Background:
- Trump’s second term could mean the downfall of the FDIC, CFPB: Here’s what that means for consumers | CNBC
- Senator warns of national security risks after Elon Musk's DOGE granted 'full access' to sensitive Treasury systems | TechCrunch
What prompted this is I logged into my bank this morning to send some bill payments, and the FDIC banner at the top caught my attention. At first it made me laugh because of recent events, but that laugh turned into kind of a nervous chuckle:
I was like "Surely this administration won't fuck with the FDIC" but then read through the articles above, and now I'm not so confident.
Currently, I use a small, local bank. I've never really worried about it because of FDIC protections, but should I move my money out of it to a larger bank? Withdraw it all and stuff it in my mattress?
I'm not freaking out, but I am concerned about this for the first time in my life.
The rational part of me says that if it gets to that point, my money would probably be worthless anyway except for burning it to keep warm.
The thought had crossed my mind but dismissed it because they worship money, which ironically is faith based
But then you said it out loud and mentioned the world's wealthiest Nazi at the helm of the 'torch everything' department and...I'm not so sure now.
If I was a wealthy Nazi who had more money than any other person on earth, I'd purposely cause another great depression so all the shit I wanna buy is on sale at bargain prices.
Maybe I should look into a swiss bank account for a portion of my savings
Yeah, this thought/fear had been kicking in my mind for a few days until this morning when I realized that FDIC only protects deposits up to $250,000 which is poor people money to them. FDIC doesn't really benefit them directly, so of course they'd be likely to torch it.
… per account. If you’re rich, you just split it into as many accounts as needed. Many banks will do this automatically for accounts that grow too big.
Edit: I was mostly wrong.
Maybe I learned it wrong, but I always thought it was per account holder. The upper limit has always been well above what I'd ever be likely have on hand/liquid, anyway, so never bothered to clarify.
Looks like yeah, it is per depositor per bank:
https://www.fdic.gov/resources/deposit-insurance/faq
I have heard that financial managers can and do spread large dollar accounts out over multiple banks, though. There may also be something they can play with in regard to the "per ownership category" aspect, though.
Huh, I may be experiencing a Mandela effect.
Edit: So there’s a way to do it, but I’ll involve multiple banks, people, and/or account types. Still probably what rich people do.
Via: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/123961/is-the-250-000-individual-fdic-limit-per-account-or-per-person
This is what I do. But, my motivation was different. If the government or some corporation wants my assets I've made it as complicated as I can for them to take them: many accounts, different types, in the US and abroad. There's certainly overhead. But, it's mostly administration and limitations on liquidity.