• Checking accounts
• Negotiable Order of Withdrawal (NOW) accounts
• Savings accounts
• Money market deposit accounts (MMDA)
• Time deposits such as certificates of deposit (CDs)
• Cashier's checks, money orders, and other official items issued by a bank

• Stock investments
• Bond investments
• Mutual funds
• Life insurance policies
• Annuities
• Municipal securities
• Safe deposit boxes or their contents
• U.S. Treasury bills, bonds, or notes - These investments are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

A single account is a deposit owned by 1 person. This includes:

• An account held in 1 person's name, without any beneficiaries
• An account established for 1 person by an agent, nominee, guardian, custodian, or conservator, including Uniform Transfer to Minors Act (UTMA) accounts, escrow accounts, and brokered deposit accounts
• A sole proprietorship business account (for example: a Doing Business As (DBA) account)
• An account established for or representing a deceased person's funds – commonly known as a decedent's estate account
• An account that fails to qualify for separate coverage under another ownership category

Note: If an account title identifies only one owner, but another person has the right to withdraw funds from the account (for example: as Power of Attorney or custodian), the FDIC will insure the account as a single ownership account.

A retirement account only qualifies if it is listed as one of the following:

• Individual Retirement Account(IRA)
  • Traditional IRA
  • Roth IRA
  • Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA
  • Savings Incentive Match Plans for Employees (SIMPLE) IRA
• Self-directed defined contribution plan account includes:
  • Self-directed 401(k) plan
  • Self-directed SIMPLE IRA held in the form of a 401(k) plan
  • Self-directed defined contribution profit-sharing plan
• Self-directed Keogh plan account (or H.R.10 plan account) designated for self-employed individuals
• Section 457 deferred compensation plan account, such as an eligible deferred compensation plan provided by state and local governments regardless of whether the plan is self-directed

Note: The FDIC defines the term self-directed to mean that plan participants have the right to direct how the money is invested, including the ability to direct that deposits are made at an FDIC-insured bank.

A joint account is a deposit owned by 2 or more people. FDIC covers joint accounts owned in any manner conforming to applicable state law, such as joint tenants with right of survivorship, tenants by the entirety, and tenant in common. To qualify for coverage under this ownership category ALL of the following requirements must be met:

• All co-owners must be living people.
• All co-owners must have equal rights to withdraw deposits from the account.
• All co-owners must sign the deposit account signature card unless the account is a CD or is established by an agent, nominee, guardian, custodian, executor,  or conservator.

If all these conditions are met, each co-owner's shares of every joint account that he or she owns at the same bank are added together and the total is insured up to $250,000.

A revocable trust account is a deposit account owned by one or more people that identifies one o more beneficiaries who will receive the deposits upon the death of the owner(s). A revocable trust can be revoked, terminated, or changed at any time, at the discretion of the owner(s). In this section, the term owner means grantor, settlor, or trustor of the revocable trust. 

Note: When calculating deposit insurance coverage, the designation of trustees, co-trustees, and successor trustees is not relevant. These are administrators and are not considered in calculating deposit insurance coverage.

This ownership category includes both informal and formal revocable trusts:

• Informal revocable trusts – often called payable on death, Totten trust, in trust for, or as trustee for accounts – are created when the account owner signs an agreement, usually part of the bank's signature card, directing the bank to transfer the funds in the account to one or more named beneficiaries upon the owner's death.
• Formal revocable trusts – known as living or family trusts – are written trusts created for estate planning purposes. The owner controls the deposits and other assets in the trust during his or her lifetime. The agreement establishes that the deposits are to be paid to one or more identified beneficiaries upon the owner's death. The trust generally becomes irrevocable upon the owner's death. 

Coverage and Requirements for Revocable Trust Accounts

In general, the owner of a revocable trust account is insured up to $250,000 for each unique beneficiary, if ALL of the following requirements are met:

• The account title at the bank must indicate that the account is held pursuant to a trust relationship. This rule can be met by using the terms payable on death (or POD), in trust for (or ITF), as trustee for (or ATF), living trust, family trust, or any similar language, including simply having the word trust in the account title. The account title includes information contained in the bank's electronic deposit account records.
• The beneficiaries must be name in either the deposit account records of the bank (for informal revocable trusts) or identified in the formal revocable trust document. For a formal trust agreement, it is acceptable for the trust to use such language as my issue or other commonly used legal terms to describe the designated beneficiaries, provided the specific names and number of eligible beneficiaries can be determined.
• To qualify as an eligible beneficiary, the beneficiary must be a living person, a charity, or non-profit organization is named as beneficiary, it must qualify as such under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations.

Irrevocable trust accounts are deposit accounts held in connection with a trust established by statute or a written trust agreement in which the owner (also referred to as a grantor, settlor, or trustor) contributes deposits or other property to the trust and gives up all power to cancel or change the trust. An irrevocable trust also may come into existence upon the death of an owner of a revocable trust.

The interests of a beneficiary in all deposit accounts under an irrevocable trust established by the same settlor and held at the same insured bank are added together and insured up to $250,000, only if ALL of the following requirements are met:

• The trust must be valid under state law
• The insured bank's deposit account records  must disclose the existence of the trust relationship
• The beneficiaries and their interests in the trust must be identifiable from the bank's deposit account records or from the trustee's records
• The amount of each beneficiary's interest must not be contingent as defined by FDIC regulations

An employee benefit plan account is a deposit of a pension plan, defined benefit plan or other employee benefit plan that is not self-directed. An account insured under this category must meet the definition of an employee benefit plan in section 3(3) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) from 1974, with the exception of plans that qualify under the Certain Retirement Account ownership category. The FDIC does not insure the plan itself, but insures the deposit accounts owned by the plan.

Additional requirements for coverage:

• The investment and management decisions relating to the account must be controlled by a plan administrator (not self-directed by the participant).
• The plan administrator must maintain documentation supporting the plan and the beneficial interest of the participants
• The account must be properly titled as an employee benefit account with the bank

When all these requirements are met, the FDIC will insure each participant's interest in the plan up to $250,000.

Deposits owned by corporations, partnerships, and unincorporated associations, including for-profit and not-for-profit organizations are insured under the same ownership category. Such deposits are insured separately from the personal deposits of the organization's owners, stockholders, partners, and members.

Unincorporated associations typically insured under this category include churches and other religious organizations, community and civic organizations and social clubs.

All deposits owned by a corporation, partnership, or unincorporated association at the same bank are combined and insured $250,000.

The category known as government accounts (also known as Public Unit accounts) includes deposit accounts owned by:

• The United States, including federal agencies
• Any state, county, municipality (or a political subdivision of any state, county, or municipality), the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other government possessions and territories
• An Indian Tribe

Insurance coverage of a government account is unique in that the insurance coverage extends to the official custodian of the deposits belonging to the government or public unit, rather than to the government unit itself.

Accounts held by an official custodian of a government unit are insured as follows:

• In-state accounts
  • Up to $250,000 for the combined amount of all time and savings accounts (including NOW accounts)
  • Up to $250,000 for the combined amount of all interest-bearing and noninterest
• Out-of-state accounts
  • up to $250,000 for the combined amount of all deposit accounts