Trump Accounts auto-enrol 60 million children as Treasury lifts sign-up rule

The U.S. Treasury Department has automatically enrolled more than 60 million children under 18 into "Trump Accounts," bypassing a major bureaucratic hurdle in an effort to rescue the federal savings programme from low participation.

The sudden shift, announced by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, moves the programme from an "opt-in" model to automatic enrolment. Out of roughly 73 million eligible children in the country, only about 7 million to 8 million had been signed up by their parents before the rule change.

But while the accounts have now been created, the money is not guaranteed. Parents must still take active steps to claim the accounts before any cash is deposited.

How to claim the money

The programme, officially known as 530A accounts, was established under the "One Big Beautiful Bill." It is open to any child under 18 with a Social Security number.

For children born between 2025 and 2028, the government offers a one-time $1,000 seed deposit. However, that money is not automatically transferred. To get the funding, parents or guardians must download the Trump Accounts app, verify their identity and relationship to the child, and accept the account terms.

Claiming the account is also necessary to allow outside contributions from family members, friends, or employers. Parents can contribute up to $5,000 annually. The funds cannot be withdrawn until the calendar year the child turns 18, at which point ownership transfers entirely to them under rules similar to a traditional IRA.

Private donations and individual stocks

For older children born between 2016 and 2024, there is a separate pool of private funding. Tech billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, committed $6.25 billion to provide $250 deposits to children living in ZIP codes where the median income is $150,000 or less. Because of the automatic enrolment, these children will not miss out on these philanthropic deposits, even if their families have not yet activated the accounts.

The Treasury’s new temporary regulations also introduced a significant change in how the accounts can be funded. They can now hold donated individual stocks, moving away from previous rules that restricted investments to diversified, low-cost funds.

Ben Henry-Moreland, a planner with the advisor platform Kitces.com, noted that wealthy founders and shareholders had pushed for this change. It allows them to donate stock directly, avoiding the capital gains taxes they would normally trigger by selling shares to gift cash. Under the new rules, any donated stocks must generally be held for five years before they can be sold.

Why millions of families could miss out

Despite the automatic sign-up, experts warn that many of the poorest families may still miss out on the federal cash.

Before the rule change, only 5% of low- and moderate-income families had opened an account, according to a survey by Commonwealth, a financial nonprofit. Parents cited concerns about taxes, the impact on their public benefits, and a simple lack of spare cash to contribute.

Commonwealth estimates that 14.4 million children are eligible for the $1,000 federal pilot funding, including 5.8 million in low- and moderate-income households. But based on how families historically interact with other government programmes, like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the group projects that 20% of eligible babies will never have their accounts claimed.

That would leave roughly $2.88 billion in federal seed money untouched.

Timothy Flacke, Commonwealth’s chief executive, said the value of the accounts is "not just the money" but "the power of knowing that money is there, watching it grow and carrying around the sense there is some financial future."

The aggressive push to expand the programme comes roughly a month before the midterm elections, as Republicans fight to maintain thin majorities in both the House and the Senate.