The U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have announced plans to automatically establish Trump Accounts for millions of eligible children, marking a significant expansion of the investment program created under President Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation.
Under temporary rules issued by Treasury and the IRS, the Treasury Secretary may now create accounts for eligible children without requiring explicit action from parents or guardians. These regulations target eligible children without existing Trump Accounts, aiming to increase participation while safeguarding sensitive taxpayer information.
The agencies estimate this initiative will impact approximately 73 million children across 44 million families, potentially resulting in over 60 million new Trump Accounts by 2026.
Investment Structure and Account Management
Treasury will create individual accounts for each eligible child using authorized government data. Assets from automatically enrolled accounts will be managed collectively through a master group trust, ensuring pooled investments while maintaining separate records for each child. This structure balances operational efficiency with privacy protections.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Critically, automatic enrollment alone does not qualify children for the federal $1,000 contribution pilot program. Eligible children born between 2025 and 2028 must make a separate election to receive government funding.
Parents and guardians must authenticate their identities, demonstrate legal authority to act on behalf of the child, and provide required information to Treasury to claim an automatically established account. Once claimed, these accounts may accept additional contributions from family, employers, or qualified government/nonprofit sources.
The $1,000 pilot program targets qualifying children born from 2025 through 2028, but eligibility requires a separate election by a parent or guardian. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
The shift to automatic enrollment follows public feedback indicating that requiring active participation could reduce enrollment rates, particularly among non-tax-filers or households unfamiliar with traditional tax processes. The master group trust framework allows Treasury to manage investments efficiently while protecting confidential data.
Bessent, who previewed the expansion during a September 15 House Financial Services Committee hearing, noted that 7 million to 8 million families had enrolled by that date. He projected rapid growth, stating, “We anticipate that within a month we will have 70 million because we will go to autoenroll.”
Trump Accounts were authorized under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2025, which also established these accounts as a new type of individual retirement savings vehicle for eligible children. Bessent has positioned the program as part of a broader strategy to expand U.S. capital market participation, calling the accounts “the most important government benefit for young people since the GI Bill” and emphasizing their potential to foster a generation of shareholders.
Secretary Bessent frames the program as a mechanism to broaden investment access for future generations. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The regulations also permit large-scale contributions to Trump Accounts from governments and nonprofits, including via publicly traded stock. Treasury emphasized that the automatic enrollment system addresses concerns raised during public comment periods about barriers to participation for underserved populations.
Goldman Sachs announced plans to contribute $1,000 to Trump Accounts for eligible children of its employees, highlighting growing industry support for the initiative.