I completely disagree, only the first $250k is insured. I would never store $16M cash in a bank. You aren't protected against the bank becoming insolvent.

Isn't it 250k per account?

No. FDIC is per depositor, per bank, per ownership category.

So if you have $300k in Bank A, and $180k in Bank B, and then suddenly both Bank A and Bank B fail, the US Federal Government promises you'll get $250k from Bank A and $180k from Bank B, and pretty quickly - but the remaining $50k from Bank A depends on what happens when they try to wind up Bank A, if it's a complete wreck you may see nothing or almost nothing back or it may take years to get 10¢ on the dollar for the remaining amount.

In some cases you may be able to create multiple ownership categories that help you, and I guess if you really had $16M you might do stuff like set up a multi-beneficiary trust fund that can have $1M in it with four beneficiaries for an additional $250k per person FDIC insured.

FDIC is presently $250,000 lifetime limit.

Okay... where would you store 16m?

I would use the bank owned by my government, the National Savings and Investment bank. And I do.

The reason is that since the government owns this bank, and the government issues the money, if the bank fails the government fails too and the money is now worthless anyway.

Some in stocks, some in banks, some in bonds, some in real estate, some in precious metals, etc.

MSCI ACWI IMI, FTSE ALL-WORLD, etc.

For that to fail, the whole world economy would need to fail as well, and at that point, no money on any currency is worth anything.

Not all in the same wallet/bank/stock/currency/...

That way if something goes awry, I still have the rest.

Probably in US Treasury Bills?

More than one place.

In an investment account with a reputable brokerage.

What's the difference between that and a bank?

AFAIK, the underlying assets in investment accouns are owned by their account holders, the broker just manages them. If the broker becames insolvent, these assets are not part of insolvency proceeding.

For regular bank account, there are no other underlying assets, it is just the sum bank owes to the account holder. If the bank becames insolvent, outside of insurance limits, these are just claims against the bank.

Well the fun part is that the way it's different is that there would be a bank account with your money in it, that the brokerage isn't allowed to touch. So, you're protected from the brokerage going bankrupt - your money is still yours if that happens.

But it's still in a bank account, so if the bank goes under you're screwed. See my other comment in this thread though...

SIPC isn't unlimited, though:

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) was created to protect against the loss of customer assets at brokerage firms. SIPC offers protection of up to $500,000, including a $250,000 limit for cash, if a brokerage firm fails, and covers most types of securities, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. [0]

[0] https://www.schwab.com/public/file/P-3042070/Asset_Protectio...

My holdings accumulate capital gains and are insured by market forces rather than the FDIC. I can put them in volatile holdings like stocks, or fixed income or even just money markets. That's pretty much what banks are doing and just keeping a bigger percentage of the returns for themselves.

64 banks, or treasuries

Whats wrong with random hole on random private place you own ?

I keep hearing that, and yet see mailbox hacks where the attacker tells accounts payable to update the payee's account and the money goes bye bye. Seems to turn into an insurance matter. I'm not sure why, but apparently just getting the bank to get the money back isn't so simple. Nobody talks about it in public. Haven't personally seen 8 figure amounts, but have seen amounts around a million dollars.

Until you can't https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corralito

I have more faith in the banking system but even there it can get tricky: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24222045.

To store $16M you definitely need to take precautions. Someone could steal your identity or compromise your account. It seems like different vulnerabilities rather than one that only exists for crypto.

While not guaranteed, it's pretty likely that you'll be able to get your $16M back if you lose it to identity theft or a compromised online account. You may have to escalate from customer service to legal action, but there are usually ways to reverse fraudulent transactions in the traditional banking system.

On the other hand there's basically no way for this user to get their bitcoin back.

Yeah that's because it's a bank not a pseudo-facsimile of a bank.

is it fair to say he could put that $16M in a digital equivalent of his mattress? Had he placed in a reputable exchange, or spread the coins across multiple exchanges, he would have been safer?