Federal Deposit Insurance

The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) is similar to the deposit insurance protection offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). This insurance means your accounts are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

• Individual accounts: All of your Columbia deposit accounts (other than IRA deposits) owned by you alone are combined and insured to $250,000.
• IRAs: All of your Columbia IRA accounts are combined and insured to $250,000.
• Joint accounts: All of your Columbia accounts with two or more owners, each having equal share, are combined and insured to $250,000 for each owner.
• Revocable trust accounts: These informal trust accounts comprised simply of a signature card where the member designates the beneficiaries to whom the funds in the account will pass upon the member’s death. These are the most common type of revocable trust accounts and are generally referred to as “payable on death” (POD) accounts, in-trust-for accounts, or Totten Trust accounts. Formal revocable trust accounts are established with a formal written revocable trust document and are often referred to as living trusts, family trusts, marital trusts, survivor’s trusts, by-pass trusts, generation-skipping trusts, AB trusts or special needs trusts. Like an informal revocable trust, a living trust is created by a member and upon their death the trust generally becomes irrevocable. A person, charity or other non-profit may be listed as a beneficiary. For most revocable trusts, the coverage is determined by simply multiplying the number of beneficiaries by $250,000.If the revocable trust is more than $1,250,000 AND there are more than five beneficiaries, then an extra step is taken. Coverage is determined by what percent of the trust is allocated to each beneficiary with a maximum coverage of $250,000 per beneficiary. This is to prevent members from adding beneficiaries and apportioning them trivial amounts only to maximize their insurance coverage.

If you know which of your Columbia accounts are revocable trusts (including any informal trusts you established by designating a beneficiary on your signature card) and the account owners on all your Columbia Credit Union accounts, you can easily calculate your coverage using the link below.

Business accounts: All business accounts based on unique tax identification number are combined and insured to $250,000.

Please contact us if you’re unsure about the ownership structure of your Columbia Credit Union accounts. We’re prepared and happy to help.

» Calculate your NCUSIF Insurance

NCUA Insurance Questions 
The NCUA also has insurance experts available to answer your questions about NCUA coverage from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. (EDT) Monday through Friday. The toll-free Insurance Call Center number is 1-800-755-1030, extension 1.

Learn more about why credit unions are safe in tough economic times on our blog.