Making sure you have FDIC insurance
The problems in the financial sector have many people concerned about bank safety. The best alternative: keep your accounts within FDIC insurance limits. That's easy when your accounts are simple. You're insured for $250,000 per person in retirement accounts plus $100,000 per person with all your other types of accounts added together. However it gets complicated when you are trying to increase your coverage through the use of payable on death or trust accounts. This story points out that different types of trust are treated differently under FDIC rules. The FDIC publication, Your Insured Deposit, is the basic document to consult. If you have questions, you can call 877-275-3342.
St. Petersburg Times personal finance editor Helen Huntley writes about money topics and answers questions about financial planning, investments and personal income taxes.
CDARS (www.cdars.com) and MaxSafe (www.maxsafeaccount.com) offer additional FDIC insurance on your deposits like you are at a single institution (single statement, etc.). That's at least what I found when doing a little research.
Posted by: John Montgomery | July 14, 2008 at 12:31 PM