The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) protects deposits at a standard amount of $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. The last three words do the heavy lifting. A saver with more than $250,000 at one bank can be fully covered if the money sits in different categories. Two people in joint accounts reach $500,000, and a trust owner can reach $1,250,000.
Coverage is automatic. The FDIC says there is nothing to buy: insurance begins when a deposit account opens at an FDIC-insured bank. The limit counts checking, savings, money market deposit accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs). Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, crypto assets, annuities and life insurance are not insured, even when a bank sells them.
Single accounts and the $250,000 base
An account with one owner and no beneficiaries is a single account. All of a person’s single accounts at one bank are added together and insured up to $250,000. In the FDIC’s own example, a depositor with $260,000 in single accounts has $250,000 insured and $10,000 exposed.
Single accounts also include sole proprietorship accounts and a decedent’s estate account. The count is by bank, not by branch. Deposits at separately chartered banks are insured separately, but separate branches of one bank are not.
That is the point where many savers get caught. Someone with a large CD at one bank and a big savings balance at the same bank is stacking both under one $250,000 cap. Anyone holding more than that in the same category at the same bank should look at the other categories below before moving money anywhere.
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Joint accounts double the room
A joint account has two or more living owners with equal withdrawal rights. Each co-owner’s share across all joint accounts at the bank is insured up to $250,000, so two co-owners can have up to $500,000 covered. Shares are assumed equal unless bank records say otherwise.
Rearranging names does not add coverage. The FDIC’s example shows two co-owners with $330,000 shares each: each has $250,000 insured and $80,000 uninsured. A third co-owner with a $90,000 share is fully covered.
Joint coverage is also separate from single coverage. A person’s single accounts and joint share are counted in different categories, which is why a married couple can hold far more than $250,000 at one bank and stay inside the limit.
Revocable trusts and POD accounts
Since April 1, 2024, the FDIC has treated revocable and irrevocable trusts as one category. Its final rule sets coverage at up to $250,000 for each beneficiary, not to exceed five, for a cap of $1,250,000 per owner at one insured bank.
The category covers formal trusts, often called living or family trusts, and informal ones such as payable-on-death (POD) or in-trust-for (ITF) accounts. The FDIC’s table runs one beneficiary at $250,000, two at $500,000, three at $750,000, four at $1,000,000 and five or more at $1,250,000. Each owner is calculated separately.
Eligible beneficiaries are living people, charities and nonprofits that qualify under IRS rules. A beneficiary named on several accounts at the same bank counts once per owner. In one FDIC example, an owner with $1,280,000 across three trust accounts naming six beneficiaries is covered to $1,250,000, leaving $30,000 uninsured.
There is a catch for families. When a POD beneficiary dies, there is no grace period. A $500,000 POD account with two beneficiaries drops to $250,000 of coverage when one dies, the FDIC says.
Retirement accounts get their own category
Certain retirement accounts are a separate category, also insured to a combined $250,000. The FDIC lists traditional, Roth, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, self-directed 401(k) plans, profit-sharing plans and Keogh plans, and Section 457 plans. Naming beneficiaries does not raise the limit.
The category has limits. Non-self-directed plans, 403(b) accounts and defined benefit plans do not fall in it. Only deposits count, so an IRA invested in mutual funds or stocks is not an FDIC-insured deposit at all. The insured portion is the cash, CDs or savings held inside the IRA at the bank.
Putting the categories together
The FDIC says a depositor can hold more than $250,000 at one bank by using different ownership categories, as long as each category’s requirements are met. The agency’s own example has a husband, wife and three children with up to $3,500,000 insured at one bank across single, joint, POD, trust and IRA accounts.
The simpler route is to open accounts at more than one insured bank, since each charter has its own coverage. Brokered CDs and similar deposits spread across banks can qualify for pass-through coverage, but only when the ownership is recorded and each owner’s share can be determined.
Ownership and records decide the outcome, so the FDIC built a calculator. The Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator, known as EDIE, takes the accounts held at one bank and shows what is insured and whether any balance goes over the limit. It handles single, joint, POD or ITF, living trust and IRA accounts, plus business and government accounts. A printed report can be kept on file.
One EDIE rule trips people up. For a trust, the help page says to enter the owners as the account owners and the heirs as beneficiaries. Its warning is blunt: “Do NOT enter the trust name as the owner.” EDIE allows up to 10 owners on a joint account and up to 50 accounts at one bank. Questions can go to the FDIC at 1-877-ASK-FDIC.
Where a big balance can slip through
Most trouble comes from how an account is titled, not from the bank. A balance sitting in the wrong category is the usual gap. A saver with $400,000 in single accounts has $150,000 above the line, while the same person with a spouse could be fully covered by moving part of it into a joint account.
That is the question left for anyone holding a six-figure balance at one bank. Which category does each account sit in, and what does the EDIE report say about the total?
Holding more than $250,000 at one bank?
A balance above the line in one category is uninsured if that bank fails, and the gap is easy to miss when accounts were opened years apart under different names. A joint share, a POD account and an IRA can each be counted differently than expected.
Make Your Savings Pay You is a guide to the safe places that pay more than a near-zero bank account. It covers every dollar insured, even above $250,000 at one bank, along with high-yield savings for the cushion you might need this year and Treasury bills from $100, free of state and local income tax. It also includes a ladder you can copy.
Get the insured-savings guide and cash map worksheet →
More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- 15 Ways Retirees Are Tapping a Record $14.9 Trillion in Home Equity
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
