Comments on: FDIC Insurance Coverage: Limits and Strategies

By: Rex Matlack

Rex Matlack — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:35:30 +0000

In the past non interest bearing bank deposits carried unlimited FDIC insurance. Is this still the case? Please provide appropriate regulation that provides this. Thanks,

By: Joe Gresham

Joe Gresham — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:59:14 +0000

I found out today that the FDIC ,if they wanted to, could take as long as 99 years to return one’s money.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:06:12 +0000

Comment #29 by Lara (12 May 2009) is informative. I didn’t see an answer to any of the questions about timelines for payout. How long does the FDIC have to pay for failed accounts? Thanks very much.

By: Lara

Lara — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:03:12 +0000

I came across this web site after searching for some information regarding FDIC insurance. Our neighbors had a substantial amount of money w/ Net Bank over a year ago…..and they are STILL waiting to get the rest of their money back via FDIC….apparently it is NOT an easy process….so far they have received about 70%.
I am absolutelyy stunned at how many people still put large amounts of money in bank CD’s. The rates are terrible….and then you have to pay taxes on what little bit of interest you do get…..which means you are not even “breaking even” w/ the rate of inflation. I believe it stems from an old school mentality. I was also raised to believe that you should “put your money in the bank”…. until I learned otherwise.

By: Glenn Meyer

Glenn Meyer — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:49:51 +0000

How long does the FDIC have to pay back the money on an account in a failed bank and in what order, $1,000 per month or what?

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:26:50 +0000

#19 Don:

By my understanding (having just read over the NCUA rules as well), outstanding loans are paid out of your balance and you receive the remainder. But also from my understanding this is ONLY if the institution is liquidated completely, not bought or merged but actual complete bankruptcy.

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:24:12 +0000

When does the new 250K insurance (which was part of the bail-out package) go into effect? Immediately?

By: Clinton Newby

Clinton Newby — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:19:32 +0000

Is there insurance (outside of FDIC) that will insure IRA accounts that are in excess of $250,000.00?

Thank you.

By: Robert W. Mason

Robert W. Mason — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:55:08 +0000

How laong does the FDIC have to repay a defaulted account

By: Robert W. Mason

Robert W. Mason — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:52:46 +0000

I’d like to know how long does the FDIC have to repay an account that has failed?

By: Ron

Ron — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:22:00 +0000

For a regular c.d. that I have totaling $200,000 can I put my 15 year old daughter’s name with mine and get $200,000 coverage. Are there any hurdles to jump if putting a child’s name with mine to get the $200,000 coverage?

By: nickel

nickel — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:48:24 +0000

Jodi: I’ve never heard that before, and I’d be surprised if it was true. In most cases, the FDIC doesn’t even have to disburse funds, as the failed bank’s assets are sold to another bank who backs the accounts.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:40:43 +0000

I recently read that if the economy is bad and a bank goes under, the $100,000 you have insured under FDIC insurance through the instutition may only be paid out to a consumer in $1,000 increments throughout the years until your $100,000 is used up. Is this true?

By: Don H

Don H — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:05:17 +0000

What if you had a bank account with a $1 million balance, and a loan there where you owed $1 million.

If the bank fails, do you get $100,000 and owe $1 million?

Or, do you get an offset and net -0- balance?

By: Walter N. Russell

Walter N. Russell — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 21:06:21 +0000

I have $400,000 in one bank spread evenly over
4 accounts. Acct. is in my name, with beneficiary’s
named as my wife and listed separately my 3 children.

Are we covered 100% ?

I have been told by the bank—Yes.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:10:03 +0000

I was wanting to get a $400,000 CD and title the CD in my revocable trust with myself and wife being trustees based on my trust instrument. Our two kids are both beneficiary’s of the trust in the event something happens to my wife and I. How much FDIC insurance coverage do I have in this situation? Should I break this up into smaller amounts?

By: Charles D

Charles D — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:23:28 +0000

Should Washington Mutual decide to file bankruptcy, what is the actual trigger that alerts the FDIC to start writing checks? How long does it usually take for the FDIC to issue payment once this happens? Thanks

By: Greg J

Greg J — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:53:41 +0000

>Melinda, what is the basis of your statement that a >$10K account might only get $5K back? I think you >might be misinterpreting. If a bank has only enough >money to pay its depositors 50% of what they >deposited, then the FDIC will only put up the other >50%, not the entire amount. So the FDIC only pays >50%, but those with under 100K balances do get 100% >back, not just half.

That is correct.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:24:45 +0000

Melinda, what is the basis of your statement that a $10K account might only get $5K back? I think you might be misinterpreting. If a bank has only enough money to pay its depositors 50% of what they deposited, then the FDIC will only put up the other 50%, not the entire amount. So the FDIC only pays 50%, but those with under 100K balances do get 100% back, not just half.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:17:13 +0000

If you are really concerned, you should place your money in multiple banks rather than trying to see how many ways you can stack up multiple accounts with one bank and still get paid. If you have it all in one bank, then your risk is clearly greater — at least the risk of having to wait days or weeks or months to get access to your money if multiple banks fail at about the same point in time and the FDIC gets overworked.

By: Les

Les — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:19:14 +0000

Great article. Well written. I’m a claims agent with the FDIC & I enjoyed your article. Keep informing the public–they should and must know what’s out there for them. Les

By: Robert B. Langeland

Robert B. Langeland — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:31:21 +0000

Why !

By: Melinda

Melinda — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:27:09 +0000

In my experience with FDIC insurance and the Lincoln Saving failure, they insured up to $100,000 per account. However, in this case it did not mean you would receive 100% of your loss up to $100,000. It specifically meant that you would receive a percentage on the dollar of your account up to $100,000. For example, if you had $10,000 in your account, then FDIC insurance might pay you 50 cents on the dollar for a total payment of $5,000.

By: Greg J

Greg J — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:14:55 +0000

In any FDIC insured bank you could do this:

RBL – 92,000

RBL and Mrs. RBL/joint account – 95,000

RBL itf junior RBL – 95,000

Another variation could be joint account with junior, etc. See the note above by Melissa for additonal ideas.

By: Robert B. Langeland

Robert B. Langeland — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:08:08 +0000

How and can I put $282,000 into an ING account, can I open, three accounts, divid them equally and still be FDIC Insured?

By: Greg J

Greg J — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:57:17 +0000

The FDIC has no problem with the variations of accounts that they cover with insurance. You’re not “getting around” the 100,000 dollar limit by using different account structures, you are using it correctly.

The FDIC is not going to fail, either. Well, in reality, what you are referring to is not the FDIC but the “BIF”, the Bank Insurance Fund. The overall US government and policy of the Treasury Department won’t allow that to happen.

Sleep easy….

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:57:06 +0000

Another way to get around the 100k limit is by using another category of account; namely, the revocable/irrevocable trust account. These are insured up to 100k per owner, per beneficiary (but does not include the owner) therefore a couple with 3 kids could have an account set up jointly in trust for their kids and be insured up to $600,000. The couple could each have their own trust account also with the other named as beneficiary, insured up to 100k. There are some limitations for beneficiaries ( I believe it is limited to spouses, siblings, parents, children, and grandchildren) and of course, if the owner were to die, the accounts then revert to the “single account” category for each beneficiary and only go to 100k, but there is a grace period in which the funds are still insured fully so you have time to restructure.
This was probably very confusing (I work in a bank and it still confuses me sometimes!) but it’s worth looking into for those with a large amount of funds.

By: F2O

F2O — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:44:25 +0000

Nickel, thanks for spreading the word on this… Many people are confused about what’s covered and unfortunately, many bank employees are unknowingly spreading false information. It seems to me that the documentation from the FDIC could be a little clearer.

By: nickel

nickel — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:21:10 +0000

F2O and Tom: You are correct, thanks for pointing out the error. It appears that I mis-interpreted one of their examples. Regardless, it’s fixed now.

By: Alain Wong

Alain Wong — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:18:56 +0000

The problem is that the FDIC may run out of funding as more and more banks fail in the coming months. IndyMac already took a big chunk of it. Washington Mutual is crippled along with many other regional banks. So it’s just a matter of time before we see more bank runs and failures. So the question should really be “What if the FDIC fails?” Oh my.

By: tom

tom — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:59:01 +0000

Yes, 2 people can have a total of $400k insured at one institution. Person #1 has $100k individual acct, Person #2 has $100k individual acct, and a $200k joint account. Another helpful link is for the FDIC estimator:
http://www4.fdic.gov/EDIE/

By: F2O

F2O — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:20:43 +0000

Actually, joint and individual accounts are considered different ownership categories. As such, the balances are not combined for FDIC coverage.
The link is:
http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/de.....index.html