Single Accounts
A single account is a deposit owned by one person. The following deposit account types are included in this ownership category: Accounts held in one person’s name alone
Accounts established for one person by an agent, nominee, guardian, custodian, or conservator, including Uniform Transfers to Minors Act accounts, escrow accounts, and brokered deposit accounts
Accounts held in the name of a business that is a sole proprietorship (for example, a “DBA account”)
Accounts established for a decedent’s estate, and
Any account that fails to qualify for coverage under another ownership category.
All single accounts owned by the same person at the same insured bank are added together and the total is insured up to $100,000.
Certain Retirement Accounts
These are deposits owned by one person and titled in the name of that person’s retirement account.
The following types of retirement plan deposits qualify for coverage as “certain retirement accounts”:
All types of IRAs, including:
Traditional IRAs
Roth IRAs
Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRAs
Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs
All Section 457 deferred compensation plan accounts, such as eligible deferred compensation plans provided by state and local governments regardless of whether they are self-directed
Self-directed defined contribution plan accounts, such as self-directed 401(k) plans, self-directed SIMPLE held in the form of 401(k) plans, self-directed defined contribution money purchase plans, and self-directed defined contribution profit-sharing plans
Self-directed Keogh plan accounts (or H.R. 10 plan accounts) designed for self-employed individuals
All retirement accounts listed above owned by the same person in the same FDIC-insured bank are added together and the total is insured up to $250,000.
Joint Accounts
A joint account is a deposit owned by two or more people. To qualify for insurance under this ownership category, all of the following requirements must be met:
All co-owners must be people. Legal entities such as corporations, trusts, estates, or partnerships are not eligible for joint account coverage.
All co-owners must have equal rights to withdraw deposits from the account. For example, if one co-owner can withdraw deposits on his or her signature alone but the other co-owner can withdraw deposits only with the signature of both co-owners, the co-owners do not have equal withdrawal rights.
All co-owners must sign the deposit account signature card unless the account is a CD or is established by an agent, nominee, guardian, custodian, executor or conservator.
If all of these requirements are met, each co-owner’s share of every account that is jointly held at the same insured bank is added together with the co-owner’s other shares, and the total is insured up to $100,000.
The FDIC assumes that all co-owners’ shares are equal unless the deposit account records state otherwise.
For example, a husband and wife could have up to $200,000 in one or more joint accounts at the same insured bank and the deposits would be fully insured. The husband’s ownership share is insured up to $100,000 and the wife’s ownership share is insured up to $100,000.
To be continued…
