What do I do if I have well over $100,000 in a single bank account that is FDIC insured?

Question

Should I leave the money alone or should I ask my bank to open multiple accounts with less than $100,000 in each?

Answer 1

The FDIC will only insure up to $100,000 per person...not per account.  So if you want to insure $200,000, add another owner to your account.  Or you can spread your money out between some banks.

Answer 2

You should put some in a different bank.  You're only guaranteed the first $100,000.  That amount is the total you have in that one bank, not including IRA accounts. So if you have well over that amount in only one bank you would lose money if your bank went down.

You can ensure more of your money will be insured by having joint owners or beneficiaries.

Answer 3

Well over?

1. Spread it out, different accounts

2. Put them in checking account which tells them you're coming for it any day

3. Wait for the housing bubble.

4. If you can afford the risk, cash it in and hide your money yourself. Why not?

Answer 4

Spread the money out but do not keep it in mutiple accounts within the same bank use other banks I suggest that you watch CNN it reports on today issues

Answer 5

You should move the amount of money above $100,000. But not to a different account. You need to move it to a different BANK.

Each account is not insured for $100,000. YOU are insured for $100,000 at any given bank. That includes the total of all of your accounts at that bank. So splitting the money into multiple accounts doesn't help.

When you move the money, make doubly sure that you are moving it to a different bank. Sometimes banks do business under two different names. It's still the same bank though, and you are only insured for $100,000 at that bank.

Answer 6

It's outrageous that FDIC will not publish the 90 banks that is now in their watchlist. But its safer for you to withdraw the amount greater than 100,000 and deposit them in 100,000 parts on different banks. Or you can find other alternatives to save your money.

Answer 7

You can find out a whole lot from the FDIC website, here's a video that I found helpful:

http://www.vodium.com/MP/MPF/1.1.3/mpf.a...

From the video:

"FDIC Insurance covers total of all deposit accounts at an insured bank, including branch offices, up to the FDIC's insurance limit."

Additionally: "basic insurance limit is $100,000 per depositor, per insured bank".

So if bank failure is a concern for you, leave some of that money in your current account (leave say, $90,000 or so, to allow for interest) and put the rest of it, up to another $100,000, IN AN ENTIERLY DIFFERENT BANK.

DO NOT PUT IT IN A DIFFERENT BRANCH OF YOUR ORIGINAL BANK!

So for someone with $250,000, it would look like this:

Bank A: $90,000

Bank B: $90,000

Bank C: $70,000

Now, the video goes on to state that yes, there are ways for you to be insured for more than $100,000s worth of deposits, but that is going to depend on the type of accounts you hold. The simplest solution still seems to me that you put the appropriate amounts in different banks, while you consult a fee only financial planner to figure out if there is a way you can keep everything with the same institution.

Also, unless you have a need to have that much money sitting around in a low interest paying account, you should really consider seeing a fee only financial planner. My concern when I first read this question was that you have over $100,000 that's probably not keeping up with inflation: you are therefore losing purchasing power on that money.

You can read more about inflation here, from my website:

http://btgnow.net/perfina/inflation1.htm...

Hope it helps, and good luck!

Answer 8

I would spread it out.