No doubt these accounts represent a good way for the risk-averse, like me, to preserve accumulated retirement nest eggs while realizing a modest return. FDIC insurance, up to $250,000, is available, separate from other personal accounts.

Opening certificates of deposit with existing tax-deferred retirement assets, however, can present complications, primarily because of the paperwork and processing required to transfer funds and to ensure IRS compliance.

When, early in 2009, I scrambled to move my individual retirement account assets from a single T. Rowe Price account to multiple bank IRA CDs, the process proved excruciatingly slow, taking two to three weeks to complete per CD.

I suffered angst over locking in a rate while all the t’s and i’s were duly crossed and dotted.

Some banks, like Bank of America, guarantee a rate for a specified period on IRA transfers; others, like Nationwide Bank, give “soft” assurances to do their best. But many banks make no promises at all.

Now my CDs are maturing, and I’m encountering new complications.

What if I don’t like the bank’s current rates? At certain banks like Wells Fargo, I can park my money in an IRA savings account and tough it out until rates go up.

But others, like Allstate Bank, only offer IRA CD accounts. (I neglected to check into this when I opened that high-yielding CD two years ago.)

I’m floundering again.

Can I stomach another cumbersome IRA transfer? Can I lock in a rate? What is the old bank’s transfer fee? Dare I venture a rollover, where I take a check from the old bank and deposit the funds with a new bank within 60 days?

Of course, those at or approaching 70 1/2 also have to worry about IRS mandatory minimum distribution requirements as well as ongoing financial needs.

Some banks, like MetLife Bank and Union Bank, explicitly offer fixed-rate IRA CDs with penalty-free withdrawals for seniors. But many provide only standard redemption penalties (though I’m told they often waive them for those over 59 1/2). Fortunately, I still have a few years to look into this.

One thing is certain: IRA CDs have offered me a great opportunity to exercise my atrophying gray matter.

The average return on 3-, 6-, 12- and 24-month CDs declined by about 40% during 2010. The average return on 60-month CDs fell by about 25% over the course of the year.

All five of the certificates of deposit we track reached record lows during December, and four of the five average CD rates were down for the month.

The one exception was for 5-year certificates of deposit, whose average return actually ticked up from 1.51% at the end of November to 1.56% at the end of December.

But we’ve seen blips like this before, and they have not signaled a change in the overall downward trend for all CD rates.

That’s because the Federal Reserve seems determined to hold interest rates at unprecedented lows for the foreseeable future.

A majority of economists polled in a recent CNNMoney.com survey said the Fed funds rate – the central bank’s key interest rate for controlling overnight loans between banks — will remain near 0% for at least another year.

Only seven out of 25 economists are forecasting a rate hike in the next 12 months, and most of those expect it to come in the final three months of 2011. Another nine expect the next rate increase to come in the first quarter of 2012, while eight more are expecting a hike later that year.

Bankrate’s final December survey of large banks and thrifts found the average annual yield for a:

3-month CD ended the month at 0.20%, down from 0.23% at the end of November and down from 0.36% at the start of the year. That’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 3-month CD rates in March 1989.

6-month CD fell to 0.30%, down from 0.31% the previous month and 0.50% at the start of the year. That’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 6-month CD rates in January 1984.

1-year CD fell to 0.48%, down from 0.51% the previous month and 0.82% at the start of the year. That’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 12-month CD rates in October 1983.

2-year CD fell to 0.74%, down from 0.77% the previous month and 1.24% at the start of the year. The 0.73% reached in early December was the lowest average since the survey began tracking 24-month CD rates in March 1989.

5-year CD rose to 1.56% from 1.51% at the end of November. But it was still down from 2.10% at the start of the year, and the 1.50% reached in early December was the lowest average rate since the survey began tracking 60-month CDs in January 1984.

Compare these returns with the best CD rates from scores of banks in our database.

The average return on four of the five certificates of deposit we track fell and ended the month at record lows.

The one exception was for 3-month CDs, whose average return actually ticked up from 0.21% at the end of October to 0.23% at the end of November.

But we’ve seen blips like this before and they have not signaled a change in the overall downward trend for all CD rates.

With Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke continuing to say the economy isn’t growing fast enough there’s no reason to expect he’ll allow interest rates to rise anytime during 2011 – and maybe not even in 2012.

Bankrate’s final November survey of large banks and thrifts found the average annual yield for a:

3-month CD ended the month at 0.23%, up from 0.21% in October, but down from 0.36% at the start of the year. The 0.21% return reached in October and early November was the lowest average since the survey began tracking 3-month CD rates in March 1989.

6-month CD has fallen to 0.31%, down from 0.32% the previous month and 0.50% at the start of the year. It’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 6-month CD rates in January 1984.

1-year CD has fallen to 0.51%, down from 0.53% the previous month and 0.82% at the start of the year. It’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 12-month CD rates in October 1983.

2-year CD has fallen to 0.77%, down from 0.79% the previous month and 1.24% at the start of the year and is the lowest average since the survey began tracking 24-month CD rates in March 1989.

5-year CD declined to 1.51%, down from 1.57% the previous month and 2.10% at the start of the year. That’s the lowest average rate since the survey began tracking 60-month CDs in January 1984.

Compare these returns with the best CD rates from scores of banks in our database.

Teresa Guidice from “Real Housewives of New Jersey” was the first of Bravo’s reality stars to file for bankruptcy.

Now Sonja Morgan, who appears on Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New York City,” is seeking Chapter 11 protection from her $19.8 million in debt.

We could blame Morgan’s outrageous spending habits for her bankruptcy — and that’s certainly a factor — but we see two bigger problems as the root of her fall.

First, she made one of the classic mistakes of investing: She sunk a ton of money into something she didn’t understand.

In this case it was a movie called “Fast Flash to Bang Time” that was supposed to be a star vehicle for John Travolta.

The film was never made but Morgan is still paying bills and fighting lawsuits.

What a New York socialite is doing funding Travolta flicks, we don’t know, except maybe she wanted to be linked to a legitimate Hollywood product rather than a flimsy reality TV show.

She’s also suffering through one of the three personal calamities that put many families on the financial skids.

In Morgan’s case, it was a messy divorce. (Serious illness and job loss are the other two.)

Of course she would have been in a much stronger position to weather a bad investment and divorce if she didn’t spend so much to support the lavish lifestyle we see on Bravo.

But I guess that’s the price of celebrity these days.

It will provide unlimited deposit insurance coverage to noninterest-bearing transaction accounts.

This means that no matter how much you have in a traditional checking account, or demand deposits accounts that earn no interest, that money is insured should the bank go under.

And banks still are going under – 146 so far this year and counting.

That also means all deposits in non-interest bearing accounts will no longer be counted towards the insurance limit for interest-bearing accounts.

But this change is temporary, running from Dec. 31, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2011.

For many years the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. covered the first $100,000 in all interest and non-interest earning accounts at each insured bank.

That limit was raised temporarily to $250,000 in October 2008, and made permanent as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that Congress passed earlier this year.

As result of these changes, the first $250,000 in all interest bearing accounts will be fully insured next year.

If you’ve invested more than that at any one bank, it’s a good idea to move some of your savings to another FDIC-insured bank so that you’re fully protected if the worst happens.

Many banks are part of what’s called a Certificates of Deposit Account Registry Service.

That allows your bank to divvy up large deposits with other banks that are part of its CDARS network, to make sure you never exceed the FDIC limits at any one bank.

Ask about that service if you’re fortunate enough to need it.

A Web site that claims to be a Panama-based “Internet brokerage service” has begun to gain traction with the serach engines, and it’s promising the most eye-popping CD rates we’ve ever seen.

Comexonline says: “We offer online risk-free investment solutions with fixed interest rates from 19.5% to 35.5% APY.”

A photo shows a ritzy office building with Comexonline’s name on it, and there’s supposed to be “representation in the United States,” too.

But that’s just a post office box in Los Angeles and there’s no phone number for customers to call Comexonline’s “investment advisers” in Panama City or California. It can only be reached by email or fax.

Puh-leeze.

I have a terrible feeling that we’ve seen this movie before.

It all sounds suspiciously like Millennium Bank all over again – although Comexonline seems to be a little less sophisticated in its presentation and much more outrageous with its claims.

Millennium was based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and started advertising suspiciously high CD rates back in 2004. Its presence on the search engines steadily grew, and it wasn’t shy about going after big money, placing ads in glossy magazines aimed at wealthy consumers.

Millennium typically offered 1.5 to 2 percentage points more than the best deals you’d find at FDIC-insured banks — a premium that seemed to be carefully calculated to be alluring but not alarming.

Its highest rates were reserved for big deposits ($25,000 or $100,000) put into “premium” long-term certificates of deposit — four or five years — that absolutely could not be redeemed until maturity.

Millennium claimed to be the subsidiary of a Swiss bank — something the secretive Swiss embassy in Washington wouldn’t discuss with us when we called to check.

We could never discover who was behind the bank until 2009, when the Justice Department charged a couple of Americans with running a $68 million Ponzi scheme and shut Millennium down.

Don’t let your family and friends be part of the sequel.

Not the actual cars, but the municipal licenses that those taxis must have to pick passengers up on city streets.

Those licenses are the 6-inch aluminum medallions that are permanently attached to the hood of all 13,200 legal taxis.

They can be bought and sold through city-approved brokers and currently cost about $575,000 for an individually-owned cab and $750,000 for a fleet cab.

Melrose finances more of those purchases than anyone else, marketing director Robert Nemeroff told us when we sat down with him at the credit union’s office in Queens last week.

Here’s how he says Melrose works, why it can offer savers some of the best nationally available CD rates, and what it has planned for the future.

Bankaholic: According to your Website, the state charter you have from New York allows basically anyone, regardless of affiliation or geographical location, to become a member.

Nemeroff: That’s correct. We have an open charter. We’ve had that since 1922. So, essentially anyone can join our credit union.

Bankaholic: What kind of investments is the credit union making that allows it to offer such great rates?

Nemeroff: Well first of all, because credit unions are not-for-profit, we answer to our members. We don’t answer to stockholders.

So that means that after expenses, after our bottom-line expenses are paid, salaries, you know, and the cost of doing business on a day-to-day basis, the monies, the balance of proceeds, the balance of the revenues, the balance of the profits go back into…dividends. So, that means we’re able to offer higher savings yields and lower loan rates.

Bankaholic: What kind of investments do you make to earn a profit?

Nemeroff: Melrose is the No. 1 yellow taxi medallion lender in New York City and we have been since the beginning of time — taxi medallion time, that is.

Because the value on medallions is high, due to the supply and industry both being highly regulated and scrutinized, our medallion loans generate a significant, steady revenue stream, which, in turn throws off substantial profit, which enables us to offer high-yield share products and low-rate loan products.

Even our medallion loans are competitively lower than our competition.

Bankaholic: Does Melrose have any plans to open more offices in other parts of New York?

Nemeroff: With the advent of technology and the availability of electronic services, it’s not as vitally important to construct brick and mortar as it used to be.

We are members of two nationwide networks.

One is a nationwide ATM network, which is the CO-OP network. That includes 5,500 ATMs at 7-Elevens across the country, as well as ATMs at other credit unions and other institutions that have the CO-OP network label on them. And what that means is that if you’re a member of Melrose, with either your Melrose ATM or debit card, you can use that co-op machine, surcharge free.

The second network is called a “shared branch network.” It’s credit union service centers. If you go to our Website, and you go to the drop-down from the home page tab, and you choose services, and you click on the link for “Shared Services Centers,” what those are, are brick-and-mortar facilities of other credit unions.

We are included in that network. So any participating credit union in that network can send their members to any other credit union that participates. And basically, that’s a branch of that credit union.

So there are credit unions in the network in just about every state in the country. So, a member of Melrose that’s vacationing in Florida can walk into one of the participating credit unions in Florida and go in there and use it like it’s a branch of Melrose.

Bankaholic: How fast is Melrose growing? On the Website it says 20,000 members.

Nemeroff: Yes, the membership is up to about 22,000 and change now. You know, we believe in a philosophy of controlled growth. And obviously that bodes well for credit unions in general. It’s slow and steady wins the race.

There’s no reason to go out there and make as much as you can off of people today. If you do the right thing by people today, you’ll have them as members…for the rest of their lives because they’ll appreciate the fact that you serviced them the right way from day 1. So that’s our philosophy, that’s our motto.

By doing it that way, we don’t have to worry about bringing in hundreds of thousands of new members on an annual basis, but we’re bringing in the business. We’re bringing in the mortgage loans, we’re bringing in the share certificates, which are the CDs, we’re opening up new accounts, and we’re doing it the right way. And I think people appreciate that no matter where they’re from.

We’ve had to turn people away from a loan because they just weren’t ready, financially, to take on that responsibility, but they appreciate the fact that, you know, we tell them, “Listen, you can go to a bank and they’ll turn around and charge you an exorbitant amount of interest on a loan that you want to take out to buy a house, but what good is that? You’re not going to be able to make the payments and then they’re going to foreclose on you, and, you know, that’s not the idea.”

The idea is to help someone get ahead. The idea is to make sure that they can fit into the loan that you’re providing them.

Bankaholic: Where are the 22,000 Melrose members from?

Nemeroff: About 75% to 80% live in the New York metro area and 10% are in Florida and California. The remainder is spread out across the country.

But to find the little New York credit union that’s offering many of the best CD rates in the country, we had to hop on the E train and venture out to Queens.

There, in the Briarwood neighborhood about 12 miles from Citigroup’s Park Avenue headquarters, we found Melrose Credit Union’s single office.

We’ve written so much about Melrose over the past few months that we felt like we just had to go there to assure ourselves – and you – that it really existed.

We wanted to see what the credit union with the unusual charter that allows anyone in the country to join, regardless of where they live or work, is really like, and find out how it can keep offering such great returns month after month after month.

Melrose holds three of the six spots on our most recent CD Rates Leaderboard. At one point last summer it claimed four of the six, best nationally available CD rates in the country.

What we found was an incredibly diverse, middle-class residential neighborhood that’s about a third white, a third black, and a third Hispanic and Asian.

Queens Boulevard, which forms the western edge of the neighborhood, is lined with small stores, car lots and restaurants, where you can get a 10-minute oil change and a pizza burger. On either side of the tree-lined median, three lanes are available with plenty of street parking.

We couldn’t miss Melrose’s immaculate building at 139-30 Queens – the three-story red-brick structure looks just like the computer rendering on the credit union’s Web site.

It’s a bit of a fortress, but a friendly fortress, sporting a wall of wrought iron and brick all the way around the property and a gate at the entrance, with a clean and spacious parking lot out front and a drive-through teller window around the back of the credit union.

The one-story lobby is open and inviting, allowing natural light to enter the building’s countless windows and shine on the polished floors, with an information desk and just three teller windows.

It’s nothing like the grand banks of Manhattan, with their vaulted stone ceilings, marble floors and so many tellers that electronic arrows are needed to direct you to an open window.

All, in all, it’s a rather unassuming place, sort of like a small town bank that’s been plopped in the middle of this huge city.

Melrose is real and seems well equipped to serve its 20,000 members.

Tomorrow we ask one of its executives how Melrose can offer such great rates.

The average return on all five of the certificates of deposit we track fell and ended the month at record lows.

The biggest declines were on longer-term CDs, with the average yield on 5-year CDs falling more than a tenth of a point.

With the Federal Reserve determined to push interest rates even lower, we certainly expect the decline to continue into a third year this month.

Bankrate’s weekly survey of large banks and thrifts taken Oct. 27, found the average annual yield for a:

3-month CD ended the month at 0.21%, down from 0.22% in September and 0.36% at the start of the year. It’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 3-month CD rates in March 1989.

6-month CD has fallen to 0.32%, down from 0.33% the previous month and 0.50% at the start of the year. It’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 6-month CD rates in January 1984.

1-year CD has fallen to 0.53%, down from 0.57% the previous month and 0.82% at the start of the year. It’s the lowest average since the survey began tracking 12-month CD rates in October 1983.

2-year CD has fallen to 0.79%, down from 0.88% the previous month and 1.24% at the start of the year and is the lowest average since the survey began tracking 24-month CD rates in March 1989.

5-year CD declined to 1.57%, down from 1.68% the previous month and 2.10% at the start of the year. That’s the lowest average rate since the survey began tracking 60-month CDs in January 1984.

Compare these returns with the best CD rates from scores of banks in our database.

But are the higher rates Indian savers earn being eaten up by inflation?

Unfortunately it appears they are.

We found reports from India that says consumer prices are rising at an annualized rate of more than 10%.

So the typical 1-year CD in India is paying a couple of points less than the inflation rate.

In the U.S. the annualized inflation rate was just 1.1% in August (the change in the CPI from August 2009 to August 2010).

That means our average 1-year CD is also failing to keep up with inflation, but by less than one percentage point.

Woo-hoo. The buying power of our savings is eroding more slowly than it would in India even though its banks are paying higher interest rates.

Somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better about the pitiful returns I’m earning on my savings, or the Federal Reserve’s refusal to change its punishing policies, which are driving interest rates lower and lower.