Trump Accounts to auto-enroll children

The Department of the Treasury said Trump Accounts will begin auto-enrolling millions of children as early as Oct. 1, according to temporary regulations published Tuesday.

The change could increase the number of children enrolled in Trump Accounts in 2026 by more than 60 million, the guidance said. In future years, the regulations could boost enrollment by about 2 million accounts a year.

So far, 7 million to 8 million American children have been signed up for Trump Accounts, and “we anticipate within a month we will have 70 million because we will go to auto-enroll,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sept. 15 at a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee.

The tax-deferred investing accounts, which launched on July 4, can include a one-time $1,000 deposit from the Treasury Department for kids born between 2025 and 2028. Other funds may also be available for qualifying families.

But because signing up for a Trump Account has required families to “opt in” by filing IRS Form 4547 with their tax return or via TrumpAccounts.gov, overall participation rates, especially among low-income families, has been low, research shows.

The Social Security Administration previously said it would introduce a process to enroll newborns at the hospital at the same time families request a Social Security number during the birth registration process. 

Auto-enrollment “would certainly reach the vast majority of parents and children,” said Madeline Brown, senior policy associate at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank.

However, “assuming that can happen, after families are enrolled there is still a lot of work to be done to build engagement and awareness,” Brown said.

Currently, “there are so many different strange ways to sign up for [Trump Accounts],” said Omeed Firouzi, a practice professor and director of the low-income taxpayer clinic at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law.

Depending on how it’s enacted, auto-enrollment could be “positive for lower-income folks,” who often face barriers to certain tax breaks and government programs, he said.

Only 5% of low- and moderate-income families — those earning up to $80,000 annually — have opened a Trump Account, according to a recent report from national nonprofit Commonwealth.

With recent IRS cuts to funding, resources and staffing, “I wonder if they have the ability to effectively do this,” Firouzi said.

But coordination between the Social Security Administration and IRS could be helped by having the same leader running both organizations, he said.

The Treasury in July announced that IRS chief executive and Social Security Administration commissioner Frank Bisignano would lead the agency’s Trump Account expansion.

Tuesday’s auto-enrollment announcement follows a new IRS hire on Friday dedicated to the program, an IRS official told CNBC. Joseph Velli, a former Bank of New York and Convergex Group executive, will serve as senior adviser to Bisignano.