Trump Accounts architect leaving Treasury for private sector: Report

Luke Pettit, the architect of the Trump administration’s new investment accounts for children, is reportedly departing the Treasury Department for the private sector.

Pettit will leave the department in October, Axios reported Tuesday. The Hill has reached out to the Treasury Department for comment.

An assistant secretary overseeing financial institutions, Pettit has been with the department since July 2025. He also served as acting undersecretary for domestic finance for roughly three months last year.

The administration launched the “ Trump Accounts ” earlier this year under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law in July 2025 .

The investment accounts of children born from Jan. 1, 2025, through Dec. 31, 2028, received or will receive $1,000 in seed money from the Treasury Department, with multiple companies matching that contribution .

Family members, friends and other adults can contribute up to $5,000 annually to each account, with employers of a child or their parent able to contribute $2,500 per year — which counts against the $5,000 limit. The department is also accepting stock contributions to the accounts.

Once a child turns 18, the account acts as a traditional IRA.

The Social Security Administration is assisting the Treasury Department in automatically enrolling newborns in the program. Axios reported that Pettit will leave the department after auto-enrollment begins next month.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in July that 86 percent of the 7 million children with an account were from families earning less than $200,000.

“Today, 38 percent of households in this country have no exposure to our great equity markets, while approximately two-thirds of Gen Z Americans fail to answer more than half of basic financial literacy questions,” Bessent said before the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. “We can move those figures toward zero by creating a new class of shareholders.”