cover needed
- The costs less the savings, floored at zero. The face amount to buy — and the figure worth keeping tight, because cover per dollar is poor on this product.
- Break-even age
- The age at which the premiums paid first equal the payout. Living past it means the policy returns less than it was given.
- Graded death benefit
- A clause on most no-exam policies returning premiums rather than the face amount if death is from natural causes in the first two or three years. Accidental death is usually covered in full from the start.
- General price list
- The itemized, printed price list a funeral provider must give you to keep once discussion of prices or arrangements begins, under 16 CFR 453.2(b)(4). The source this page's first input should come from.
Frequently asked questions
How much final expense insurance do I need?
The costs, less whatever is already set aside, and no more. On this page's defaults — $9,000 for the funeral and burial, $4,000 of final medical and estate costs, and $2,000 already saved — the cover needed is $11,000. That is the whole sizing calculation, and it is worth resisting the pull to round it upward: this is the most expensive cover per dollar of benefit that you can buy, so every extra thousand of face amount is paid for at that rate for the rest of your life.
Is final expense insurance worth it?
At the defaults, the arithmetic says no and the page says so plainly. $70 a month is $840 a year, and from age 66 to age 84 that is $15,120 of premiums against an $11,000 payout — you pay in $4,120 beyond what the policy pays out. The break-even age is 79. The schedule makes it concrete: at age 71 you have paid $4,200 and the policy is ahead; at 76, $8,400 and still ahead; at 81, $12,600 and you have paid in more than it will ever pay. The product is not arithmetic, though. It is a fixed, modest sum arriving within days, with no medical exam required to get it, which is a different thing from a good return.
What happens if I live a long time?
The premiums keep going and the payout does not move, which is the defining feature of the product. On the defaults the crossover is at age 79 after 13 years. Live to 91 and you will have paid $21,000 for an $11,000 benefit; live to 96 and it is $25,200. There is no version of this where the policy gets better with time. That is why the age you are planning to matters so much on this page, and why the honest question is not whether the policy pays out — it always does — but whether it pays out more than you put in.
Is it cheaper to buy one young?
The monthly premium is lower, but the total is usually far higher, and the page shows the trap. Hold the premium at $70 and move the buyer from 66 to 55, planning to the same age 84: the premiums to age 84 rise from $15,120 to $24,360, the shortfall against the $11,000 payout widens from $4,120 to $13,360, and the break-even age falls to 68. A real 55-year-old would be quoted less than $70, but the direction of the effect is the point — a small monthly figure paid for 29 years is a large number. Buying this cover decades before it is needed is the one case where it clearly fails.
What is a graded death benefit?
A clause on most no-medical-exam final expense policies that limits what is paid in the first two or three years. Die of natural causes inside that window and the policy returns your premiums, usually with some interest, rather than the face amount; accidental death is generally paid in full from day one. It exists because the insurer has asked you no health questions and examined nothing. If you are in good enough health to answer health questions, a simplified-issue policy without the graded period is worth asking for, because a graded policy bought by someone who could have qualified for a better one is paying for underwriting it did not need.
Does Social Security pay for a funeral?
It pays $255, once, and that is the whole of it. The lump-sum death payment under section 202(i) of the Social Security Act is the lesser of three times the deceased's primary insurance amount or $255, and in practice it is always $255 (SSA POMS RS 00210.001). It goes first to a surviving spouse who was living in the same household at the time of death, then by an order of priority to a spouse or children eligible for survivor benefits on that record, and an application generally has to be filed within two years of the death. It is a rounding error against a funeral bill, and the figure has not changed in decades. Do not size anything around it.