Is Your Money Safe?

Originally posted 2009-07-13 05:00:26. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

With the financial crisis that the United States and much of the world is experiencing it is a legitimate worry for someone to  have concerning the welfare of his or her money.

The short answer is yes, if you ensure several things are present when you deposit your money:

• make sure that the bank or credit union is insured by the FDIC.  The FDIC insures banks and/or credit unions up to $250,000.  The insurance will provide you your funds if the bank fails; however, if your deposit is over $250,000 you may be at risk of losing that money if the bank fails.
• make sure you have all your assets in safe companies.
• make sure you have a record of all your assets
• if you leave a company it is best to roll your 401K over to a single investment location or keep record of where your money is invested.

The FDIC protects the money you have in your bank, but who protects your money if it is in an investment account.  The SIPC protects your investment account. 

SIPC stands for Securities Investor Protection Corporation.  The SIPC is funded by member firms.  It guarantees that individual security holdings are not lost if a company fails.

The SIPC also works with the Security and Exchange Commission to ensure smooth transfer of accounts.

The SIPC caps individual claims to $500,000 with a maximum of $100,000 for cash claims.

The SIPC was established in 1970, since that time it has advanced $505 million to ensure recovery of over $15.7 billion dollars in assets to over 626,000 investors.  With the recent collapse of Lehman Brothers, this figure is estimated to increase.

To find out more about SIPC, visit www.sipc.org.  If you would like more information on how the FDIC protects our money visit www.fdic.gov.  If you are interested in how your investment portfolio is protected visit www.sec.gov.

The Great Depression has taught the United States a lot on how to protect against over 4000 banks and 1700 savings and loans from failing.  This is also why the US spend millions on the bailout to prevent another Great Depression; however, it is up to the banks to do the right thing with the funds received.