On October 3, 2008, President Bush signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. This massive bail-out law includes a provision that would temporarily raise the cap on Federally Insured Deposits from $100,000 to $250,000. This provision expires at the end of 2009. 

The FDIC Insurance provides coverage up to $250,000 per account owner, per insured financial institution, and applies to all types of deposits in an insured institution, including those in checking accounts, savings accounts, so-called NOW accounts, money market deposit accounts (but not money market funds), and time deposits such as certificates of deposit. The FDIC won't cover money invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance policies, annuities, and municipal securities, even if you bought those investments at an insured institution, or safety deposit box contents. US Treasury Bills, Bonds, and Notes are also not insured by the FDIC because they already have the backing of the United States Government.  If you keep your deposits in accounts under different ownership categories, the FDIC will insure those deposits even if the sum of all different pots of money exceeds $250,000. Depositors should understand their deposit insurance coverage limits:

Basic FDIC Deposit Insurance Coverage Limits. The deposit insurance coverage limits below refer to the total of all deposits that an accountholder (or accountholders) has at each FDIC-insured institution. The listing below shows only the most common ownership categories that apply to individual and family deposits, and assumes that all FDIC requirements are met.