More than 60 million American children are set to receive Trump Accounts automatically beginning around Oct. 1, under new Treasury Department rules that dramatically expand the child investment program by eliminating the need for parents or guardians to take the first step of opening an account.

The temporary regulations, issued Tuesday by the Treasury Department and IRS, authorize the government to establish accounts for eligible children under 18 who have Social Security numbers and do not already have Trump Accounts. Treasury expects to continue automatically adding eligible children in the future, with roughly 2 million additional accounts projected for each new annual birth cohort.

The move represents a major change from the program’s original opt-in structure, under which an authorized adult generally had to submit Form 4547 to establish an account. Treasury concluded that automatic enrollment would substantially increase participation after early enrollment numbers showed that only a fraction of eligible children had been signed up.

The program’s official website declares, “The American Dream starts now” and promotes “long-term financial security for millions of kids” through the Trump Accounts program.

Automatic enrollment will apply only when an account has not already been established for the child. Children whose parents or other authorized individuals previously opened accounts will therefore not receive duplicate accounts.

There is, however, a significant distinction between automatically receiving an account and automatically receiving money from Washington.

The government’s $1,000 seed contribution is available only to eligible U.S. citizen children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, and an authorized individual must specifically elect to receive that payment. Treasury cannot make that election on the family’s behalf merely because it automatically created the account.

That means millions of children may soon have Trump Accounts in their names without any action from their parents, but families with children eligible for the $1,000 federal contribution will still have to request the money.

Automatically created accounts will initially have more limited functionality as well. They can receive certain government and nonprofit contributions, but a parent or guardian must claim control of the account before ordinary family or employer contributions can be deposited.

Parents will be required to establish their identity and demonstrate their legal authority over the child’s finances through the Treasury’s online system or Trump Accounts app. The regulations outline that process, although some operational details concerning how families will take control of automatically created accounts remain to be finalized.

Once an account is fully activated and controlled by an authorized adult, families and others can generally contribute as much as $5,000 annually, with that limit scheduled to be adjusted for inflation after 2027. Employer contributions of as much as $2,500 can count toward the annual limit. Government and qualifying charitable contributions are treated separately and do not count toward the $5,000 ceiling.

The money is designed to remain invested over the child’s youth, primarily in qualifying low-cost funds tracking broad U.S. stock indexes. Distributions generally cannot begin during the account’s designated growth period, which runs through the end of the year before the beneficiary turns 18.

After that point, the account transitions into the broader IRA framework, with withdrawals subject to the applicable tax and distribution rules.

Treasury’s decision to switch to automatic enrollment follows figures showing a striking gap between the number of children eligible for the program and the number whose families had voluntarily enrolled them.

By July 30, Treasury had processed approximately 5.6 million electronic Form 4547 submissions, compared with an estimated 73.4 million children potentially eligible for Trump Accounts. Treasury officials subsequently said total applications had climbed above 7 million.

The disparity was especially pronounced among families reporting no income. According to figures cited in the new rules, only about 10,000 applications had come from that group even though approximately 8.6 million eligible children live in such households.

Treasury cited evidence from retirement plans and state child-savings initiatives showing that automatic or opt-out enrollment tends to produce substantially greater participation than systems requiring people to actively sign up.

The automatic-account system could also greatly increase the reach of major private philanthropic commitments to Trump Accounts.

Among the largest is the $6.25 billion commitment announced by Michael and Susan Dell to benefit children born from 2016 through 2024 who live in qualifying ZIP codes with median household incomes below $150,000. Automatic enrollment could allow children whose parents never independently opened an account to benefit from such large-scale contributions.

The White House said in July that more than 50 companies had also committed to making Trump Account contributions for the children of employees.

The regulations additionally permit certain donors to contribute publicly traded stock rather than only cash. Such securities generally must remain in the account for a specified holding period, including a five-year requirement in circumstances covered by the new rules.

Trump Accounts were created under the tax and spending legislation signed by President Trump in July 2025 and are structured as a special form of individual retirement account for children. The program formally began accepting funded accounts in July 2026.

President Trump has promoted the accounts as a way to give children an ownership stake in the American economy from an early age.

“This is a pro-family initiative that will help millions of Americans harness the strength of our economy to lift up the next generation. And they’ll really be getting a big jump on life.”

With Treasury now moving from voluntary enrollment to automatic account creation, the program is poised to expand from several million participants to tens of millions within a short period — although parents of children eligible for the government’s $1,000 seed payment will still have to take action to obtain it.

{Matzav.com}