The amount insured is $100,000, times the number of owners of the account, times the number of people to whom the account is "payable on death" (if greater than one).
Say you have a wife and three kids, you open a joint account with your wife and make the account POD to each one of your kids. It will be insured for $600,000 ($100,000 * 2 * 3).
esmith, I'm not an expert on this. But I believe you might be combining two things together. The two classes of accounts you speak of is a joint account versus a trust account. Joint accounts are insuranced $100k X number of account owners.
The number of beneficiaries are used only on what FDIC considers as a trust based account. If I recall, bank accounts need to be explicitedly opened with either a PDO designation or undering the name of your living trust and/or your existing joint account converted to such with a designation.
I don't think a traditional joint account have that beneficiary insurance alone. Just telling you so if something should happen, and you're in the situation, don't want you to see you get screwed on a technicality.
When I talked to a Wells a few months ago, they mentioned it is entirely possible to have individual, joint, trust accounts together, and you would be each insured up to the maximum limits of each category of accounts.
For trust accounts, there is also a definition of what "qualified" beneficiary means. Weird rules determine what qualified "beneficiary" is if they aren't your spose and immediate children. However, this probably the most common case for most families with a living trust.
Quote:
If a living trust has multiple owners, coverage would be up to $100,000 per qualifying beneficiary for each owner, provided the beneficiary would be entitled to receive the trust assets when the last owner dies.
For example: A husband and wife are co-owners of a living trust. The trust states that upon the death of one spouse the assets will pass to the surviving spouse, and upon the death of the last owner the assets will pass to their three children equally. This trust's deposit account would be insured up to $600,000. Since each owner names three qualifying beneficiaries, the owners (husband and wife) will be insured up to $300,000 each.
