Calculating Lost Future Income and Benefits After a Wrongful Death

Insurance companies often simplify these losses. However, families experience them as long-term changes. “Lost future income and benefits” is a crucial part of a wrongful death claim and often leads to disputes. It’s not just about last year’s earnings but includes what the person would have earned over their lifetime.

If you are navigating this process, a wrongful death lawyer in Chicago can help ensure these calculations reflect the real impact on your family, rather than a low estimate meant to settle the claim quickly.

What “Lost Future Income” Actually Includes

Lost future income refers to the earnings the person likely would have brought home if they had lived. This can include wages or salary, overtime, commissions, tips, and predictable bonuses. For some professions, it can also include profit-sharing or business income.

The goal is to estimate not only what the person was earning at the time of death, but what their income path probably would have been. Someone early in their career may have had decades of increasing earnings ahead. Someone close to retirement may have had fewer working years left but may have been at peak income.

The Benefits Many Families Don’t Realize Count

Benefits are often as valuable as salary, sometimes more. A wrongful death claim may consider employer-provided benefits that would have continued supporting the family, such as:

• Health insurance contributions
• Dental and vision coverage
• Retirement contributions (401(k), pension)
• Employer matching
• Life insurance benefits tied to employment
• Stock options or equity plans
• Disability coverage
• Paid time off and sick leave value

Losing benefits can mean higher monthly costs for the survivors, especially when health insurance coverage ends, and the family must replace it privately.

The Starting Point: Employment Records and Pay History

The calculation usually begins with documentation: pay stubs, W-2s, tax returns, direct deposit statements, employment contracts, and benefit summaries. These records help establish the baseline income and typical earnings pattern.

For hourly workers, overtime history can matter greatly. For commission-based earners, multi-year records may be used to show average earnings. For self-employed individuals, profit-and-loss statements, business tax filings, and client contracts may help show earning capacity beyond a single year’s snapshot.

Projecting Raises, Promotions, and Career Growth

A fair calculation doesn’t freeze a person’s income in time. Most people receive raises, cost-of-living adjustments, or promotions. Some industries have structured pay increases. Others involve performance-based growth.

Projections often consider age, education, work history, job stability, and industry norms. A person who was steadily advancing in a career may have expected higher earnings in future years. Insurers often resist these projections, but realistic career growth can be supported through job records, performance history, and evidence of career trajectory.

Worklife Expectancy and Retirement Timing

Another key issue is how long the person likely would have worked. Some people retire earlier; others work longer due to profession, health, or financial needs. These factors affect how many years of income are included in the estimate.

Worklife expectancy can also reflect job type. Physically demanding jobs may involve earlier retirement or career changes. Professional or office-based jobs may have longer work spans. These projections often rely on a combination of work history, personal circumstances, and statistical data.

Non-Wage Contributions: Household Services That Have Real Value

Families often lose more than a paycheck. Many people provide essential household labor: childcare, transportation, cooking, cleaning, home maintenance, and caregiving for relatives. When they’re gone, someone else must do that work—either a surviving family member or hired help.

These services have economic value, even though no one was being “paid” for them. A wrongful death claim may include the cost of replacing those services, especially when the deceased handled major family responsibilities.

Deductions: Taxes and Personal Consumption

Lost income calculations usually account for the fact that not all earnings would have gone directly to the family. Taxes would have been paid, and the person would have used some portion of income for personal needs. This is often called personal consumption.

The exact approach depends on case facts and legal rules, but the main point is that calculations attempt to estimate the net financial support the family likely would have received, not a simple gross salary number.

Present Value: Why the Final Number Looks “Discounted”

When a claim includes income that would have been earned over many future years, the total is often adjusted to “present value.” That means the calculation reflects what a lump-sum payment today would be worth compared to receiving smaller amounts over time.

This concept is important because insurers may use it to shrink the number aggressively. A fair present value calculation should be based on realistic assumptions, not overly conservative estimates that undervalue the family’s loss.

How Insurance Companies Try to Reduce Future Income Calculations

Insurers often use strategies to lower the number, such as:

• Using only the last year of income, ignoring overtime or bonuses
• Assuming minimal or no raises over time
• Assuming early retirement without support
• Minimizing the value of benefits
• Treating household services as “not measurable”
• Applying overly large consumption deductions
• Using conservative assumptions for future growth

The best way to push back is documentation and a well-supported projection that reflects the person’s real work history and life circumstances.

The Role of Experts: Economists and Vocational Evidence

In larger wrongful death cases, an economist may be used to project future income and benefits and calculate present value. Vocational experts may also be involved to explain career trajectory, promotions, and industry earning potential.

These experts use data, but the strongest projections also use personal evidence—job history, performance reviews, education, certifications, and the likelihood of continued employment. The purpose is to create a calculation that is grounded, reasonable, and defensible.

A Wrongful Death Income Calculation Should Reflect a Real Life, Not a Minimum Number

Lost future income and benefits are not abstract math—they represent the practical support a family lost when a life was cut short. A proper calculation considers career growth, benefits, retirement contributions, and the value of household services that kept the family functioning. It also accounts for present value without letting insurance companies use “discounting” as a way to minimize the truth.

If you’re facing this process, careful documentation and realistic projections matter. A strong claim tells the full story of what the person contributed—and what the family will need to move forward with stability after a loss that never should have happened.