Any increase in FDIC coverage on the horizon?

Q: I am reviewing an article written by you and published May 8, 2005. The title is "FDIC limit increase would help retirees". In the article you mentioned that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill raising the limit to $130,000 but the U.S. Senate had yet to act. Do you have any knowledge as to whether or not such an increase is in the near future?

A: It's always nice to know that my work was preserved for posterity! The $100,000 base insurance limit was not increased. However, Congress did set a separate limit of $250,000 for retirement accounts (including IRAs and 401(k)s. Thus a single person can have $250,000 in an IRA and $100,000 in other accounts at the same bank and be fully covered. Of course, by adding other people on the accounts, you can increase your limits. Here are more details.

Comments

[Want prosperity]

get rid of the bureaucrats.

[Exactly]

that is how Rome died-- all the vested interested with dedicated payments lead to bankruptcy

And how many politicians do you think are going to get elected (or re-elected) on a campaign platform of slashing Social Security and Medicare benefits?

I disagree. FDIC is backed by the government. Taxpayers will pick up the tab if it comes to that.

Sorry to be a pessimist on this one but many many brokers and bankers I have discussed this with over the years say FDIC is cosmetic if there were ever any wide scale bank failures. Isolated events FDIC can handle, but not any large panics. If only all of us had this much to worry about,lol.