The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or FDIC protects deposits at banks and savings associations if the institution fails. To find out whether your bank or savings institution is FDIC-insured, call 1-877-275-3342, check www2.fdic.gov/idasp or look for an FDIC sign at the bank.

The FDIC insures deposit accounts such as checking and savings accounts, money market deposit accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs). It does not insure stocks, any type of bond including Treasury bonds, mutual funds or other investments that are sold by banks. Be sure to ask which products are insured.

The basic insurance is $100,000 per depositor per bank, but there are ways to increase your coverage at the same bank, especially if you are married.

If you have a checking account, a savings account and a CD at one bank in your name only, those accounts will be added together and insured for up to $100,000 combined. Your spouse can have one or more accounts in his or her name insured for up to $100,000 at the same bank. You and your spouse can have joint accounts, in both your names, insured for up to $100,000 each or $200,000 total at the same bank.

Separately, you and your spouse can each have up to $250,000 in self-directed retirement accounts insured at this same bank. These mainly include individual retirement accounts, SEP-IRAs, Roth IRAs and self-directed Keogh accounts. That brings your total coverage to $900,000.

Finally, you and your spouse could each open a trust account, naming each other as beneficiary, and have them insured for up to $100,000 each or $200,000 total at this same bank. The grand total: $1.1 million in coverage.

For additional coverage beyond the account maximums, go to another bank.

For details see http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/deposits/insuringdeposits/index.html