10/10/2026
👶 If you have a child under 18 with a Social Security number, the U.S. Treasury opened a Trump Account in their name on October 1, unless you had already signed them up. More than 60 million accounts were created that day.
Trump Accounts launched on July 4, but only for kids whose families signed them up. Few did. By July 30, parents had filed about 5.6 million sign-up forms for roughly 73 million eligible children, according to Treasury's own figures.
Treasury has not said how many of the new accounts have been claimed since.
An unclaimed account can't take money from family or an employer. And for babies born from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2028, it won't get the $1,000 Treasury seed on its own.
A parent or guardian has to claim the account and file the $1,000 election, IRS Form 4547, which can be done in the official Trump Accounts app. Only U.S. citizens with a Social Security number qualify for the $1,000.
The $250 works the opposite way. Michael and Susan Dell's pledge puts $250 into the accounts of 25 million children born from 2016 through 2024 who live in ZIP codes with a median family income of about $118,000 or less, and it is deposited with no application. A parent only needs to claim the account to see it.
Kids born 2009 through 2015 get no seed money, but their account is already open. Claiming it matters if a grandparent or an employer wants to add money. Family and employer contributions together are capped at $5,000 a year per child.
Grandparents can't claim the account themselves unless they are the child's legal guardian. They can mention it to the parents, and contribute once it's claimed.
The money is locked up until the year the child turns 18, and after that it follows traditional IRA rules. For most families, the free $1,000 or $250 is worth claiming even if you never add a dollar of your own.
The $1000 can grow significantly over your child’s lifetime.
If you are considering overfunding, let’s talk. There are several other, I think better, options.
