To check whether your deposits exceed FDIC insurance limits, total eligible deposits by insured bank and ownership category—not by account. The standard FDIC limit is $250,000 per depositor, per FDIC-insured bank, per ownership category. The FDIC’s free Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) can help model your accounts; complicated ownership or beneficiary arrangements may need closer review.
Calculate your coverage in five steps
- List each deposit and its balance. Include checking, savings, money market deposit accounts, certificates of deposit (CDs), and other eligible deposit products. For interest-bearing accounts, include accrued interest through the date of a bank’s closing when assessing coverage; the FDIC counts that interest in the account balance.
- Find the insured bank holding each deposit. Check account agreements or bank disclosures if the institution’s identity is unclear. A brand, branch, or financial-technology app may not itself be the insured bank. Deposits at separately chartered insured banks are evaluated separately; branches of the same insured bank do not create separate coverage.
- Identify the legal owner and ownership category. Determine who owns the funds and the capacity in which they are held. FDIC categories include single accounts, joint accounts, certain retirement accounts, trust accounts, employee benefit plan accounts, corporation/partnership/unincorporated association accounts, and government accounts. A product label or account title alone does not establish eligibility for a category; its requirements must be met.
- Combine deposits with the same owner and category at each bank. Add balances across checking, savings, and CDs when they belong to the same depositor or depositors in the same category at the same insured bank. The FDIC’s General Principles of Insurance Coverage explains: “All deposits owned by the same depositor (or depositors) in the same ownership category are added together for the purpose of determining FDIC deposit insurance coverage.”
- Compare each category total with its applicable limit. For standard categories, the baseline is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. Use the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) to model your particular account structure, and consult the relevant category rules if ownership, beneficiaries, business structure, or records are complex.
What counts toward the standard limit?
The FDIC’s consumer guidance describes the standard insurance amount as $250,000 per depositor, per FDIC-insured bank, for each ownership category. The FDIC’s Understanding Deposit Insurance page was last updated April 1, 2024; check current FDIC guidance when relying on the figure. It is not a per-account limit.
For example, if one person has a single-owner checking account and a single-owner CD at the same insured bank, those deposits are combined for the single-account category. Opening another account or switching from savings to a CD does not by itself add coverage. Separate categories may receive separate coverage only when the ownership and category requirements are satisfied.
Check the details that can change the result
- Ownership and titling: the rights and capacity in which money is held determine its category. A name on an account or a category-style label does not automatically establish eligibility.
- Joint accounts: verify the ownership and account-record requirements rather than assuming that adding an owner automatically creates more coverage.
- Trust accounts: beneficiary details and applicable trust rules can affect the calculation.
- Retirement, employee benefit, business, and government accounts: each has category-specific rules. Confirm the owner, records, and qualifications that apply to the particular account.
- Pass-through arrangements: where deposits are held through another organization, required ownership information and records may matter to coverage.
The FDIC’s Account Ownership Categories guide and Deposit Insurance FAQs explain the categories and related rules. EDIE is a practical starting point, not a substitute for confirming complicated facts with the FDIC.
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Separate insured deposits from other financial products
FDIC insurance applies to eligible deposits, not every product sold by a bank or brokerage. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, life insurance, and Treasury securities are not FDIC-insured deposits. Treasury securities have a different backing: the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. See the FDIC’s Are My Deposit Accounts Insured by the FDIC? and Deposit Insurance at a Glance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Use this quick review before deciding you are covered
- Have you identified the actual insured bank behind every account?
- Have you grouped deposits by legal owner and ownership category at that bank?
- Have you included applicable accrued interest and combined all deposit products in each group?
- Have you checked whether each category’s ownership, titling, beneficiary, or recordkeeping requirements are met?
- Have you kept nondeposit investments out of the deposit-insurance total?
The FDIC’s Your Insured Deposits brochure provides another official reference for understanding how deposit coverage is organized.
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