FDIC ---Know your limits; they might be greater than you think

Dragon Fly II
Alan Hayes

I set up a UGTMA account for both my son and my daughter some years ago. I would put money in it periodically. They would as well. My "deal" with my kids was that we would match up to $5,000 to go toward their car. Somehow, the lines became a little blurred, but in general it worked as a nice incentive.

Now that my son is driving and working, he needs more access (plus he has his car now). AT the local bank, I asked the young woman if people were concerned about the safety of their deposits. She said they were, and they were fielding many calls. She then said this: We tell people that they are protected up to $100K for each beneficiary of the account. So you would be protected up to $400K (not that it was a worry mind you!). That did not sound right to me. You'll remember I had a smiliar experience with a Fidelity person giving me what I knew to be incorrect information regarding the protection of money market funds. He told me that it could never go below $1--that was was SIPIC protected against. I set him straight on the matter, and then complained to Fidelity regarding the egregiously wrong information that I was given.

I didn't pick an argument at the bank, but I did check out the FDIC website. As it turns out: I WAS WRONG!!!. Shamelessly, pig-headedly wrong. There is coverage for beneficiaries when there is a paid upon death provision (POD). Anyway, it's worth your understanding how this works. You can spend 10 minutes at the following link and have any blanks filled in on accounts (to include IRA's which have higher limits).

http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/insuringdeposits/index.html

In my next life, I hope that I'm less pig-headed. At any rate, I hope this post passed along some useful information.