The short answer
A ladder planner should start from what your family would need in each future year, not from one round number. This one builds that curve from your income years, mortgage, debts and college money, then picks up to three term rungs from the level periods Banner Life lists in its consumer spec, rounded to its price bands. It sizes cover and counts fees. It does not price premiums, so take the rungs to a quote.
- Level periods tested
- 10 to 40 years
- Bands and fee from
- Banner OPTerm consumer spec, 2026
- Checked
- November 11, 2026
On this page
The planner
The numbers already filled in are an example household, a 38-year-old with two children, a mortgage and some savings. Replace them with your own. Every field is kept in the page address, so you can send the exact scenario to a partner.
How it builds your need curve
For each future year the planner adds four things and subtracts one.
- Income still to replace. The yearly income times the years left. Eighteen years of $50,000 is $900,000 today and $450,000 in year nine.
- The mortgage balance, paid down month by month at the rate you enter, so it falls slowly at first and fast at the end.
- Other debts, falling in a straight line to their payoff year.
- College money, held in full until the year you say it is spent.
- Minus savings and any cover that stays with you if you leave your job. Cover tied to a job is left out on purpose, since it may stop when the job does.
White Coat Investor, one of the few pages that models a ladder against a need, said of a calculator for this, "It would be a hard calculator to make."[1] The hard part is the curve. Once you have it, the rungs follow. If you only want the curve, the term need curve tool draws it on its own.
How it picks the rungs
The longest rung is the shortest level period that outlasts your need and is still open at your age. The planner then tries every mix of shorter periods for the other rungs and keeps the one with the least over-insurance. With "cover every year in full", each stretch between two end dates gets enough cover for its highest point, rounded up to the next $50,000. With "balance over and under", it aims at the middle of each stretch and accepts some years of being short, the way White Coat Investor scored its own ladder.[1]
Example. The default household, 38, nonsmoker, full cover
- Need in year one
- $1,180,000
- Rung 1, 25 years
- $250,000
- Rung 2, 15 years
- $400,000
- Rung 3, 10 years
- $550,000
- Policy fees, three separate policies, all years
- $4,500
- Policy fees, one policy, all years
- $2,250
- Cover bought, against one $1.2 million 25-year policy
- 59%
Need is $50,000 times 18 years, plus a $280,000 mortgage, $15,000 of debt and $60,000 for college, minus $75,000 of savings. Fees use Banner's $90 a year per policy. Cover bought counts dollars of cover times years, 17.75 million against 30 million.
That last line is the honest test. The ladder buys about 59% of the cover a single policy of the same starting size would carry. That is where its savings come from. Whether the missing 41% was cover you needed is what the chart answers.
Why it rounds to price bands
Banner groups face amounts into price bands, and Guardian puts the general rule plainly, "the more coverage you get, the less you pay per $1,000 in coverage."[4] Banner's bands are below. A rung that lands just under a band edge can cost about the same as the bigger amount, so the planner flags any rung within 10% of the next band.
| Banner Life band | Face amount from | To |
|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | $100,000 | $249,999 |
| Band 2 | $250,000 | $499,999 |
| Band 3 | $500,000 | $749,999 |
| Band 4 | $750,000 | $999,999 |
| Band 5 | $1,000,000 | $1,499,999 |
| Band 6 | $1,500,000 | $1,999,999 |
| Band 7 | $2,000,000 | $2,999,999 |
Checked November 11, 2026. Banner Life OPTerm consumer spec, premium bands for Banner Life (William Penn in New York uses wider bands). Bands 8 to 10 run from $3 million up.[2]
Rider or separate policy
Banner's consumer spec says its Term Riders "can provide temporary life insurance coverage for 10, 15 or 20 years after which coverage ceases" and that "Term Riders issue ages vary from base plan."[2] So the planner marks a shorter rung as a rider length only when it is 10, 15 or 20 years. A 25-year or 30-year rung has to be its own policy or the base. Two more points from the same page. The Children's Life Insurance Rider "is not available on base plans with Term Riders", and the $90 yearly fee is listed per Banner policy. The consumer spec does not say whether a rider adds a fee of its own, so the planner shows fees as one policy and as separate policies and leaves the rider case to your quote.
What it cannot know
- Your rate class. Issue ages here use Banner's nonsmoker and tobacco tables. Your class decides the price, and only underwriting sets it.
- Other insurers. State Farm, for one, sells 30-year Select Term only to age 45.[3] Banner's 30-year stays open to 55 for nonsmokers. Lengths that are closed at your age in the Banner table are listed under the result.
- Prices. No public table gives full term rates, so the tool estimates none. The laddering guide shows dated sample prices and when the short rungs barely save anything.
When the rungs look right, the free quote at InsureTerm's quote form prices each one, and the guide to how a term price is built explains the fees and bands behind the numbers.
Questions people ask
Why does the planner suggest more cover than my income times ten?
Because it adds the mortgage, debts and college money to the income years and does not discount future income. That leans high on purpose. Switch the fit to "balance" or lower the years of income to see a leaner ladder.
Why are no prices shown?
No consumer source publishes full term rate tables by age, class, length and band, and the planner will not invent them. It sizes the rungs so a quote can price them.
Can I build the same ladder with two insurers?
Yes, separate policies can come from different insurers. Each one then carries its own fee, its own application and its own conversion rules.
Last updated November 11, 2026. Found an error? Call (305) 699-5857 and it goes in the corrections log.
Sources (4)
- White Coat Investor, layering policies article, first published 2022 and modified November 5, 2026. Opened November 10, 2026. whitecoatinvestor.com
- Banner Life, OPTerm sheet for individual buyers (bands, fee, issue ages, riders), CN04022026-2. Opened November 11, 2026. bannerlife.com
- State Farm, Select Term issue ages, undated. Opened November 11, 2026. statefarm.com
- Guardian Life, life insurance cost guide, undated. Opened November 10, 2026. guardianlife.com
