Is FDIC Insurance Per Account or Per Depositor?

FDIC insurance is applied per depositor, not per account. Whether you keep your money in one checking account or spread it across a checking account, a savings account, and three CDs at the same bank, the standard $250,000 limit covers the combined total you hold in a single ownership category at that bank. Opening more accounts in your own name does not create more coverage. What does create more coverage is holding money in different ownership categories, or at different banks.¹²

How the FDIC Adds Up Your Accounts

The $250,000 standard maximum is set in federal law and applies to one depositor at one insured bank within one ownership category.¹ Within a category, the FDIC totals every deposit you hold at that bank: checking, savings, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit.³

A quick example makes the effect clear. If you have a $150,000 checking account and a $150,000 savings account at the same bank, both in your name alone, your combined balance is $300,000. The first $250,000 is insured; the remaining $50,000 is not. The same math applies to three accounts totaling $300,000, or ten. Account numbers do not multiply coverage.

Accrued interest counts too. The FDIC includes interest earned through the day a bank closes when calculating what’s covered, so a balance sitting just below the limit can drift over it as interest posts.⁴ Coverage itself is automatic. You don’t apply and you don’t pay; banks fund the program through premiums.⁵

Ownership Categories Give You More Than One $250,000 Bucket

The per-depositor limit resets for each ownership category the FDIC recognizes at the same bank.⁶ This is where a single depositor, or a couple, can hold well over $250,000 at one institution and keep every dollar insured.

Individual and Joint Accounts

Single-ownership accounts (one owner, no beneficiaries) are added together and insured up to $250,000. Joint accounts sit in a separate category, and each co-owner’s share of all joint accounts at that bank is insured up to $250,000.⁶ A married couple can reach $1,000,000 of coverage at one bank by combining two individual accounts ($250,000 each) with one joint account ($250,000 per co-owner, so $500,000 combined).

Trust Accounts

Since April 2024, the FDIC uses a single trust accounts category that folds in what used to be separate rules for revocable trusts, payable-on-death accounts, and irrevocable trusts.⁷ Each grantor is insured up to $250,000 per eligible beneficiary, capped at five beneficiaries. A grantor with three beneficiaries can protect up to $750,000 in trust deposits; a grantor with five or more hits the $1,250,000 ceiling.⁸ Eligible beneficiaries are natural persons and qualifying charities or nonprofits. A grantor can’t list themselves as a beneficiary to expand coverage, and contingent heirs (people who would inherit only if a named beneficiary died first) don’t count.

Retirement Accounts

Certain self-directed retirement deposits get their own $250,000 bucket, separate from your individual and joint accounts. The category covers Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and self-directed defined contribution plans such as self-directed 401(k) and Keogh plans.⁹ All qualifying retirement deposits at the same bank are added together and insured for a combined $250,000. Naming beneficiaries on a retirement account does not increase this figure.

Business Accounts

Deposits in the name of a validly formed corporation, partnership, or LLC are insured separately from the owners’ personal deposits, provided the business is engaged in a real, independent activity. Entities set up solely to expand FDIC coverage don’t qualify.¹⁰ If you own an LLC that operates a legitimate business, its bank account carries its own $250,000 limit alongside your personal accounts at the same bank.

Spreading Deposits Across Multiple Banks

Because the limit is calculated separately at each FDIC-insured bank, using more than one institution is the simplest way to increase total protection. $250,000 at Bank A and $250,000 at Bank B gives you $500,000 in fully insured deposits.² Some banks offer deposit placement services that do this automatically, dividing a large balance into sub-$250,000 pieces spread across a network of participating institutions, so a single relationship can cover millions in aggregate insurance. Deposits at each receiving bank are insured under standard rules if the pass-through requirements below are satisfied.¹¹

One boundary matters here. If two banks where you hold money merge, the FDIC treats them as separate banks for six months, giving you time to move funds if the combined balance would exceed your limit. CDs get a longer grace: those acquired in the merger stay separately insured until their first maturity date after the six-month window closes.¹²

Money Held Through a Fintech or Brokerage

If you keep cash in a fintech app, a brokerage sweep, or another platform that partners with FDIC-insured banks, the insurance can reach you on a pass-through basis. That coverage depends on three conditions being met at the bank holding the money:¹¹

The funds actually belong to you, not to the platform.
The bank’s records show the account is held on behalf of others (for example, “XYZ Company FBO Customers”).
Either the bank, the platform, or another party maintains records in the ordinary course of business identifying you and your share.

If any condition fails, the entire account is insured in the platform’s name and aggregated with any other deposits the platform holds at that bank, which can leave your money partially or fully uninsured.¹¹ A claim of “FDIC insurance” on a marketing page is not the same as satisfying these rules. Confirm the underlying bank relationship before relying on it.

What FDIC Insurance Doesn’t Cover

Only deposit accounts are insured. The following are not, even when purchased or held at an FDIC-insured bank:¹³

Mutual funds bought through a bank
Annuities
Stocks and bonds
Life insurance policies
Crypto assets
The contents of a safe deposit box, which is storage space rather than a deposit account¹⁴

How to Check Your Own Numbers

Two free FDIC tools do the arithmetic for you. BankFind confirms whether a specific institution is FDIC-insured.¹⁵ The Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) takes your account details across ownership categories at a single bank and returns a personalized report showing exactly how much is insured and how much, if any, is exposed.¹⁶ Running your balances through EDIE before a large deposit is the most reliable way to make sure the per-depositor limit is working in your favor rather than against it.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1821 – Insurance Funds
2
FDIC.gov. Deposit Insurance FAQs
3
FDIC. Financial Institution Employees Guide to Deposit Insurance – General Principles of Insurance Coverage
4
FDIC.gov. When a Bank Fails – Facts for Depositors, Creditors, and Borrowers
5
FDIC.gov. What We Do
6
eCFR. 12 CFR Part 330 – Deposit Insurance Coverage
7
eCFR. 12 CFR 330.10 – Trust Accounts
8
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). New Trust Account Rule Deposit Insurance Seminar For Bankers
9
FDIC.gov. Your Insured Deposits
10
FDIC.gov. Corporation, Partnership and Unincorporated Association Accounts
11
FDIC.gov. Pass-through Deposit Insurance Coverage
12
FDIC. Financial Institution Employees Guide to Deposit Insurance – Merger of IDIs
13
FDIC.gov. Deposit Insurance
14
FDIC.gov. Five Things to Know About Safe Deposit Boxes, Home Safes and Your Valuables
15
FDIC. BankFind Suite – Find Insured Banks
16
FDIC. Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) Calculator