Trump Accounts offer newborns US$1,000 investments

• The United States government has launched the Trump Accounts programme, under which every American baby born after 31 December 2024 is eligible to receive a one-time US$1,000 federal contribution invested in low-cost S&P 500 index funds.
• The programme went live on 4 July 2026, timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of American independence.
• Children born between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2028 who hold US citizenship and a Social Security number qualify for the US$1,000 government seed investment.

The funds are directed into broad US equity index funds tracking the S&P 500, with a mandatory cap on annual fees set at a maximum expense ratio of 0.10%.

Families and employers can contribute up to US$5,000 per year into these accounts beyond the initial government seed, with the annual cap adjusted for inflation over time.

When the account holder turns 18, the Trump Account can be converted into an Individual Retirement Account.

The programme is administered jointly by the US Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, with over four million accounts already opened by March 2026 ahead of the official launch date.

Approximately 1.5 million babies were projected to receive the seed contribution in the initial wave of the programme's rollout.

Based on historical S&P 500 returns, the initial US$1,000 seed investment is projected to grow to between US$5,800 and US$6,135 by the time the child reaches 18 years of age.

The Dell Foundation contributed US$6.25 billion in December 2025 to fund supplemental US$250 deposits for children born in eligible ZIP codes.

The programme contains no allocation to Bitcoin, cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds, or any other digital asset class, focusing exclusively on traditional equity index funds.

The scale of mandatory government contributions into S&P 500 index funds is expected to generate a steady and predictable stream of passive buying pressure in large-cap US equities.