The Insurance planning tab shows you whether a client has enough coverage across life, disability, homeowners, and liability insurance. It compares what they currently have against what the calculators say they need, and flags any gaps. You'll find it under Planning > Insurance inside any client.
This tab is where you analyze coverage. The actual policy data (carrier, premium, benefit amounts) lives in Profile > Insurance. If you haven't entered any policies there yet, the planning tab won't have much to work with.
How data flows between Profile and Planning
Insurance data in Kerdora lives in two places, and they serve different purposes:
Profile > Insurance is where you enter (or the Extractor pulls in) the raw policy data: carrier name, policy type, benefit amounts, premiums, deductibles, and other details. This is your data entry layer.
Planning > Insurance is where Kerdora analyzes that data. It pulls in the policies you've entered, runs calculations to determine how much coverage the client should have, and compares that against what they actually have.
You don't enter policies on the Planning tab. You review and analyze them there.
What you see on the Planning tab
The Planning > Insurance page lists each insurance type as its own expandable row:
Life Insurance (one row per adult in the household)
Disability Insurance (one row per adult)
Homeowners Insurance (one row per property)
Liability Insurance (one row for the household)
Each row shows three things at a glance:
Strategy — How the client plans to handle this coverage area (Insurance, Self Fund, Blend, or None)
Coverage Status — Whether they're covered adequately (Good, Needs Change, None, or Not Applicable)
Current vs. Needed — A comparison of what they have against what the calculator says they need
Click into any row to expand it and see the full calculator, current policies, and detailed breakdown.
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You can also mark any insurance type as "Not Used" if it doesn't apply to this client. This collapses the row and removes it from the analysis.
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The coverage gap calculation
Every insurance type follows the same basic logic:
Current coverage — Kerdora adds up the benefit amounts from all policies of that type in Profile > Insurance
Coverage needed — The calculator estimates how much the client should have, based on their financial data
Gap analysis — Kerdora compares the two and sets a status
Here's how the status gets determined:
Good — Current coverage meets or exceeds what's needed
Needs Change — There's a gap. Current coverage falls short of the calculated need
None — The client has no policies of this type, but the calculator says they need coverage
Not Applicable — No coverage exists and none is needed (e.g., no property means no homeowners need)
What each calculator measures
Life Insurance
The life insurance calculator estimates how much death benefit an adult needs. It factors in:
Personal income — pulled automatically from the client's income data
Total household income — sum of all income sources in the household
Number of children — from the Household tab
Total debt — sum of all liabilities
Savings and investments — liquid assets that could offset the need
Working years remaining — calculated from the adult's age (assumes retirement at 65)
Current coverage is the sum of all life insurance policy benefit amounts where that person is the owner.
Disability Insurance
The disability calculator estimates how much income replacement coverage an adult needs. It uses:
Annual income — wages and self-employment income for that person
Percentage to cover — defaults to 80%, which you can adjust
Current coverage is the sum of all disability policy benefit amounts (annualized) where that person is the insured.
Homeowners Insurance
The homeowners calculator estimates how much dwelling coverage a property needs. It uses:
Property market value — the value of the property
Target coverage percentage — defaults to 80%, adjustable
Current coverage is the dwelling coverage amount from the homeowners policy linked to that property.
Liability Insurance
The liability calculator estimates how much umbrella or liability coverage the household needs. It uses:
Net worth — total assets minus total liabilities
Current coverage is the sum of all liability policy coverage amounts.
Auto-populated vs. manual inputs
Most calculator inputs auto-populate from the client's existing data. Income fields pull from Cashflow, asset totals pull from Accounts, age pulls from Household, and debt pulls from liabilities.
These auto-populated values update automatically when you change the underlying data. If you update a client's income on the Cashflow tab, the insurance calculators reflect that change immediately.
You can override any auto-populated value by clicking on it and entering a manual number. When you override a value, it stays at your manual entry even if the source data changes. To switch back to the auto-calculated value, toggle the field back to its derived mode.
Choosing a strategy
Each insurance type has a strategy selector with four options:
Insurance — The client will use insurance policies to cover this need
Self Fund — The client has enough assets to self-insure (common for liability or homeowners with high net worth clients)
Blend — A combination of insurance and self-funding
None — No strategy selected or coverage isn't needed
The strategy is informational. It doesn't change the gap calculation, but it helps you document the client's approach and communicate it in their Guide.
Auto-detected gaps via Observations
You don't have to eyeball every row to catch problems. Kerdora's rules engine scans each client's insurance data in the background and flags gaps automatically. The rules check current coverage against recommended levels and surface anything that looks off.
Insurance rules that run today:
Life insurance gap — flags adults whose current death benefit falls short of the calculated need (sub-$10K gaps are suppressed as noise)
Life insurance method mismatch — catches stay-at-home parents using the Human Life Value method, which silently returns a $0 need
Disability insurance gap — flags adults whose disability coverage falls short of the target income replacement
Homeowners insurance gap — flags properties where dwelling coverage is below the target percentage of market value
Umbrella liability gap — flags households with net worth above $1M and no umbrella or excess liability policy
LTC missing (mid-wealth) — flags clients in the long-term care planning sweet spot who don't have LTC coverage
Deductible too high vs. cash — flags policies with deductibles that exceed the client's emergency cash reserves
Disability elimination period too long — flags disability policies with an elimination period the client's cash can't bridge
Term policy expiring before need ends — flags term life policies that expire before the calculated need period ends
These observations show up in two places. They appear on the Observations sub-tab (grouped by category), and they also render inline on Planning > Insurance, right next to the coverage row that triggered them. That way you see the gap in context while you're already looking at the calculator.
Every observation has a Convert to Change button. One click turns the observation into a Change to Be Made on the Guide, pre-filled with a suggested description (e.g. "Add $500,000 of life insurance for Jane"). You can edit the change before saving if you want to tweak the wording or assign it differently.
For the full picture on how Observations work across Kerdora (not just insurance), see the dedicated Observations article.
What to do with the results
The coverage gap analysis is a starting point for conversation, not a final answer. Here's a typical workflow:
Review the status for each type. Look for any "Needs Change" or "None" flags, and scan any Observations attached to the Insurance rows.
Check the calculator inputs. Make sure the auto-populated values look right for this client. Override anything that doesn't fit their situation.
Compare current vs. needed. The gap tells you how much additional coverage to recommend.
Convert observations to Changes. If a flagged gap holds up, one click turns it into a Change to Be Made. You can also add Changes manually from the planning row.
Set the strategy. Document whether the client plans to use insurance, self-fund, or blend.
Include it in the Guide. Add the Insurance Coverage component to the client's Guide so they can see their coverage summary.
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The Insurance planning tab is one of the top areas where advisors identify Changes to Be Made. If a client is underinsured, that's a concrete, actionable recommendation you can deliver in their Guide.
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