Determining the right amount of life insurance is no easy task and the answer is different for everyone. Money Matters reporter Tara Lynn Wagner filed the following report.

When it comes to getting the right amount of life insurance, there's no “one size fits all” formula. “Seven to 10 times your annual salary” is the often-quoted estimate, but Mark Pfaff of New York Life Insurance says there are several factors that need to be considered.

“It's what do you think your needs are? What do you want your family to have? Then it’s simply a math equation,” said Pfaff.

The first variable is a family's immediate cash needs. That can include outstanding debt, mortgage payments and final expenses, which alone can be as high as $10,000 or $15,000.

“If we look at funeral expenses, administration costs, wills and probate fees and attorneys’ fees, medical expenses that may be left over, they're a lot more than people might think,” said Prudential financial planner Bill Danas.

The second half of the equation involves a family's ongoing income needs.

“So I died last night. My wife has these expenses that she’s got to deal with, but now what does she do for income?” said Pfaff.

Insurance agent Anthony Domino says the key to answering that question is determining one’s own “human life value.”

“If you make $50,000 a year, you're really just like a machine in the basement that's spitting out roughly $4,000 a month. That's what you mean to your family financially,” says Domino.

A 40-year-old person who plans to work until age 60 will make about a million dollars over those upcoming 20 years.

“So that person has a million-dollar need if they're no longer there to support that family,” said Domino. “Maybe more if you factor in inflation, cost of living, raising, taxes. So it sounds like a big number, but it's really not that much.”

Still, financial experts warn life insurance should not be viewed as winning the lottery. The bigger the policy, the bigger the monthly premium will be. While policyholders do not want to have too little coverage, they also do not want to buy too much.

“Remember, it’s taking away from your resources that you have now. So you want to get enough so they can get by, but you don't want to put so much into life insurance that you don't have enough to provide for your family now,” said Money Magazine senior editor Walter Updegrave.

The not-for-profit Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE) offers a number of calculators on their website, including a “human life value” calculator and another application to determine basic life insurance needs. These calculators can help users get a ballpark estimate before they shop around for a policy.

To find these calculators, along with other insurance tools and tips, visit lifehappens.org.