Treasury automatically enrolls more than 60 million children in Trump Accounts

The U.S. Treasury Department has automatically enrolled more than 60 million children in Trump Accounts, tax-advantaged investment accounts also known as 530A accounts, CNBC reported Thursday.

Treasury proposed temporary regulations Tuesday allowing automatic enrollment, reversing the previous requirement that parents submit an IRS form to open an account. The department said the enrollment process was completed by Thursday for eligible U.S. children under 18 with Social Security numbers who did not already have accounts.

Families must still claim the accounts before contributions can be made by relatives, friends or employers. Parents or guardians can claim an account through the Trump Accounts app by verifying their identity and relationship to the child, reviewing the account information and accepting its terms.

Automatic enrollment does not automatically provide the federal government’s one-time $1,000 contribution. That payment is available to eligible children born from 2025 through 2028, but families must elect to receive it and claim the account.

The temporary rules also permit donations of individual stocks, expanding earlier guidelines that allowed only diversified, low-cost funds. According to Treasury, donated shares generally must be held for five years before they can be sold.

Other private funding may be available to some children. Michael and Susan Dell have committed $6.25 billion to provide $250 for eligible children born from 2016 through 2024 in ZIP codes with median incomes of $150,000 or less.