Clearline Family
CLEARLINE FAMILY

Life insurance, in plain English.

An actuary's model checks your coverage: kind and size.

Starts with 5 questions · about 2 minutes · free · no email, no signup

Example: Maya earns $58,000 a year. Her pay line is $58,000 x 10 years = $580,000, and her gap is $606,000. See Maya’s full story

William Litner, FCAS (Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society)Actuary for 15 years. Dad of one. I answer the email myself.
A young family laughing together on their couch at home
What a result looks like
KindThe type of coverage that fits you.Named in plain words, with the why.
SizeA dollar size to aim for.From your own numbers, with the math shown line by line.
One thing to checkThe trap in what you already have, flagged in plain words.
The result shape is real. One family’s full result, with its numbers, is in the story below.

Rather say it in your own words? . Same size math, explained in plain words. What you type goes to an AI helper to read. It answers from the plain-English explanations I wrote and checked, so you get the actuary's answer, not a generic one. Nothing is saved.

Start with 5 questions. You get your kind first. Then pick your pay range and your mortgage range. Your size shows, with the math shown. You also see what to check in what you already have.

1. Answer 5 questions, plus 1 more if you own a policy
2. See your kind of coverage
3. Pick 2 ranges, see your size
4. See what to check
Before you start, the honest facts.My Washington license is in progress. In progress means I cannot sell coverage yet. Fingerprints passed November 3, 2026. The state insurance office (OIC) is reviewing the application now. The license is not active yet. Meanwhile your Check result works with any licensed agent or insurer today.Nothing is sold here.Your answers run on this page only.I never see them.Your answers are never saved or sent. We only count that a Check ran.No email. No signup.The full result is free.

About 2 minutes. You keep the result.

One family, start to finish

A made-up family, walked through the same steps the Check walks you through. Tap through their story.

Step 1 of 6 · The family
Two parents talking at their kitchen table while their toddler plays nearby

Two parents, two kids, one mortgage

He earns $50,000 a year, and his pay carries the house. They owe $150,000 on the mortgage and $10,000 on other debts. School for the kids is still ahead of them.

Step 2 of 6 · The coverage he has

His job gives him some coverage

Like most work plans, it feels like a safety net already in place. But the policy belongs to the job, not to him. His plan does not let him take it with him, and he does not control it.

Step 3 of 6 · The catch

If the job ends, the coverage ends

A layoff, a career change, or retirement takes the coverage away with it. That is the first thing the Check flags for this family. See the work coverage math.

Step 4 of 6 · What lasts

The plan outlasts the paycheck

If his pay stopped, a layoff, an illness, or his death, the mortgage payment would still come due every month. So would the school bills. They are not scared; they just want those bills handled in advance, calmly, while everyone is healthy.

Step 5 of 6 · The Check

So they run the Check

Five questions, about two minutes, no email and no signup. The Check weighs the kind of coverage first, then shows how the size is set, then flags what in their answers could leave a gap.

Step 6 of 6 · Their result

Level term life insurance

About $420,000

Level term: coverage for a set number of years, at a price that stays the same for the whole term.

The math: $10,000 of debts, five years of his pay ($250,000), the $150,000 mortgage, and $40,000 of school costs, minus the $30,000 they already have working. The school figure is this family’s own; they set it. When a family gives no figure, the calculator guesses $100,000 a kid. First thing to fix: coverage that ends with the job.

Run the Check and see your own. Your facts will differ. The steps are the same.

A second family: Maya rents

Maya is made up too. She rents with her partner. Their toddler is 2. She earns $58,000 a year. There is no mortgage to clear, so that line reads $0.

Her DIME lines (debts, income, mortgage, school costs): debts $7,000. Income: $58,000 x 10 years = $580,000. Mortgage: $0. School costs ahead: $25,000. The lines add to $612,000. Minus the $6,000 she has saved, her gap is $606,000.

Renting took out one line. It did not touch the other three. See her math worked in full

Still have questions? See the common questions

The size math, with your numbers

The Check shows the kind of coverage; this tool shows the size. Type your dollars and see the gap, with every step of the math that made it.

Your numbers run on this page only. Your answers are never saved or sent. We only count that the calculator ran.

If you have no pay right now, you can still use this page: count the debts, the mortgage, and school costs, and leave the pay boxes blank. The Check will still give you your kind, and you can run this page again when pay starts or changes. If the unpaid work is the home and the kids, you can price that work for one year instead, and type the figure as that parent's pay. It lands on the Income line. How to price the work at home.

Blank means not known yet. Type 0 when the true count is none. Blank years count as 10. Years count up to 60. Blank school plus a kid count gets a marked guess: $100,000 a kid.

See my gap

Your gap

No numbers yet

Type your numbers above. Your gap shows here and updates as you type.

The steps are the DIME steps: Debts, Income, Mortgage, Education (school costs). Rough math on purpose. Each guess sits on its own line. Same numbers in, same number out, every time.

What this math counts: debts, pay for the years you pick, the mortgage, and school costs, minus savings and the coverage you have.

What this math leaves out: Social Security survivor benefits, a partner's future pay, and inflation. A starting size, not the whole picture.

General education only. Not insurance advice. Not a recommendation.

Washington family? See the one state rule.

Kind comes from the Check. Size comes from here.

Calculator questions

What does this math leave out?

It leaves out Social Security survivor benefits, a partner's future pay, and inflation. A starting size, not the whole picture.

How this math works

The formula, in one line: debts + (your pay × the years it must last) + (partner pay × its years) + mortgage + school costs − savings − coverage you already have = your gap. A gap below $0 shows as $0.

Blank money boxes count as $0: pay, partner pay, debts, mortgage, savings, and coverage you have. Blank years count as 10. Blank partner years use your years. Years count up to 60.

Blank school costs, with a kid count typed, get a marked guess: $100,000 a kid. The kid count counts up to 20. With no kid count, blank school costs count as $0. The result shows the guess's own note: four years of public college runs about $120,000 (College Board).

When pay is part of the run, final costs of $10,000 are filled in as a marked guess. You can change it. Its source sits in the result: the middle funeral with burial cost $8,300 in 2023 (NFDA). With no pay in the run, the final-cost and school guesses stay off.

The result shows the gap two ways: from your numbers alone, and with the marked guesses added. The math is plain addition and multiplication. No interest, discounting, tax, or inflation adjustment is applied. Dollars are rounded to whole dollars.

Same numbers in, same number out, every time. Last checked against the calculator's own code: November 3, 2026.

What the numbers don't tell you

One limit is not in your result, so it sits here instead. This math cannot see your health later. Coverage is priced on health today. If health changes, coverage later can cost more. Or it may not be offered at all.

The rest is already named where it belongs. Your result lists what this math counts. It also lists what it leaves out. Both lists sit right under your gap.

We name the limits out loud. A number that hides its limits asks for trust it has not earned.

Our guarantees No email or signup is needed. You still get your full result. We never sell or share your information. No ads. No paid placements. No company pays to be named here.

Four things I check for every family

Family hands resting on a blanket on the couch, with pillows, books, and a mug nearby

Funding, paid too fast

Pay into a cash value policy too fast, and money you pull out is taxed first, plus a penalty before 59 and a half.

A loan against the policy

A loan against the policy cuts what your family gets.

How the money arrives

One lump sum can be spent in a year. Monthly payments last.

Coverage tied to a job

Coverage from a job can end with the job.

The other free tools

A mom at her kitchen table at night, shelves and a window behind her

Coverage Calculator

Type your dollars. See the gap, and every step.

Beneficiary Checkup

See who gets what, account by account.

Readiness Score

Score your papers. Find the biggest gaps.

Open Enrollment, Explained

Price two work plans, side by side.

For Washington families

Based in Redmond. One state rule, in plain words.

Who I am

Two parents talking at their kitchen table while their toddler plays nearby

Why I built this

I built this in 2026, while sorting out coverage for my own family. I wanted it explained the way I explain it at home: plain words, no sales pitch, and the hard parts said out loud.

I am a dad of one, and one thought kept me at it: I wanted the people I love taken care of on my plan, not on luck, handled calmly, in advance.

My name is on it

William Litner, FCAS. Actuary for 15 years.

Why the name

A clear line is a straight one. Plain words. Honest math. The line from wanting coverage to having it. Family is who it is for.

Based in Redmond, Washington

I live and work in Redmond. Everything here is online, written for Washington families: Redmond, Bellevue, Kirkland, Sammamish, Issaquah, Woodinville, Seattle, and the rest of the state.

Washington family? See the one state rule.

It starts with five questions.

Works with your AI

Your AI can run the same coverage-gap math as the Check on this site, and show every line of it. It teaches the math only: it never names a company or a policy, and it never tells you what to buy.

Connect this site to Claude, Cursor, or any other MCP client (MCP, the standard way AI apps connect to outside tools). It is free, and it takes about a minute.

1. Copy the server address

mcp.clearlinefamily.com

2. Add it to your AI

Claude Code: one command 
claude mcp add --transport http clearline mcp.clearlinefamily.com
Claude Desktop or Cursor: paste into the MCP settings 
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clearline": {
      "url": "mcp.clearlinefamily.com"
    }
  }
}

3. Ask your AI: “How much life insurance do I need? Walk me through the math.”