Motor IDV, health and life cover.
Start with a number.

How each estimate is worked out

Three different questions, three different methods. None of them is a quotation — but knowing how the number was produced tells you how much weight to put on it, and which questions to bring to an advisor.

Motor: how Insured Declared Value is calculated

IDV is the value your vehicle is insured for. It is not the price you paid and not the price a dealer would offer you today. It is the figure that matters most in a total-loss or theft claim, because it sets the ceiling on what the insurer can pay, subject to policy terms.

For vehicles up to five years old, IDV starts from the manufacturer's listed selling price of the current model, variant and trim, and applies a standard depreciation schedule by age:

The calculator above applies exactly this schedule to the value you enter, then shows a band of roughly five per cent either side, because insurers vary in how they treat condition and accessories.

Where it stops being reliable. Over five years, there is no standard schedule — IDV is agreed between you and the insurer based on the vehicle's actual condition, so the calculator does not attempt it. It also excludes registration, road tax and insurance cost, and it does not price non-factory accessories, which are insured separately. A vehicle with an unusual variant, a rebuilt engine or accident history will not follow the table.

If you are renewing rather than planning, the car insurance renewal checklist covers what to verify on the policy alongside IDV — deductibles, add-on eligibility and declared claim history.

Health: how much cover a family might plan for

There is no correct answer to this one, which is why the calculator returns a wide band rather than a figure. It scales a base amount by the number of people covered and by the age of the oldest member, because age is the single biggest driver of both premium and likely claim size.

Treat the output as a starting bracket for a conversation, not a recommendation. What actually decides the right sum insured is more specific:

• Where you would be treated. Cover that is comfortable in a tier-2 city can be thin in a Bengaluru corporate hospital. Check typical package costs at the hospitals you would actually use.
• Room-rent and sub-limits. A large sum insured with a restrictive room-rent cap can pay out less than a smaller policy without one, because other charges are often scaled to the room category.
• Existing conditions and waiting periods. These affect what is payable in the early years far more than the headline number does.
• Employer cover. If you have group cover, the question is what personal cover should sit on top of it, not what it should replace.

Our guide to how cashless health claims are authorised explains the published pre-authorisation and final-authorisation timelines, and the policy conditions that still apply within them.

Life: the income-multiple method, and its limits

The life calculator uses the most common rule of thumb: a multiple of annual income, here twelve to eighteen times, less any cover you already hold. It is quick, and it is roughly right for a salaried earner with dependants and a normal debt profile.

It is a rule of thumb rather than a calculation, and it ignores the things that usually change the answer — outstanding home loan balance, how many years of dependency actually remain, a spouse's income, school and college costs already committed, and assets that could be liquidated. A more careful approach adds up what the family would need to replace and settle, then subtracts what already exists to meet it. That is a conversation, not a slider.

What this calculator is not

It is a planning tool. It does not access insurer rate tables, it does not know your vehicle's registration or your medical history, and it cannot underwrite. The final premium, sum insured, terms and acceptance are always determined by the insurer on the basis of your proposal.

What it is useful for is arriving at a conversation with a number already in mind, so the discussion starts at what the cover should do rather than what it costs. If you would like the estimate checked against real quotations, our advisors in Bengaluru can review it with you — see the cover we can help with or send us the numbers on WhatsApp.