How Much Does the FDIC Insure? Limits, Categories, and Coverage

The FDIC insures up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category.¹ That limit covers your principal plus any interest accrued through the date the bank closes. Coverage is automatic at any FDIC-insured bank; there’s no application and no premium. The three-part structure is the whole story: because “per ownership category” is separate from “per depositor,” one person can hold well over $250,000 at a single bank and still be fully insured, as long as the money is spread across qualifying categories.

The $250,000 Limit, Explained

Federal law sets the standard maximum deposit insurance amount at $250,000.² Within a single ownership category, all your accounts at the same bank are added together against that cap. If you hold $200,000 in a solo checking account and $100,000 in a solo savings account at the same bank, the FDIC treats them as one $300,000 pool of single-ownership deposits, and $50,000 sits uninsured.

Opening accounts at different branches of the same bank does not help. All branches of one institution count as one bank.² What does help is holding money in different ownership categories, or holding money at a different insured bank entirely.

How Ownership Categories Multiply Coverage

Each ownership category gets its own $250,000 limit, calculated independently. The same person can be insured for $250,000 in one category and another $250,000 in the next, all at the same bank.

Single Accounts

A single account is any deposit owned by one person with no beneficiaries named. Checking, savings, CDs, and money market deposit accounts held individually are combined and insured up to $250,000 total.³

Joint Accounts

Each co-owner of a qualifying joint account is separately insured up to $250,000, so a joint account owned by two people is covered for up to $500,000.⁴ Joint coverage is calculated separately from each owner’s single accounts. One spouse can hold $250,000 in a solo account and share another $250,000 in a joint account, with all of it insured.

The $250,000 per co-owner limit is applied across all joint accounts at that bank, not per account. If you and the same person co-own two joint accounts totaling $600,000, your $300,000 share exceeds the limit by $50,000.⁴

Trust Accounts

Since April 1, 2024, a single set of rules governs both revocable and most irrevocable trust deposits.⁵ Trust deposits are insured at $250,000 per beneficiary, up to a maximum of five beneficiaries, for a per-owner ceiling of $1,250,000 at one bank.⁶ Naming a sixth or seventh beneficiary does not raise the cap. Trust coverage is separate from any single or joint accounts the trust owner holds at the same bank.

Certain Retirement Accounts

Deposits held in traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and eligible Section 457 deferred compensation plans are insured up to $250,000 separately from your other accounts at the same bank.² All qualifying retirement deposits at one bank share that single $250,000 limit.

Business Accounts

Deposits held by a corporation, partnership, or LLC are insured separately from the personal accounts of the business owners, up to $250,000 per entity. The business has to be engaged in a legitimate, independent activity; an entity created solely to multiply insurance coverage doesn’t qualify.⁷ Separately incorporated subsidiaries receive their own $250,000 of coverage, independent of the parent.

Employee Benefit Plan Accounts

Deposits held for an employee benefit plan such as a 401(k) or pension are insured on a pass-through basis: each participant’s share is insured up to $250,000 rather than the plan receiving a single $250,000 limit.⁸ For defined contribution plans, each employee’s insured amount is based on their account balance at the time the bank fails.

Which Accounts Actually Count as Deposits

FDIC insurance covers deposit products, meaning accounts where the bank owes you a fixed dollar amount back. The main covered types are:

Checking accounts
Savings accounts
Money market deposit accounts
Certificates of deposit (CDs)
Cashier’s checks and money orders issued by the insured bank

Plenty of products sold through banks are not insured, even when you buy them at an insured branch:⁹

Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds
Life insurance policies and annuities, which are governed by state insurance guaranty associations
Crypto assets
Municipal securities
U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, and notes, which are backed by the Treasury rather than the FDIC
The contents of a safe deposit box, which is storage space, not a deposit account¹⁰

The rough test: if the bank owes you a fixed number of dollars, it’s likely a covered deposit. If the value can rise and fall with markets, it’s an investment and falls outside FDIC protection.

Fintech Apps and “FDIC Insured” Claims

Many financial technology apps do not hold banking charters. They place your funds at one or more FDIC-insured partner banks. In that arrangement, your money can qualify for coverage on a pass-through basis, meaning the insurance protects you as the actual owner rather than the app. Three conditions must be met:¹¹

You, not the fintech company, are the true owner of the funds.
The bank’s records reflect that the account is held on your behalf (for example, “XYZ Company FBO Customers”).
Records maintained by the bank, the fintech, or another party identify you by name and show your ownership interest.

If any of these fails, the deposits are treated as belonging to the fintech itself, and all customer funds are lumped together under one $250,000 cap for that company. The 2024 collapse of the intermediary Synapse illustrated the risk, as customers had significant difficulty accessing their funds when recordkeeping broke down between the intermediary and its partner banks.¹² Before you rely on an app’s promise that money is “FDIC insured,” check which bank actually holds the deposits and confirm the pass-through requirements are being met.

What Happens If the Bank Fails

The FDIC’s goal is to pay insured deposits within two business days of a bank’s closure.¹³ Usually you receive your insured funds through a new account opened for you at another FDIC-insured bank. If no acquiring bank is available, the FDIC mails a check. Written instructions come with either method, including how to reach the contents of any safe deposit box you held at the failed bank.

Money above the $250,000 category limit is not automatically lost. After insured depositors are paid, uninsured depositors are next in line, ahead of general creditors and stockholders.¹⁴ The FDIC may authorize an advance dividend to uninsured depositors, typically within 30 days of closure, with further dividends paid as it liquidates the failed bank’s assets. The process can run for years, and total recovery depends on what those assets bring in. In some failures uninsured depositors recover most of their money; in others the recovery is smaller.

Credit Unions Are Covered by the NCUA, Not the FDIC

The FDIC does not insure credit union accounts. Federally insured credit unions are covered instead by the National Credit Union Administration through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, at the same $250,000 per member, per credit union, per ownership category, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.¹⁵ The categories (single, joint, trust, retirement) work the same way as under FDIC rules. Some state-chartered credit unions carry private insurance rather than federal coverage; private insurance is not backed by the U.S. government. Look for the NCUA sign to confirm federal protection.

Check Your Own Coverage

The FDIC offers a free calculator called the Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) at edie.fdic.gov. You enter your bank, account types, ownership categories, and balances, and it reports exactly how much is insured and how much, if any, sits above the limit.¹⁶ Running it is especially useful after a life event that pushes your balances past $250,000, such as a marriage, inheritance, home sale, or business sale.

1
FDIC.gov. Deposit Insurance FAQs
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1821 – Insurance Funds – Section: Deposit Insurance
3
eCFR. 12 CFR 330.6 – Single Ownership Accounts
4
eCFR. 12 CFR 330.9 – Joint Ownership Accounts
5
FDIC.gov. Trust Accounts
6
eCFR. 12 CFR 330.10 – Trust Accounts
7
FDIC.gov. Corporation, Partnership and Unincorporated Association Accounts
8
FDIC.gov. Employee Benefit Plan Accounts
9
FDIC.gov. Financial Products That Are Not Insured by the FDIC
10
FDIC.gov. Five Things to Know About Safe Deposit Boxes, Home Safes and Your Valuables
11
FDIC.gov. Pass-Through Deposit Insurance Coverage
12
FDIC.gov. Proposed Recordkeeping for Custodial Accounts
13
FDIC.gov. Payment to Depositors
14
FDIC.gov. Priority of Payments and Timing
15
National Credit Union Administration. Share Insurance Coverage
16
FDIC.gov. Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE)