A structured discovery system for understanding every dimension of your client's financial life — protection gaps, obligations, retirement picture, and estate plan — and knowing exactly what to recommend, and in what order.
Complete each section with your client. The report at the end summarizes every gap and recommendation.
The client's income is the starting point for calculating the DIME recommended coverage — the minimum life insurance need based on income replacement, debt, and dependent obligations.
Income, age, and family status together determine every gap we'll calculate in this worksheet.
Before you ask about insurance, establish income. The moment a client hears their own income number reflected back as a protection need, the conversation shifts from abstract to real.
Most families are a two-income household. We calculate the protection need for each spouse independently — because if either income disappears, the family's financial plan collapses.
The spouse's income is used to calculate their own DIME recommendation and confirm that both partners are adequately covered.
"If your spouse were no longer here, how long would it take for your income alone to stabilize everything?" That answer drives the coverage number.
The DIME method calculates minimum life insurance coverage:
D — Debts & final expenses
I — Income replacement (years × salary)
M — Mortgage payoff
E — Education for children
This gives a concrete, defensible number rather than a guess. Most clients are significantly underinsured when compared to their true DIME need.
"This isn't a number I chose — it's what the math says your family actually needs. Let's look at what you already have."
We subtract existing coverage from the recommended amount to calculate the Foundation Gap — the precise dollar shortfall between what the family has and what they actually need. This single number often reshapes the entire conversation.
Most clients assume their employer group life insurance has them fully covered. The reality: group coverage is typically 1–2× salary, and it terminates the moment they change jobs, are laid off, or retire. It cannot be taken with them — it belongs to the employer, not the employee.
Show the gap directly: "If something happened tonight, where would the missing [GAP AMOUNT] come from?" Silence is the beginning of urgency. The client calculates the answer themselves.
The Foundation isn't just life insurance. A family's financial plan can collapse just as easily from a long-term disability as from a death. The probability of a working-age adult experiencing a disability lasting 90+ days is significantly higher than the probability of dying during peak earning years.
Health insurance tied to an employer is also a hidden dependency — a job change can leave the family exposed immediately.
"If you couldn't work for 6 months, what would happen to the mortgage?" That one question reveals whether disability coverage belongs in the plan.
The Walls represent the obligations that must be met every single month regardless of circumstances. If the Foundation (life insurance) is the protection — the Walls are what that protection needs to cover.
Understanding monthly cash flow also reveals how much premium budget is available for the products you're going to recommend.
If monthly cash flow is tight, lead with term life — maximum protection at minimum cost. You can always add permanent coverage as income grows.
Every debt is a liability that transfers to the surviving family member if the breadwinner dies. A family shouldn't have to sell the house or refinance to survive — the life insurance plan should cover these obligations.
Total debt feeds directly into the DIME calculation and helps size the life insurance recommendation correctly.
"If something happened tonight, who inherits your mortgage? Your car payments? Your credit card debt?" Most clients haven't thought about this. The silence that follows does more selling than any product brochure.
Most clients significantly underestimate what they'll need at retirement and significantly overestimate what Social Security will provide. The average Social Security benefit replaces roughly 40% of pre-retirement income for average earners — and less for higher earners.
Knowing current savings and years to retirement allows a realistic gap analysis on the next slide.
If retirement savings feel thin relative to age and income, the 401(k) tax time bomb conversation opens naturally here: "Are you aware that every dollar in that 401(k) has never been taxed? The IRS has a partnership in your retirement account."
The retirement income gap is the monthly shortfall between what Social Security and pensions provide and what the client actually needs to live on in retirement. This number is the primary driver of the retirement strategy.
Social Security replaces roughly 40% of income for average earners — and a smaller percentage for higher earners. It was designed as a supplement, not a complete income replacement. Most clients are planning as if it will cover everything.
A Fixed Indexed Annuity with an income rider, or an IUL structured for retirement distributions, can be sized directly to this gap number.
"Your gap is $[X]/month. That's the income we need to create from somewhere other than Social Security. Let me show you two or three ways to build that."
A will is a one-way ticket to probate. A properly funded trust bypasses probate entirely, transferring assets directly to heirs without court involvement, public disclosure, or delays of 12–18+ months.
Most people who have wills think they have an estate plan. A will is not an estate plan — it is a set of instructions for a probate court. The beneficiary designations on life insurance and retirement accounts often override the will entirely.
"If something happened tonight, your estate would go through probate for 12–18 months, become public record, and cost your family 3–5% in court fees. Does your family know how to handle that process?" The answer almost always opens the door to a trust conversation.
Understanding net worth and legacy goals allows us to design the estate amplification strategy — typically whole life insurance used as a tax-efficient wealth transfer vehicle.
For higher net worth clients, the estate tax threshold ($13.6M individual as of 2024) may also become relevant. Life insurance owned inside an irrevocable life insurance trust (ILIT) can fund estate taxes without forcing asset liquidation.
"What do you want to happen to everything you've built? And what happens to the tax bill your heirs inherit with it?"
Understanding the client's own stated priority allows you to lead the recommendation with what they said matters most — not what you think they need. This is the most powerful alignment technique in financial services.
When the recommendation opens with "You told me your biggest concern is [X]. Here is how we address that first," the client experiences the meeting as advice rather than a sales call.
Never guess at priorities. Ask directly, then build the recommendation sequence to mirror what you heard. "You said retiring without running out of money is your number one concern. Here is how we build that income floor."
Review the key numbers below before generating the report. You can go back to any slide to update entries.