FDIC insurance question for married couple?

Question

My wife and I want to open 3 accounts at an FDIC insured bank (1 joint account with equal rights, 1 individual account for me, and 1 individual account for her). If we do so, how much FDIC insurance will we get at this particular bank with these three accounts?

Answer 1

If all 3 are checking accounts then it is only 100,000.  However, if one is a checking account, the 2nd is a joint savings acct, and the third is a CD then it is 300,000.  In other words, as long as the type of account is different, then you're entitled to up to 100,000 of protection per account.  

Answer 2

Per the FDIC web-site:

Q: How much insurance coverage does the FDIC provide?

The basic insurance amount is $100,000 per depositor, per insured bank.

A: The $100,000 amount applies to all depositors of an insured bank except for owners of certain retirement accounts, which are insured up to $250,000 per owner, per insured bank.

Deposits in separate branches of an insured bank are not separately insured. Deposits in one insured bank are insured separately from deposits in another insured bank.

Deposits maintained in different categories of legal ownership at the same bank can be separately insured. Therefore, it is possible to have deposits of more than $100,000 at one insured bank and still be fully insured."

There are 8 different categories: Single Accounts, Retirement Accounts, Joint Accounts, Revocable Trusts, Irrevocable Trusts, Employment Benefit Plans, Corporate accounts and Government Accounts.

"Single Accounts" include checking, savings, CD's, MMDA's, sole proprietor business account, UTMA accounts.  These would be all owned by one person.  "Joint Accounts" would be these same types of accounts (except the sole proprietor account) owneseparate or more persons.  The ownership share of joint accounts for FDIC insurance is spilt evenly to each owner (1/2 if 2 owners, 1/3 if 3 owners, etc).

So, if you open 1 account for each of you and one joint account, then you have FDIC coverage of $100,000 each covering these 3 accounts (unless one of the accounts is a retirement account which has a seperate $250,000 limit per individual owner).