How much term life insurance does an OB/GYN need?

Enough to clear the debts, replace the income your household cannot quickly replace, and carry the family to the point where your earnings are no longer load bearing, and for most new OB/GYN attendings that total is far above the first policy they bought in training. Build the number from your balance sheet, not a rule of thumb. Term life is the cheapest coverage in the protection stack because it insures a defined window: the years when a death would be a financial catastrophe on top of a personal one. Those years are easy to identify. They are the years with a mortgage, young children, student loans still standing, and one income doing most of the work. Your job is to price that window honestly, in your own numbers, and then buy simple term coverage that matches it.

Part of the OB/GYN hub.

The build, line by line, on a real household

Heidi, the new attending in the Heidi and Spencer case, carries $750,000 of term life in force today. Test that figure against her own file. Heidi earns about $320,000. Her husband Spencer, a teacher, earns $80,000. Household income is about $400,000. They have one child, age two, a mortgage of about $500,000 on a home worth about $650,000, student debt of about $280,000 on the PSLF track, and car loans of about $25,000.

Start with the debts a death should retire. Mortgage: $500,000. Student debt: $280,000. Car loans: $25,000. Add them: $500,000 plus $280,000 equals $780,000, and $780,000 plus $25,000 equals $805,000. Her current coverage is $750,000. The debts alone exceed the policy by $805,000 minus $750,000, which equals $55,000, before a single month of income replacement is counted. One refinement belongs here. Her student loans sit on the PSLF track, and federal loan treatment at death differs from private debt, so a family may choose to count that line at less than its full face. The mortgage and the car loans carry no such question. Even counting only those two, $500,000 plus $25,000 equals $525,000, which consumes most of the policy and leaves $225,000 to replace an income of $320,000 a year. That is less than one year of the earnings the household is built on.

Now add income replacement, the larger half of the build. Ask how many years Spencer and their child would need Heidi's income to reach a stable footing. If the family chooses five years of full income, the line is $320,000 times five, which equals $1,600,000. Add the debts: $1,600,000 plus $805,000 equals $2,405,000. Set the existing policy against it: $2,405,000 minus $750,000 equals $1,655,000 still uncovered. At ten years, the income line is $3,200,000 and the build reaches $4,005,000. The point is not that one total is the official answer. The answer comes from the horizon the family chooses, and on any honest horizon the training era policy is a fraction of the need.

Your household runs the same build with different inputs. A dual physician couple splits the risk across two incomes and insures both. A single income household carries the largest need, because the surviving spouse must also buy the childcare and household labor the family currently produces unpaid. Insure the spouse at home as well, for a smaller amount.

Why term, and how long the window runs

Term coverage fits this need because the need itself expires. The mortgage amortizes. The children grow. The retirement accounts fill. Lisa, the established OB/GYN in the Lisa and Mark case, carries $2,000,000 of twenty year term eight years into attending life, alongside a household income of about $550,000. Her coverage sits in the same range the build above produces.

Permanent coverage is a different product, sold at a far higher price for the same death benefit. For a new attending, every dollar spent on permanent premiums is a dollar not capturing the match, not building reserves, and not funding the accounts that eventually make life coverage unnecessary. Buy the large term amount at the term price, and let investing happen in the accounts built for investing.

Place the purchase in the waterfall so it actually happens. Coverage is step four: the full employer match, one month of reserves, credit cards at zero, then disability above all, plus term life, plus umbrella. Heidi's file shows why the order matters. Her household saves about 12 percent of income and holds about $100,000 of investable assets, yet carries group only disability, a term policy below its debts, and no umbrella at all. The investing ran ahead of the protection.

Apply while you are young and your chart is clean, because underwriting prices the record in front of it. Own the policy yourself, not through the employer, so a job change never touches it. Revisit the build at each life change: a second child, a larger home, a move to private practice. The number is a snapshot of a balance sheet, and balance sheets move.

Follow up questions

My employer offers group life. Does that count toward the total?

Count it, but do not lean on it. Group life belongs to the job and usually cannot follow you when you leave, or follows only at a price that makes it a poor buy. Treat it as a small supplement on top of an individually owned policy sized by the build. Your family plan should survive your resignation letter without a phone call to a benefits office.

How do I choose between a shorter and a longer term?

Match the term to the window you priced: the years until the youngest child is launched and the mortgage and loans are scheduled to end, with room to spare. A term that expires while the need still stands forces you to reapply at an older age with a longer medical record. When the choice is close, the longer term is usually the safer buy.

Does Spencer need coverage too, on a teacher salary?

Yes. The build runs on both lives. Spencer's income of $80,000 funds part of the household, and his death would remove it in the same month the family loses his share of childcare and household work. His policy will be smaller than Heidi's policy because his income line is smaller. Insure both, in proportion to what each life carries.

Related questions

• Does an OB/GYN need own occupation disability insurance?
• What estate documents does a new attending OB/GYN need?
• How many months of expenses should an OB/GYN keep in cash?

Sources

• Financial Fellowship Heidi and Spencer case, which establishes the new attending household with income of about $400,000, a mortgage of about $500,000, student debt of about $280,000, car loans of about $25,000, and $750,000 of term life in force, accessed October 2026.
• Financial Fellowship Lisa and Mark case, which establishes the established household carrying $2,000,000 of twenty year term life alongside income of about $550,000, accessed October 2026.

Takeaways

• Build the amount from your balance sheet: debts to retire, plus the years of income your household would need, minus coverage already in force.
• On Heidi's numbers, the debts alone total $805,000 against a policy of $750,000. Five years of her income adds $1,600,000 more, for a build of $2,405,000.
• Term fits because the need expires as the mortgage falls, the children launch, and the accounts fill. Buy the large amount at the term price and invest in the accounts built for investing.
• Term life sits inside coverage, step four of the waterfall, after disability. Own the policy yourself so no job change can touch it, and rerun the build at every life change.