Trump Accounts Auto-Enroll 60 Million Kids in Investments
In a move the Treasury Department is calling a transformative milestone, more than 60 million American children have been automatically enrolled in Trump Accounts — the new tax-deferred investment program designed to give every kid a financial head start.
What Just Happened
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday that the department had completed automatic enrollment for the program, creating accounts for tens of millions of eligible children all at once. The mass sign-up follows proposed regulations issued earlier in the week that cleared the way for automatic creation of accounts.
“Millions of children have already enrolled in Trump Accounts. With automatic enrollment, over 60 million more eligible children now have an account ready to be claimed,” Bessent told CNBC.
The shift is the biggest design change since the program launched on July 4. Before this week, parents had to take the initiative and enroll their own children — and only a fraction did. By the end of July, the Treasury had processed about 5.6 million forms, while Bessent has said roughly 7 million children were signed up. With some 73 million children eligible, most of the country was still missing out.
How Trump Accounts Work
Trump Accounts, formally known as 530A accounts, are tax-advantaged investment accounts open to children under 18 who have a Social Security number. The money is invested in low-cost index funds, giving it stock-market exposure over many years of compounding.
Children born between 2025 and 2028 also qualify for a one-time $1,000 contribution from the federal government. Families, employers, and philanthropists can add their own contributions too — including a reported $6.25 billion pledge from businessman Michael Dell that would now reach far more households thanks to automatic enrollment.
Parents Still Need to Claim the Account
Automatic enrollment is not the end of the process. Parents and guardians must use the official Trump Accounts app, available for iOS and Android, to verify their identity and their relationship to the child, review the account information, and accept the account’s terms.
Only after claiming the account can family members, friends, and employers contribute — and only then can eligible families separately opt in to receive the government’s $1,000 payment. The $1,000 starter money requires an explicit election by the taxpayer under the law that created the program.
Analysts say the change addresses the program’s biggest weakness: awareness. “This is the most important design change since the law passed. This is huge,” said Jin Huang, a professor of social policy at Washington University in St. Louis, noting that assets can now start growing for tens of millions of kids without families needing to take the first step.
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