If you set up a payable-on-death (POD, or in-trust-of, or totten trust) account, you can increase your coverage from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation at a particular institution. The general rule is that the FDIC insures each person's accounts at a financial institution up to $250,000. So if you have bank accounts or CDs at a particular bank that together are worth $250,000, you’ve maxed out your FDIC coverage at that bank. If you opened another account in your name, it wouldn’t be covered.
If, however, you opened a second account with a POD beneficiary, that account would be separately insured up to $250,000—so in effect, your coverage is doubled. To check on FDIC coverage for your accounts, go to the FDIC’s easy-to-use “Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator.”