Your kid may already have an investment account. You didn't open it.

Treasury just auto-enrolled 60 million kids in Trump Accounts — IRA-style investment accounts for children. The account exists. But you’re not in control of it until you claim it, and family money can’t move until you do.

On October 1, the U.S. Treasury announced that automatic enrollment for Trump Accounts is complete. In the agency’s words: “every eligible child under the age of eighteen with a valid Social Security number now has a Trump Account” — more than 60 million more children added, on top of the millions who had already signed up.

Here’s the catch in the fine print: auto-enrolled is not taken over. The temporary federal regulations say an unclaimed account can accept only two things: charitable contributions and the $1,000 pilot deposit — and even the seed only lands if a pilot election was made. Money from family, friends, and employers cannot go in until the account is claimed and activated. So the account exists, but until you take it over, it can only receive what charities and the pilot program put in it — and you can’t manage any of it.

The one step that puts you in control

The fix is to claim the account. Treasury’s release says a parent or guardian must claim it “to manage it and allow for family members, friends, and employers to contribute.” You do it in the official Trump Accounts app (iOS and Android), where you verify your identity and your relationship to the child, review the child’s information, and accept the account terms.

One wrinkle the regulations add: claiming starts the process, but the account then has to be activated under the trustee’s instructions — only after that can the balance move and family contributions start. The claim is the key; activation turns it.

Start at the official app or TrumpAccounts.gov — nowhere else. Any time the government starts handing out money, the lookalike apps and “claim your payment here” texts show up within days. A texted link is not where this starts.

The $1,000 seed has two doors, not one

The one-time $1,000 is a pilot, not a universal payout: U.S.-citizen children born January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2028, with a valid Social Security number. And it has two requirements, not one. Treasury’s release says the account must be claimed to receive the seed — and the federal regulations say the seed can only be deposited if a pilot program election was made for the child. Treasury can’t make that election for you. So don’t treat the claim as the whole job: check the official guidance on the pilot election too.

What happens after it’s claimed

Once claimed and activated, the account opens up: parents, relatives, friends, and employers can contribute up to $5,000 a year in total — an employer can put in up to $2,500 a year per employee, counting inside the $5,000 cap. The money sits in U.S. stock index funds, and the growth period ends on December 31 of the year the child turns 17 — after that, it’s a traditional IRA.

Alex Volkov, CPA is a New York-licensed CPA with over two decades in accounting, focused on resolving IRS tax problems — back taxes, liens, levies, garnishments, and audits — for individuals and businesses nationwide.