The FDIC insurance limit, explained

Deposits at an FDIC-insured bank are protected up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each account ownership category. Coverage is automatic: you do not apply for it or pay for it directly. Banks pay premiums into the Deposit Insurance Fund, and the fund is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.

Each of the three parts of that sentence matters:

• Per depositor — the limit applies to a person (or entity), not to an account. Opening a second savings account at the same bank in the same name does not create a second $250,000.
• Per insured bank — deposits at different FDIC-insured banks are insured separately. Be careful with brand names: some banks operate several online brands under a single charter, and all of them count as one bank.
• Per ownership category — the FDIC groups accounts by how they are legally owned. Money held in different categories at the same bank is insured separately.

The standard limit was raised to $250,000 temporarily in 2008 and made permanent by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010.

FDIC rules (12 CFR Part 330) define the categories. The ones most households use are:

Other categories include employee benefit plan accounts, government accounts and mortgage servicing accounts. Only deposits inside an IRA are covered; stocks or funds held in a brokerage IRA are not.

On April 1, 2024, new FDIC rules for trust accounts took effect. Revocable trust deposits (such as POD accounts and living trusts) and irrevocable trust deposits were merged into a single trust accounts category, and the calculation was simplified:

• Each trust owner is insured up to $250,000 per eligible beneficiary.
• Coverage counts at most five beneficiaries per owner, so the maximum for trust deposits is $1,250,000 per owner, per bank.
• All of an owner's revocable and irrevocable trust deposits at the same bank are combined for this limit.

Before the change, owners with more than five beneficiaries could in some cases qualify for more coverage; under the current rule, the five-beneficiary cap applies. If you hold large trust balances, the FDIC's estimator (EDIE) is the most reliable way to check your own situation.

FDIC insurance covers deposit products: checking, savings, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and official items such as cashier's checks and money orders issued by the bank. It does not cover:

• Stocks, bonds, mutual funds (including money market mutual funds), and municipal securities — even if bought through your bank
• Annuities and life insurance policies
• Crypto assets
• The contents of a safe deposit box
• U.S. Treasury bills, notes and bonds (these are backed directly by the U.S. government, not by the FDIC)

Investment accounts at a brokerage may have separate SIPC protection, which works differently and does not protect against market losses.

Use the FDIC's BankFind Suite. Search the bank's legal name and check that its status is active and that it has an FDIC certificate number. If you know a bank by an app or brand name, look for the "Member FDIC" disclosure that names the actual chartered bank, then search for that name. Every bank profile on TellerScore also shows its FDIC certificate number and links back to the official record.

To estimate coverage across several accounts, you can use the FDIC's Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) or our simpler deposit coverage calculator.

Many apps, brokerage cash sweeps and CD marketplaces are not banks. They place customer money at one or more partner banks, often in pooled "for the benefit of" (FBO) or custodial accounts. FDIC insurance can pass through to each underlying customer, but only when certain conditions are met: the account records at the bank must show the custodial relationship, each customer's identity and share must be determinable from the records of the bank or the intermediary, and the money must actually belong to the customers.

Two important limits follow from that:

• FDIC insurance protects you if an insured bank fails. It does not protect you if the non-bank company in the middle fails, makes errors, or cannot produce accurate records.
• Money you hold at the partner bank directly counts toward the same $250,000 limit as money placed there through an app.

The 2024 bankruptcy of Synapse Financial Technologies, a middleware company that connected consumer fintech apps to partner banks, illustrated these limits. Reconciling which customer owned which funds in pooled accounts proved difficult, and many app users could not access their money for an extended period. Because no bank failed, deposit insurance was not triggered. The FDIC later proposed stronger recordkeeping requirements for custodial deposit accounts. Before keeping large balances in an app, read its disclosures to see which bank holds the money and whether pass-through coverage is claimed.