Safety and Security
 

A message from Heartland's President -- Your credit union accounts are safe, insured.

Credit unions remain a safe harbor for your savings and other accounts, despite economic woes, including the recent bank failures. Thanks to federal insurance—members' shares are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury.

There's no better time to be a credit union member. Heartland and virtually all credit unions are insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), which insures savings of at least up to $100,000 per account. Certain retirement accounts such as IRAs and Keoghs benefit from additional coverage of up to $250,000.  Visit the NCUA's Share Insurance Estimator site for more information.

NCUSIF's equity-to-insured deposits are estimated at a strong 1.24% as of June 30 and projected to increase to 1.28% by year-end, according to the National Credit Union Association (NCUA).

Credit unions are nationally recognized for having steered clear of the sub prime mortgage mess by lending responsibly.  Also, credit unions have a better capital-to-asset ratio. Heartland is a well capitalized credit union at 9.54% and we follow prudent lending policies. The quality of our loans is very good as indicated by our delinquency ratio of less the 1%.

What does share insurance coverage mean for you?

If you have more than one single-ownership account in the same credit union, all those account balances are added together and insured in the aggregate, to the maximum of $100,000.

If you have a joint account at the same credit union, that account is insured separately from your individual account up to the $100,000 level, provided each of you has personally signed an account signature card and each of you has a right of withdrawal on the same basis. Each individual's interests in all jointly held accounts are added together and insured up to $100,000;

If you have accounts at more than one insured credit union, you have coverage up to the full insurable amount in each credit union. If your credit union has one or more branches, the main office and all branch offices are considered as one credit union;

If you have a revocable trust account, such as payable-on-death, living trust, or testamentary account, insurance coverage for each account is up to $100,000 per owner for each qualified beneficiary; and

While IRAs and Keogh accounts are insured separately from non-retirement funds, with each type insured up to $250,000, funds in traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs are added together and insured in the aggregate up to $250,000. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts are treated as irrevocable trust accounts and added in with your other irrevocable trust account funds and insured separately up to $100,000.

Bottom line: Depending on how your accounts are established, funds in a federally insured credit union like Heartland can be insured to a level much higher than $100,000. For more information about the specifics of your insurance coverage, call or stop by one of our locations.

Sincerely,

Sally A. Dischler
President/CEO

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8/11/2008