Regulate in haste, repent at leisure - Kevin Marks

"According to FDIC's own statistics as of June, 2008, 98% of all depositors at FDIC-insured banks were covered by the $100,000 limit." Well that's a bit silly. People with more than $100K to put in the bank deliberately spread it across multiple accounts to keep them FDIC insured. If you're married you can keep $300K in a single bank by spreading it across three accounts: His, Hers and Joint. If you're married with one dependent you can keep $500K, and $200K more for each additional child through slightly more complicated means (prior to the $250K raising of the limit). And you can do that at as many banks as you like. I don't see how raising the per-account limit to $250K is anything more than a welcome convenience to eliminate the need for distributing funds across so many accounts. - Kevin Fox