U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announces new sanctions against Iran during a press conference in the Treasury Cash Room in Washington, August 24, 2026.
Mehmet Ethel | Anadolu | Getty Images
More than 60 million U.S. children under the age of 18 were automatically enrolled in Trump’s account, the U.S. Treasury Department said in an announcement provided exclusively to CNBC on Thursday.
The Treasury Department on Tuesday proposed regulations to start automatic enrollment for millions of children this week. The agency said the process was completed by Thursday.
The Trump account, also known as a 530A account, officially opened on July 4 and is available to any U.S. child under 18 with a Social Security number. Children born between 2025 and 2028 can also claim a one-time $1,000 pilot program contribution from the Treasury Department.
“Millions of children have already enrolled in Mr. Trump’s accounts, and automatic enrollment means more than 60 million additional eligible children can now get an account right away,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
According to interim regulations released this week, the Treasury Department will also allow stock donations to Mr. Trump’s account, which could facilitate “large-scale individual donations.”
Ben Henry Moreland, a certified financial planner at advisor platform Kitces.com, said “wealthy founders and shareholders are asking for equity to be donated directly” because it avoids capital gains taxes that would be triggered by selling or gifting cash.
Notably, the update allows Trump accounts to hold individual donated stocks, a change from previous guidelines that only allowed decentralized, low-cost funds. Donated stocks typically must be held for five years before being sold, according to the Treasury Department.
The latest news about the Trump account comes about a month before the midterm elections, as Republicans struggle to protect their slim margins in the House and Senate.
Here’s what parents should do
Automatic enrollment alone does not trigger the $1,000 deposit. According to regulations announced Tuesday, families must still choose to receive government seed money if their children are eligible.
“Children who are eligible for the $1,000 government pilot contribution will not automatically receive that contribution,” Henry Moreland told CNBC.
To claim an account, a parent or guardian must download the Trump Account app, verify identity and relationship to the child, review account information and agree to account terms, according to the Treasury Department.
Eligible children must obtain an account to enable contributions from family, friends, and employers and to receive a one-time Treasury Department seed contribution of $1,000.
Other Trump Account funds may also be available, depending on specific criteria. Tech CEO Michael Dell and his wife Susan have pledged $6.25 billion to provide an extra $250 to children born between 2016 and 2024 who live in ZIP codes with a median income of $150,000 or less. These funds specifically target low-income children.
“This rulemaking essentially introduces the idea of an automatic account created for every child under 18 with a Social Security number,” said Madeline Brown, senior policy associate at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank. “This means that children will not miss out on philanthropic gifts, such as money from Dell or growth with their gifts, even if their account is not activated.”
However, she added, “Families will ultimately need to claim their child’s account, and many details are not known about how that process will work.”
Brown said Trump Accounts previously required families to “opt in,” making widespread participation difficult, especially among low-income households.
“The proposed regulations represent an important step toward automatic enrollment, bringing account design closer to the evidence base and increasing participation,” she said. “This change is particularly important given the low participation rates we have seen to date under opt-in structures.”
Bessent told a House Financial Services Committee hearing that as of mid-September, about 7 million to 8 million American children were enrolled in Trump accounts.
A “window of opportunity” for parents
Timothy Flack, CEO of the national nonprofit Commonwealth, said the country’s new automatic enrollment policy, combined with significant federal and private funding, has created a “window of opportunity.”
A recent Commonwealth report found that before the automatic sign-up provision was introduced, only 5% of low- and moderate-income households opened a Trump account.
A Commonwealth survey of around 1,100 low- and middle-income parents with children under the age of 10 found that concerns about tax implications, the impact on public benefits and the inability to contribute to new investment accounts were the main barriers.
The federal analysis defines low- and moderate-income households as those with annual incomes of $80,000 or less, below last year’s median household income of $87,460, according to the latest data from the Census Bureau. The federal survey conducted in July had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
A June 9 policy analysis by Adam Mischel, director of tax research at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, said questions about eligibility, contribution limits and withdrawal limits are likely to deter some households from participating, “particularly those with limited time, low financial literacy, or insufficient external savings for emergencies.”
“As a result, the system ended up being used primarily by those best equipped to navigate it,” he wrote.
Omeed Firouzi, a professor of practice at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and director of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, told CNBC that low-income people often face barriers to government programs.
Many low-income households “don’t have the time or resources to hire someone to do all of this for them,” he says.
Families could still miss out on $2.88 billion
Approximately 14.4 million children born between 2025 and 2028 across income levels in the United States are projected to be eligible for $1,000 in federal seed funding, according to a Commonwealth study. Of these, 5.8 million are from low- and middle-income households.
Based on historical utilization rates of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, the federal government has found that an estimated 20% of eligible infants may not be able to claim the $1,000 deposit.
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is intended to help low- and moderate-income households by reducing the amount of taxes they owe. This is a refundable tax credit, so eligible taxpayers can receive a refund even if they pay little or no federal income tax.
But Temple University’s Firouzi said many applicants don’t apply for other reasons, including “complicated rules” that are “restrictive and burdensome.” The IRS announced earlier this year that nearly 1 in 5 eligible taxpayers failed to claim the EITC, and those who did claim the EITC had an average return of $2,916 in 2024.
For the Trump account, a similar utilization rate would equate to about $2.88 billion in federal seed dollars, and children living on low and moderate incomes risk missing out on that money during the pilot phase, according to a Commonwealth analysis.
But “part of the value here is not just money,” said the federation’s Flack. It’s “the ability to know your money is there, watch it grow, and maintain a sense of having a financial future.”
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