The Treasury Department will begin depositing $1,000 into a new tax-deferred investment account for every U.S. newborn on Saturday, launching President Trump's signature savings program alongside the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump Accounts, also called 530A accounts, will invest the seed money in U.S. equity index funds on behalf of any child born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, so long as the child is a citizen with a Social Security number. Parents can add up to $2,500 in pretax income a year, and employers, relatives and philanthropies can push total yearly contributions to $5,000. Children cannot access the funds until age 18, and only for tuition, a first home or starting a business.
The corporate match
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley on Thursday said they would match the federal $1,000 for their employees' children, joining a list CNBC reported includes Bank of New York Mellon, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, Charter Communications, Chime Financial, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Comcast, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Micron Technology, Robinhood and SoFi. The Associated Press has separately cited Uber, IBM, Nvidia and Steak 'n Shake.
"Starting early and staying invested for the long term is one of the most reliable ways American families build lasting financial security," David Solomon, chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said.
"The momentum we have around this is totally extraordinary," Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner, who helped spearhead the accounts, said Thursday on CNBC's "Halftime Report," previewing more corporate announcements to come.
Billionaire seed money
Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, have pledged $6.25 billion to fund $250 seed deposits for children ages 10 or under who live in ZIP codes with a median family income of $150,000 or less. Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra will personally contribute $250 million, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. Hedge-fund founder Ray Dalio and his wife, Barbara, pledged $75 million for Connecticut children under age 10, and Gerstner separately committed $250 for every child under age 5 in Indiana.
The Treasury Department said 5.5 million accounts have already been opened, 1.4 million of them eligible for the $1,000 government contribution. About 86 percent were opened by families earning less than $200,000 annually.
The critique
Critics quoted by the Associated Press said the accounts do little to help children in their most vulnerable early years and argued they will widen the wealth gap because affluent families can front the full pretax contribution while poorer households cannot. The same Trump tax and spending bill that created Trump Accounts cut Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Congressional Democrats had not publicly responded to the corporate matching announcements by press time, and no left- or right-leaning outlet appears in today's source set.
Assuming a 7 percent annual return, the AP calculated the $1,000 seed would grow to roughly $3,570 by a child's 18th birthday. Deposits open Saturday at trumpaccounts.gov.