Don't Mess With Taxes

The bank failure express continues to roll along, with two more banks being taken over by federal regulators.

First National Bank of Nevada, based in Reno, and First Heritage Bank of Newport Beach, Calif, became the sixth and seventh banks this year to be shut down.

Both banks were units of First National Bank Holding Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz. They will reopen on Monday as branches of Mutual of Omaha bank.

You can read more on the closure details in:

• Wall Street Journal,
  
• Washington Post,
  
• Associated Press, and
  
• Blogging Stocks, which predicts "number will rise sharply."

FDIC coverage redux: While Blogging Stocks' dire prediction might well come true, we still have a long way to go before we hit the 834 financial institutions that went under from 1990 to 1992.

And most of us really don't have to worry about our money.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC, covers individual accounts up to $100,000 per depositor per bank. If you have a retirement account in your bank, it's protected up to $250,000, including accrued interest.

Still, it doesn't hurt to double check just what the FDIC does and doesn't protect. You can find that info in this blog post that went up after the IndyMac failure.

You also can check FDIC.gov or call the agency's toll-free consumer hotline at (877) 275-3342.