(MONEY Magazine) – First, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, which insured thrifts, ran out of cash in 1986. Now the banks' Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation may follow. The General Accounting Office, the federal watchdog agency, says the FDIC ''will likely be insolvent'' by year-end unless it gets a loan from the Treasury. Are all the federal insurance funds backing your savings, investments and pensions likely to fail? No. ''The program covering credit unions, for example, is relatively sound now,'' says James Barth, a finance professor at Auburn University. An appraisal of each of the major federal or federally chartered insurers (see below) shows the range in their health, from poor to excellent. If a program is listed as being in poor condition, sooner or later your taxes will go up to assist the fund. -- FDIC Bank Insurance Fund What it covers: $100,000 per account at 12,400 banks Reserves: $4.5 billion, or 23 cents per $100 of insured deposits, down from $1.10 in 1987 Condition: Poor Another 80 or so FDIC-insured banks are likely to fail this year. So Congress and the President will soon raise the FDIC's $5 billion credit line, perhaps by $65 billion, to see it through at least several years. -- FDIC Savings Association Insurance Fund What it covers: $100,000 per account at the 2,521 FDIC-insured savings and loans Reserves: Zero Condition: Poor SAIF, the successor organization to FSLIC, is not expected to be back on its feet until 1994. In the meantime, S&Ls are protected by the Resolution Trust Corporation, the agency set up in 1989 to clean up the S&L mess. The government has already poured $80 billion into the RTC, but that still isn't enough. Congress is expected to cough up another $80 billion later this fall. -- National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund What it covers: $100,000 per account in 12,860 NCUSIF-insured credit unions Reserves: $2.4 billion, or $1.26 per $100 of insured deposits Condition: Excellent The GAO has called this fund, which protects 88% of credit unions, the safest of all federal deposit insurance programs. -- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation What it covers: Up to $27,000 of annual pension benefits per employee Reserves: $3.2 billion Condition: Good Most analysts believe the federal pension-insurance fund won't need a taxpayer bailout soon because the agency's investment income and the premiums it collects from employers cover current costs. Bear in mind, however, that the PBGC doesn't guarantee the widespread 401(k) savings plans or the pensions of nonprofit employers. -- Securities Investor Protection Corporation What it covers: $500,000, of which no more than $100,000 can be cash, per customer per firm for 10,000 SIPC-insured brokerages. Investment losses aren't covered. Reserves: $651 million Condition: Excellent The international accounting firm Deloitte & Touche says the brokerage-funded SIPC could easily withstand the failure of the nation's largest brokerage. But be careful: even if your firm carries SIPC insurance, as nearly all do, any checks you write to its uninsured subsidiaries -- a real estate partnership, perhaps -- won't be guaranteed.