“Now, growing numbers of people are turning to other means that allow them to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars safely stowed away under FDIC protection.
One product that has been attracting attention lately is an informal trust account known as a “payable on death,” or POD, account. To set up a POD account, depositors must name a beneficiary or beneficiaries who will receive money if the primary account holder dies. For each qualified beneficiary, the FDIC will boost insurance coverage by up to $100,000.
On the basis of ease alone, POD accounts appear to be finding a larger audience lately. The FDIC doesn’t publish data on the number of these accounts, but the agency confirms it is getting more questions from consumers about how to set them up and has been seeing more of them on the books when it takes over banks after they fail. So far this year, there have been 11 bank failures, and 117 banks that were on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s “watch list” at the end of the second quarter.
POD accounts do come with certain limitations. For starters, only certain relatives count as qualified beneficiaries. Spouses, children, grandchildren, parents and siblings are OK. Nieces, nephews and grandparents aren’t. The depositor retains control of the account until his death, in which case the money is distributed to the beneficiaries.”
