Trump Accounts (530A) are open only to children under current law – but that could become a question for Congress. On Tuesday, October 20, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said he will lead a bill in the Senate to raise the age limit so that Americans under 40 could have the accounts, per his office's statement. Hours later, asked in the Oval Office whether the accounts could expand to adults, President Trump said the White House is "looking at something as an alternative."
No bill text has been released, and nothing about the accounts has changed. Here is what has been said so far and what the rules allow today.
What Sen. Moreno said
Moreno's office described the statement as being about "the expansion of eligibility for Trump Accounts to all Americans under 40" and said he "will lead the effort in the Senate to make it happen." In his post on X, he wrote: "Raising the age limit will give hardworking Americans powerful new tools to buy homes, wipe out student debt, and invest in their own futures."
The statement does not say when a bill would be introduced, whether adults would receive any deposit like the $1,000 seed for children born 2025-2028, what the contribution limit would be or how the money could be used.
Where the under-40 idea came from
The proposal surfaced in a New York Post report published October 19. Per the Post, Brad Gerstner of Invest America, a longtime backer of the accounts, is pushing for legislation that would open them to Americans under 40 – about 100 million more people, by his estimate. Coverage of the report describes possible uses including retirement, education, and starting a business – but no legislative text has been published, so none of those details is settled.
What the President said
Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence asked the President whether Trump Accounts could expand to adults. "Well, we haven't thought of it. We're looking at something as an alternative," the President answered, per a transcript of the exchange and video posted by Forbes. Later in the same answer he said, "We are looking at something different." He did not describe what an adult version would look like, and neither the White House nor Treasury has published anything about one.
Changing who can have a Trump Account would take an act of Congress. Under the statute, section 530A of the tax code, eligibility is written around children, and Treasury's regulations follow it.
Who can have a Trump Account today
Under section 530A and Treasury's temporary regulations (TD 10056), an account may be set up for a child who has not turned 18 before the end of the calendar year of the election and who has a Social Security number valid for employment. An adult cannot open one for themselves.
Treasury estimates the temporary regulations cover 73 million children in 44 million families, and on October 1 Treasury announced that every eligible child under 18 with a valid Social Security number now has an account. Our reporting on older children's eligibility explains the age cutoff in detail.
What happens to an account at 18
An account does not end when its owner grows up. A Trump Account is a traditional IRA with special rules, and most of those rules apply only during the growth period, which ends on December 31 of the year the child turns 17. After that, the rules for traditional IRAs generally apply. Our explainer on what happens when a Trump Account owner turns 18 walks through that change.
So a young adult may hold a Trump Account opened when they were a child – but no one can open a new one as an adult today. Adults who want a tax-advantaged way to save already have options such as traditional and Roth IRAs, which generally require taxable compensation, per the IRS, and 529 plans – our colleagues at SavingForCollege.com explain how 529 plans work.
What to watch
The next concrete step would be bill text: who would qualify, whether any government money would come with an adult account, what the contribution limits and investment rules would be, and when withdrawals would be allowed. We will report the details when a bill is introduced.
For families with children, nothing changes in the meantime. To see which employer matches, state programs and philanthropic gifts may apply to your child's account, use the Match & Bonus Finder.