Share Insurance Coverage:  The Act increased credit union and bank deposit insurance from the current $100,000 to $250,000.  This increase is temporary and will remain effective until December 31, 2009.  (Insurance coverage on IRAs, which already stood at $250,000 remains unchanged.)

Share Insurance Signs, Stickers & Brochures:  The NCUA is reviewing all share insurance coverage materials included in its Internet Share Insurance Tool Kit, such as the Your Insured Funds brochure and print advertisement, to make needed revisions. Revised documents reflecting $250,000 coverage will be posted to the NCUA website as soon as possible.

NCUA Regulatory Expansion of Beneficiary Coverage:  On Friday the NCUA issued an interim final rule concerning the share insurance coverage on revocable trust accounts (usually referred to as payable on death accounts). This rule applies to both existing and future revocable trust accounts at all federally insured credit unions, and eliminates the concept of qualifying beneficiaries, making coverage based on the naming of virtually any beneficiary on an account.  Under the amended rules, a trust account owner with up to five different beneficiaries named in all of his or her revocable trust accounts at one NCUA-insured institution will be insured up to $100,000 (now $250,000) per beneficiary. This means that if a member adds five beneficiaries to their account, they can automatically have NCUSIF insurance up to $1.25 million dollars.

 

The rule change, which followed a similar change by the FDIC, tremendously simplifies the calculation of share insurance on member accounts for all federally insured credit unions.