Your Money's Protected

Recent media reports about the financial difficulties of lending institutions across the country have led to the public's curiosity and concern about the safety of their money on deposit in checking and savings accounts. Be reassured that credit unions remain healthy, vibrant, well-capitalized—and insured. As of October 3, 2008, accounts in federally-insured credit unions are insured up to $250,000.

The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the federal agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions and insures your savings with the “full faith and credit” backing by the U.S. Treasury. This insurance is similar to the deposit insurance protection offered to banks by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

• The NCUA insurance coverage protects Prime Share accounts, checking accounts, Share Certificates, Club accounts, Money Market accounts and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).
  
• Your deposit accounts are insured up to $250,000. Certain retirement accounts, such as an IRA, are insured up to $250,000 each. For example, if you have a savings account and an IRA at Tower, the savings account is insured up to $250,000 and the IRA is separately insured up to $250,000.
  
• You may obtain additional insurance coverage on multiple accounts if you have different ownership interests or rights in these accounts, such as joint owners or payable on death beneficiaries. For example:
  
  
  • In addition to an individual savings or checking account, if you have a joint account type with a spouse or parent and the balance is $500,000, each account holder's ownership interest is insured up to $250,000. So the entire joint account is insured, as well as the initial individual account type.
    
  • In addition to a joint account type between yourself and a spouse (insured up to $500,000), if you have a payable on death account type (also known as a Revocable Trust) with a balance of $250,000, you could be insured up to $750,000. The payable upon death account type is considered a separate account, for insurance purposes.
    
• NCUA insurance only applies to your Tower deposit accounts, not investments. The NCUA does not insure the money you invest in mutual funds, stocks, bonds, life insurance policies and annuities.

Some Important Facts

• As a member of Tower, you do not pay for your share insurance protection.
  
• NCUA insurance coverage is the strongest deposit fund protection for consumers today.
  
• Not one penny of insured savings has ever been lost by a member of a federally-insured credit union.

For More Information

If you have different account relationships than the examples listed above, your insurance coverage may vary. For a summary of all of the NCUA’s insurance deposit conditions, see “Your Insured Funds” (PDF) at the NCUA Web Site at www.ncua.gov. You can calculate a personalized analysis of your deposit insurance by using the site’s Share Insurance Estimator. See FAQs.