Are my account balances insured, and if so, for how much?

Redwood Credit Union's deposit accounts are federally insured by the NCUA for a minimum of $250,000. However, insurance can often be increased depending on the way an account is structured.

Below are examples of the insurance provided for various types of accounts:

• Individual accounts without a pay on death beneficiary: $250,000
• Joint or Multi-owner accounts without a pay on death beneficiary: $250,000 per owner
• Trust account or accounts with pay on death beneficiaries: $250,000 per beneficiary for each account owner.
• Business accounts: $250,000
• IRA accounts: $250,000

Basics of Structuring Accounts to Maximize Insurance

• Different account numbers or different shares with the same ownership at the same institution is not enough to expand NCUA insurance beyond the standard $250K. As long the ownership of accounts are the same, t they all are combined together for insurance purposes. The key is to change ownership structures.
• Some easy ways to maximize coverage through different ownership are:
  • First and foremost: having beneficiaries (which we offer on all standard Membership and trust accounts). Pay on death beneficiary accounts are insured for $250K per beneficiary, per Account owner. For example, if the Member and her husband opened an account listing their 3 kids as beneficiaries, the account would be insured for $1.5 M ($250K X 6).
  • Next, each of the following types of accounts are insured entirely separately:
  • Individual
  • Joint
  • Trust/Pay on Death Beneficiary
  • Business

For Example: If the Member has an individual account with no beneficiary, and a joint account with his wife with no beneficiaries, that’s 2 different ownership types and would total $750K in insurance ($250K for the individual, $250K per owner on the joint).
These are just some very common examples, but there are many others. The key takeaway is that we can almost always find a way to ensure Members are fully covered. While it can sometimes be a bit confusing, using the Share Insurance Estimator tool is a great option as it customizes the coverage for the Member(s) for their situation.

Tools/Resources:

• NCUA “Share Insurance Estimator” allows Members to calculator their insurance https://www.mycreditunion.gov/protect/Pages/SI.aspx