Many people find it difficult to assess just how much life insurance cover they need, but basically it's quite simple to work out. To ensure settlement of debts, you'll just need to calculate everything you owe. But that's the easy part and what is very much more difficult is deciding just how much your dependents need in order to maintain the current life style you're able to offer them.

There's the question of just how much cash will need to be readily accessible for the families immediate needs. There will need to be sufficient money to settle any debts which you may leave. Most people nowadays have credit cards, and then there are the store cards and any personal loans, maybe including your car finance, and current bills. The mortgage is usually covered by insurance, but if not, the payments will have to continue to ensure a roof over your families head.

It may sound macabre, but there will be funeral arrangements to be made and paid for. Have you any idea how much this could cost? In an ideal world it would be best if this fund of accessible money could sufficient for a couple of months, whilst the family learn to cope with your loss. It may be that you have savings put by which could be used in this situation. In this case the "fund" will be reduced accordingly.

If you have a current income, you'll need to work out how much cover is needed to replace it after your death. Work out your take home pay, net. That is after you have deducted income tax and national insurance. If you have children, it may be necessary to arrange child care - many couples now cover child care between them, but a single parent who may be working would find this difficult without extra help. Add the cost of any care to the income figure and this is the amount of cover you'll be looking at.

It may be that your family will qualify for various benefits following your death. To find out just how much help there would be, the DirectGov website is the best place to start. Any benefits can be used to reduce the overall fund already outlined.

Some expenses will stop following the death of the breadwinner. Normally the mortgage is cleared by means of an insurance policy. You may have lots of travelling expenses to cope with which will no longer need to be met.

Using these calculations, you should come up with the amount your family will need each and every month, to live at the standard which you have when you work out the figures. Make certain you keep up to date with these figures. We all know someone who took out insurance policies to cover certain events in their life, only to find the amount insufficient when the time came.

The length of time the family will require this back up will be until any children become independent and/or your partner retires. You'll probably be quite surprised by this stage at the amount of money they'll need in a year!

Of course, you may already have some life cover or they may be some insurance arranged by your employer. It's a good time to check on all your policies and make sure you've included everything.

It's not a thing we like to think about, but some time spent planning what your dependents would do if the worst happened now will mean peace of mind for everyone.