India, July 8 -- For a family with an annual income of Rs.15 lakh, a life cover of Rs.1 crore (for the primary earner) will last roughly 8.5-9 years, assuming the family requires the entire Rs.15 lakh each year and the remaining corpus is invested conservatively.

On an expense-only basis-accounting only for essential household expenses along with major costs such as school fees and medical expenses-the Rs.1 crore corpus may last longer, around 13 years.

Left to chance, you may end up financially protecting your family for only a fraction of the time you intended. Depending on the age of your dependants, they may require income replacement for 15-20 years or more in the event of your untimely death.

A life cover that lasts only 10-12 ye...