Latest Trump Account changes: What families need to know now

The Treasury Department announced on October 1 that it had automatically enrolled all eligible children for Trump Accounts, the new federal savings and investment vehicle for kids that went live on July 4.

Until now, parents had to proactively sign up for a Trump Account, but fewer than eight million were opened as of this summer – just a fraction of the tens of millions of children eligible to have one.

"With automatic enrollment, over 60 million more eligible children now have an account ready to be claimed," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. "This is a transformative milestone in the Trump Administration's effort to give every American child the opportunity to build generational wealth and jump-start their financial future."

The Treasury estimates that the new auto enrollment structure will create an additional two million accounts every year.

"The shift towards automatic enrollment follows best practice from the research and reflects the fact that the previous opt-in structure was producing low participation rates," said Madeline Brown, a senior policy associate at the Urban Institute. "The (new) rulemaking … outlines a first step, which ensures children won't lose out on major philanthropic contributions, or the earnings on those contributions, if no one has opened an account for them."

Even with auto enrollment, however, there is still a lot of fine print to know about if your child now has a Trump Account.

So … we've updated our one-stop-shop FAQ to address your most salient questions from the basics to the nitty gritty.

They are IRA-style investment accounts for eligible children. They are like traditional IRAs in that money in the accounts will grow tax deferred. But the rules for Trump Accounts differ during the so-called "growth period" – which encompasses the first 18 years of a child's life.

The account belongs to the child, but the parent, legal guardian or other authorized adult who will serve as custodian until the child is 18.

Contributions from individuals must be made with after-tax money.

Withdrawals, which generally may not be made until the year the child turns 18,* will be taxed as ordinary income at the child's tax rate – minus the portion attributable to after-tax contributions made over the years, according to the Congressional Research Service.

What are the eligibility rules for kids and adults?

Only children who are US citizens and have a valid Social Security number may have a Trump Account. And no child may have more than one.