Does My Deposit Qualify for insurance?
What Is the FDIC?
The FDIC – short for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – is an
independent agency of the United States government. The FDIC protects you
against the loss of your deposits if an FDIC-insured bank or savings association
fails. FDIC insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United
States government. The term “insured bank” is used in this brochure to mean
any bank or savings association with FDIC insurance.
To check whether your bank or savings association is insured by FDIC,
call toll-free 1-877-275-3342, use "Bank Find" at
www.fdicinsuredbanks.com,
or look for the official FDIC sign where deposits are received.
Why Is FDIC Insurance Important to You?
All FDIC-insured banks must meet high standards for financial
strength and stability. The FDIC, with other federal and state
regulatory agencies, regularly reviews the operations of insured
banks to ensure these standards are met. Even with these safeguards,
some insured banks fail. If your insured bank fails, FDIC insurance
will cover your deposits, dollar for dollar, including principal
and any accrued interest, up to the insurance limit.
Historically, insured deposits are available to customers of a
failed bank within just a few days. Since the start of the FDIC in
1933, no depositor has ever lost a penny of insured deposits.
What Does the FDIC Insure?
The FDIC insures all deposits at insured banks, including checking,
NOW and savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, and certificates
of deposit (CDs), up to the insurance limit.
The FDIC does not insure the money you invest in stocks, bonds, mutual
funds, life insurance policies, annuities, or municipal securities, even
if you purchased these products from an insured bank.
Basic Insurance Amount Is $100,000
The basic insurance amount is $100,000 per depositor per insured bank.
Certain retirement accounts, such as Individual Retirement Accounts, are
insured up to $250,000 per depositor per insured bank.
If you and your family have $100,000 or less in all of your
deposit accounts at the same insured bank, you do not need to worry about
your insurance coverage -- your deposits are fully insured.
Coverage Over $100,000
The FDIC provides separate insurance coverage for deposit accounts held
in different categories of ownership.
You may qualify for more than
$100,000 in coverage at one insured bank if you own deposit accounts in
different ownership categories.
Common Ownership Categories
The most common ownership categories are:
Single Accounts
These are deposit accounts owned by one person and titled in that person’s
name only. All of your single accounts at the same insured bank are added
together and the total is insured up to $100,000. For example, if you have a
checking account and a CD at the same insured bank, and both accounts are in
your name only, the two accounts are added together and the total is insured
up to $100,000.
Note: Retirement accounts and qualifying trust accounts are not included
in this ownership category.
Certain Retirement Accounts
These are deposit accounts owned by one person and titled in the name of
that person’s retirement plan. Only the following types of retirement plans
are insured in this ownership category:
- Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) including traditional IRAs,
Roth IRAs, Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRAs, and Savings
Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs
- Section 457 deferred compensation plan accounts (whether self-directed or not)
- Self-directed defined contribution plan accounts
- Self-directed Keogh plan (or H.R. 10 plan) accounts
All deposits that an individual has in any of the types of retirement plans
listed above at the same insured bank are added together and the total is insured
up to $250,000. For example, if an individual has an IRA and a self-directed
Keogh account at the same bank, the deposits in both accounts would be added
together and insured up to $250,000.
Naming beneficiaries on a retirement account does not increase deposit insurance coverage.
Note: For information about FDIC insurance coverage for a type of retirement
plan not listed above, refer to the FDIC resources on the back of this brochure.
Joint Accounts
These are deposit accounts owned by two or more people. If both owners have
equal rights to withdraw money from a joint account, each person’s shares of
all joint accounts at the same insured bank are added together and the total is
insured up to $100,000.
If a couple has a joint checking account and a joint savings account at the
same insured bank, each co-owner's shares of the two accounts are added together
and insured up to $100,000, providing up to $200,000 in coverage for the couple's
joint accounts.
Example: John and Mary have a $220,000 CD at an insured bank. Under FDIC rules,
each person's share of each joint account is considered equal unless otherwise
stated in the bank’s records. John and Mary each own $110,000 in the joint account
category, putting a total of $20,000 ($10,000 for each) over the insurance limit.
| Account Holders |
Ownership Share |
Amount Insured |
Amount Uninsured |
| John |
$ 110,000 |
$ 100,000 |
$ 10,000 |
| Mary |
$ 110,000 |
$ 100,000 |
$ 10,000 |
| Total |
$ 220,000 |
$ 200,000 |
$ 20,000 |
Note: Jointly owned qualifying trust accounts are not included in this ownership category.
Revocable Trust Accounts
These are deposits held in either payable-on-death (POD) accounts or living trust accounts.
Payable-on-death (POD) accounts – also known as testamentary
or Totten Trust accounts – are the most common form of revocable trust deposits. These informal
revocable trusts are created when the account owner signs an agreement – usually part of the
bank's signature card – stating that the deposits will be payable to one or more named beneficiaries
upon the owner's death.
Living trusts – or family trusts – are formal revocable
trusts created for estate planning purposes. The owner of a living trust controls the deposits
in the trust during his or her lifetime.
Note: Determining coverage for living trust accounts can be complicated and requires more
detailed information about the FDIC's insurance rules than can be provided in this publication.
If you have a living trust account, contact the FDIC at 1-877-275-3342 for more information.
Deposit insurance coverage for revocable trust accounts is based on each owner's trust
relationship with each qualifying beneficiary. While the trust owner is the insured party,
coverage is provided for the interests of each beneficiary in the account. The FDIC insures
the interests of each beneficiary up to $100,000 for each owner if all of the following
requirements are met:
- The beneficiary is the owner's spouse, child, grandchild, parent, or sibling.
Adopted and stepchildren, grandchildren, parents, and siblings also qualify.
In-laws, grandparents, great-grandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews, friends,
organizations (including charities), and trusts do not qualify.
- The account title must indicate the existence of the trust relationship by including
a term such as payable on death, in trust for, trust, living trust, family trust, or
an acronym such as POD or ITF.
- For POD accounts, each beneficiary must be identified by name in the bank's account records.
If any of these requirements are not met, the entire amount in the account, or any portion of the
account that does not qualify, would be added to the owner's other single accounts, if any, at the same
bank and insured up to $100,000. If the revocable trust account has more than one owner, the FDIC would
insure each owner's share as his or her single account.
Note: The following example applies to POD accounts only. Coverage may be different for some living trusts.
Example: Bill has a $100,000 POD account with his wife Sue as beneficiary. Sue has a $100,000 POD
account with Bill as beneficiary. In addition, Bill and Sue jointly have a $600,000 POD account with
their three children as equal beneficiaries.
| Account Title |
Account Balance |
Amount Insured |
Amount Uninsured |
| Bill POD to Sue |
$ 100,000 |
$ 100,000 |
$ 0 |
| Sue POD to Bill |
$ 100,000 |
$ 100,000 |
$ 0 |
| Bill & Sue POD to 3 children |
$ 600,000 |
$ 600,000 |
$ 0 |
| Total |
$ 800,000 |
$ 800,000 |
$ 0 |
These three accounts totaling $800,000 are fully insured because each owner is entitled to $100,000 of
coverage for the interests of each qualifying beneficiary in the accounts. Bill has $400,000 of insurance
coverage ($100,000 for the interests of each qualifying beneficiary – his wife in the first account and his
three children in the third account). Sue also has $400,000 of insurance coverage ($100,000 for the interests
of each qualifying beneficiary – her husband in the second account and her three children in the third
account).
When calculating coverage for revocable trust accounts, be careful to avoid these common mistakes:
- Do not assume that coverage is calculated as $100,000 times the number of people –owner(s) and
beneficiary(ies) – named on a trust account. Coverage is provided for the interest of each
qualifying beneficiary named by each owner. Additional coverage is not provided to the owners
for naming themselves as owners. For example, a father's POD account naming two sons as equal
beneficiaries is insured to $200,000 only -- $100,000 for the interest of each qualifying beneficiary.
- Do not assume that the FDIC insures POD and living trust accounts separately. In applying the $100,000
per-beneficiary insurance limit, the FDIC combines an owner's POD accounts with the living trust accounts
that name the same beneficiaries at the same bank.
For More Information from the FDIC
Call toll-free at:
1-877-ASK-FDIC (1-877-275-3342)
from 8 am until 8 pm (Eastern Time)
Monday through Friday
Hearing Impaired Line:
1-800-925-4618
Calculate your insurance coverage using the FDIC's online Electronic Deposit
Insurance Estimator at:
www2.fdic.gov/edie
Request a copy of
"Your Insured Deposits: FDIC's Guide to Deposit Insurance Coverage,"
which provides a detailed description
of the ownership categories, by calling toll free at:
1-877-275-3342
For downloadable, camera-ready files of "Your Insured Deposit" and
"Insuring Your Deposit,"
visit "
Reprintable FDIC Brochures
" at
www.fdic.gov,
"About FDIC."
Read more about FDIC insurance online at:
www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits
Order FDIC deposit insurance products online at
www2.fdic.gov/depositinsuranceregister
Send your questions by e-mail using the FDIC's online Customer Assistance Form at:
www2.fdic.gov/starsmail
Mail your questions to:
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
Attn: Deposit Insurance Outreach
550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429-9990
“and it's not saving it. The federal government's the only sector that's growing. They're hiring people left and right. Isn’t there something wrong with this picture if the only people hiring is the government? So FDIC is about broke, six months it will be insolvent, meaning your bank is not ensured, your money assigned ensured. Citibank is down to less than a buck. General Motors auditors are saying "our ability as an ongoing concern is seriously threatened." Every entity that has been bailed out by this administration, which is a political solution, is doing worse than before we bailed them out: AIG, Citibank, Citigroup, any entity you want to look at. The only ones that are making out so far are members of the AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers, who are having their giant, lavish convention with Joe Biden, without media coverage, at the Fontainebleau five-star resort hotel in Miami. Meanwhile, your deposits may not be insured by the middle of the summer -- six months from now, at the most -- according to the government itself. We are angering friends. We are disrespecting publicly, we are humiliating publicly our staunchest ally, the United Kingdom. We are close to doing the same thing to Israel by offering $900 million to Hamas in Gaza and promising Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, that we're gonna pay for him to beef up security in the West Bank.” So my question is should we stay the coarse?
Publ.Date : Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:18:32 GMT
The Main Street Rescue Plan Congress will be voting on a revised Wall Street Bailout Plan as early as October 1, 2008. If you believe that Congress should be focusing on Main Street first, then please click here to send an email to your elected officials telling them you don’t want the government spending billions of dollars on bad loans. Phase One - Immediate Action by U.S. Congress 1. Securities and Exchange Commission Mandate that the SEC: Suspend its “mark-to-market” accounting regulations that are causing the write-down of bank assets to fire-sale prices, and thereby contracting the supply of available investment capital. Tightly restrict short sales of financial stocks. 2. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Mandate that the FDIC: Declare a national emergency during which time the FDIC will back depositors and general creditors of banks that fail and resolve those collapses in a way that does not cost depositors, such as selling deposits and loans of the failed institution to another institution. Reconstitute the FDIC’s “net worth certificate” (NWC) program that Congress created in the 1980s for the savings and loan crisis of that era. The NWC required no federal subsidy or cash outlay. Under the NWC, the FDIC bought subordinated debentures in the bank and issued FDIC notes to the bank, with the interest being the exact same on both instruments. Under this program, the FDIC assesses the financial condition of banks and shores up weak ones that can survive if given time to resolve their problems and merges/liquidates those too weak for the NWC program. Under the NWC program, the FDIC will provide strict supervision of participating banks, including the employment of key personnel and their compensation, until the crisis has passed. Again, no federal subsidies or outlays are required. Declare a 120-day moratorium on payment of dividends by banks. Executives of banks that need capital often worry that failing to pay dividends is a sign of financial instability. A temporary ban across-the-board will end fears and give FDIC time to strengthen banks’ capital base. Expand FDIC insurance coverage to other financial institutions, including hedge funds, placed under federal regulation. 3. Stabilize Owner-Occupied Homes Declare a 120-day moratorium on mortgage foreclosures. This will (a) keep families in their homes while components of the broader plan are put in place and the real economy is revived; (b) better ensure that the property does not fall into disrepair; and (c) reduce the decline in housing values created by unoccupied, foreclosed homes. Devise a post-moratorium program to do work out plans for owner-occupied homes, including federal cash subsidies for owners that can pay for their homes if given time to financially survive this crisis. Amend federal law so that federal bankruptcy judges are able to modify the terms of mortgages of homeowners in bankruptcy and thus give them more time to work through their financial problems and keep their homes. 4. Share Rescue Profits with U.S. Taxpayers Whenever the government makes a loan or an equity investment in a distressed financial institution, such as the AIG deal, the public gets a share of any future recovery profits. Create a true “Social Security Lockbox” for the warrants and equity the federal government acquires as part of this financial rescue. The goal is not long-term federal ownership, but to assist these organizations in returning to a sound operation and then make a prudent sale of the public equity. Restrict the investment of those funds to AAA-rated state and local infrastructure bonds, which provide safe, long-term investments that will stimulate the real economy, create new jobs, and fiscally strengthen the Social Security System. 5. Oversight Create an independent agency/board to oversee and manage the non-FDIC/SEC portions of the Rescue Plan and report to Congress on a regular basis. The Board would consist of: Secretary of Treasury (Chair). Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Chairman of the FDIC, Chairman of the SEC, Comptroller General of the United States, One appointee by each of the Majority and Minority Leaders of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Create a new Joint Committee of Congress to oversee the plan and provide recommendations to Congress. The new Joint Committee would consist of representatives from all standing committees with partial jurisdiction for resolving this financial crisis. The goal is to involve all relevant committees in this rescue plan. 6. Create an Emergency Financial Crimes Office in the Department of Justice The mission of this unit is to investigate any criminal acts that led to this crisis, hold the guilty accountable, and disgorge assets from individuals and institutions found guilty. The head of the Office will be an experienced, non-political career prosecutor appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senat Sorry it took so long, but I think this is brilliant...What do you think?
Publ.Date : Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:21:49 GMT
in a bank account, would you move the overage to another bank to assure your money is covered? I'm interested in no-risk deposits.
Publ.Date : Sat, 27 Sep 2008 05:07:17 GMT
Publ.Date : Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:23:36 GMT
I heard that FDIC recently increased the insurance coverage from $100,000 to $250,000. BUT! they're saying that on January 1, 2010, the standard coverage limit will return to $100,000. Why increase only for a year???
Publ.Date : Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:45:17 GMT
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