Nearly 70 million Trump Accounts have been established as philanthropists and corporations expand funding for eligible children
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department has automatically established investment accounts for more than 60 million children, bringing total Trump Accounts to nearly 70 million, the White House said. Families must claim the accounts to manage them, although some approved contributions may arrive beforehand.
Treasury announced the expansion Oct. 1. President Donald Trump promoted it Oct. 7. About 164,000 of the newly established accounts had been claimed during the first week, according to figures presented by Helen Morrison, a U.S. Treasury benefits tax counsel, at an Oct. 8 American Bar Association meeting. Morrison spoke in her personal capacity. The figure covers only accounts created through automatic enrollment and excludes those established earlier.
Created under a July 2025 law, Trump Accounts are tax-advantaged individual retirement accounts for eligible children under 18 with valid Social Security numbers. Authorized adults must verify their identity and authority to claim and activate accounts. The $1,000 federal payment requires a separate election, including through IRS Form 4547, and is limited to qualifying U.S. citizen children born from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2028. Automatic enrollment alone does not secure the payment.
Michael Dell, founder and chief executive of Dell Technologies, and his wife, Susan, a philanthropist and co-founder of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, committed $6.25 billion to provide $250 each to 25 million eligible children born from 2016 through 2024. Their gift targets children excluded from the federal payment, prioritizing lower-income areas. For newly enrolled children, eligibility generally depends on ZIP codes with median family incomes of $117,300 or less, not individual household income; eligible military-base residents are included. Earlier enrollees retain previous criteria. Invest America said deposits were expected to finish Oct. 9 and advised families to check accounts the following week. No separate application is required for the Dell gift.
Other philanthropists include investor Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara, who pledged $75 million for qualifying Connecticut children, and Altimeter Capital founder Brad Gerstner, who pledged $250 for roughly 140,000 Indiana children born in 2023 or 2024. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and her husband pledged company shares for more than two million children, primarily ages 11 to 17 in lower-income areas. Treasury also listed oil executive Harold Hamm and rapper Nicki Minaj among philanthropic supporters without specifying amounts.
Treasury identified JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, BlackRock, Intel, Dell Technologies, Charles Schwab, Coinbase and Chipotle among participating companies. Terms differ by company. The White House said more than 70 companies pledged employee-related contributions by Oct. 7.
The White House reported more than $4.5 billion deposited by Oct. 7, including $1.3 billion in federal payments, more than $600 million from families and friends, and $2.6 billion in philanthropic gifts. The figures exclude future pledges.
Family, friend and employer contributions generally share a $5,000 annual limit, including up to $2,500 from qualifying employers. Certain government and charitable payments are exempt. Ordinary childhood investments generally track broad U.S. stock indexes; federal rules also allow specified gifts of individual company shares subject to holding restrictions. Returns are not guaranteed.
Withdrawals generally remain restricted through the year a child turns 17. Traditional IRA tax rules ordinarily apply beginning the year the beneficiary turns 18, including potential income taxes and an additional 10 percent tax on some early withdrawals. For Supplemental Security Income recipients, balances generally become countable resources that year; qualifying full-balance transfers to ABLE accounts are permitted in the year they turn 17.
Jin Huang, the Irving Louis Horowitz Professor in Social Policy at Washington University in St. Louis, welcomed automatic enrollment but cautioned that additional steps to obtain federal contributions could leave eligible children, particularly in lower-income households, without available funds, according to comments published by the university Oct. 6.
