The NCUA recently hosted a webinar that discussed how credit union employees can help their members maximize National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) coverage. If you missed this webinar, it will be archived and closed captioned in the coming weeks and added to the videos section of NCUA’s website.

Issues discussed included:

  • Individual Ownership Accounts: As a general rule, all funds owned by a single individual and deposited in one or more accounts are insured up to $250,000 in the aggregate. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) and Keogh accounts are separately insured up to $250,000;
  • Joint ownership accounts: Joint accounts are opened when funds are to be held in the names of two or more persons. Each co-owner of one or more joint accounts at the credit union is insured up to $250,000. Joint accounts are insured separately from single ownership accounts because both joint owners have an ownership right to the money;
  • Doing Business As (DBAs):  If there is no unique Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, the funds are added to single ownership and aggregated to $250,000;
  • IRAs: Adding beneficiaries to an IRA account does not increase share insurance coverage; and
  • Trust Accounts: Revocable trusts are accounts which document the owner’s intention to have the funds pass on to a named beneficiary after the owner dies. The funds in such accounts are insured for the owner up to $250,000 for each beneficiary separately from any other individual accounts of the owner. If the beneficiary is not a natural person or charitable organization or other non-profit entity, the funds in the account that are attributable to that beneficiary are treated as an individually owned account of the owner, aggregated with any other individual accounts of the owner, and insured to the up $250,000.

The agency also shared several resource tools to help credit unions and their members understand share insurance benefits and calculate whether a member’s accounts are fully insured.  These resources can be linked on credit unions’ websites to be offered to members.

NCUA staff will be conducting an additional webinar on August 15, featuring a deeper dive into the complexities of calculating share insurance for accounts with multiple owners and/or multiple beneficiaries. To register, visit NCUA’s website.