Posted by Rick, the Probate Guy on March 26, 2008 at 18:15:42:
In Reply to: FDIC/bank insurance questions posted by Grendel on March 26, 2008 at 13:29:04:
Here are several ways you can deal with this:
Professional fiduciaries, like bank trustees, etc., use an account type that some business banks offer which spreads the risk around to several different FDIC insured banks, specifically to avoid the problem you describe. Forgive me for not recalling the name of this type account but your bank can help you. If not, ask a probate attorney in a larger city.
Another approach: The FDIC insures not per account, but per account holder, at a given bank. You'd need to have accounts with different EIN's such that no one entity has more than $100K at a given bank. Obviously, you could choose to spread most of the risk around but accept a little yourself if an a given account topped the $100K mark.
I've never been involved in a bank failure (yet) but you probably make a timely post. If nothing else, it should cause each of us to take stock on how we handle savings.
Final thought: $100K was a lot of money 30 years ago, and while I don't want to suggest that it's small change, it's amazing to see the loss of purchasing parety that $100K will get you today. Of course, I'm in SoCal where the buck doesn't stretch that far in the first place.