Trump Accounts just launched with billions in backing, but most employers haven't decided whether to add this employee benefit
Trump Accounts officially launched on July 4, and the numbers are already startling.
Families have enrolled 6.5 million children as of a July 10 U.S. Treasury Department tally, and Social Security Administration commissioner Frank Bisignano in Washington has said he wants to see that number climb toward 70 million kids under 18. Add in a $6.25 billion pledge from Michael and Susan Dell of Dell Technologies in Austin, Texas, to seed accounts for 25 million additional children, and it's clear this new savings vehicle has momentum behind it.
What's less clear is what employers should do about it now.
“Employers do not have enough information to add Trump Account funding to their benefits arsenal at this time,” said Sharon Freilich.
Freilich, a partner at Pullman & Comley in Hartford, Connecticut, who practices in the firm's labor, employment law and employee benefits department, published a detailed breakdown of the employer side of Trump Accounts earlier this month. She says the enthusiasm around the program hasn't yet translated into a clear playbook for HR and benefits teams trying to figure out if, or how, to offer it.
“I don’t know to what extent this will be a benefit that’s a must have, because it’s so new. But there’s a lot of excitement around Trump Accounts,” she said.
What a Trump Account actually does
A Trump Account is a tax advantaged investment account for children under 18, created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The federal government seeds accounts with $1,000 for children born between 2025 and 2028, and parents, relatives, employers and others can contribute up to $5,000 a year combined. Like most new benefits, Trump Accounts will need to earn their place in the lineup.
One thing working in its favor is the tax treatment. Section 128, the part of the tax code authorizing employer contributions to Trump Accounts for employee's dependents. Section 128 lets employers contribute up to $2,500 per employee, either directly or through payroll deferral, without that money counting as taxable income to the employee. For Freilich, that pretax structure is the real selling point.
“That’s $2,500 employees are not paying income tax on, and that could be a boon to the family,” she said. Direct contributions to Trump Accounts by individuals are taxable.
The wealth building potential compounds over time. Even without maxing out the annual limit, Freilich says a child could have a significant sum waiting when they turn 18. Under the program's rules, that money can go toward education, a first home, or starting a business.
Why many employers are still on the sidelines
The excitement hasn't translated into fast adoption, and Freilich says that's mostly an implementation problem. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Treasury Department haven't yet issued formal regulations spelling out how employer contributions under Section 128 are supposed to work in practice, even though a separate set of proposed rules already exists for the accounts themselves.
Freilich lays out exactly where the gaps are.
“The vendors and banks may not yet be set up to facilitate Trump accounts,” Freilich said. “All the infrastructure that needs to happen isn’t in place yet. For example, payroll providers may not be able to code a salary deferral as a Trump Account contribution in their system.”
Banks, other financial institutions, and payroll systems all need to catch up at the same time. That means even employers eager to move quickly are stuck waiting on both the vendors and additional IRS guidance before they can finalize a program.
Deciding whether it fits your workforce
For employers who already run a Section 125 cafeteria plan, adding a Trump Account option may take less setup work than starting from scratch. Freilich says the first step is a conversation with the plan's existing vendor, since most of the infrastructure already used for pretax health premiums and dependent care assistance reimbursement can extend to a Trump Account program once the vendor supports it.
Workforce demographics matter too. Understanding what benefits employees want most often comes down to who's on the payroll, and Trump Accounts are no different.
“If your employee population skews older and isn’t raising children, then maybe it will not be as popular a benefit,” Freilich said. “But if you have a younger workforce, then the ability for your employees to make pretax contributions to a Trump account might be very attractive, and it’s not that expensive to add to a cafeteria plan you already have.”
A Mercer poll conducted in February 2026 found that nearly 16% of employers plan to offer Trump Account funding, or are actively considering it, while more than half said they don't expect to take any action and roughly 30% remain undecided. That mix of interest and inaction lines up with Freilich's own read of the landscape: plenty of curiosity, but still a lot of uncertainty about the mechanics.
A benefit built on momentum
The corporate and philanthropic activity around Trump Accounts has been building, including the Dell family's pledge and a growing list of company and state commitments. Freilich thinks that kind of momentum could help the benefit become more widely expected over time. Building financial wellness into the benefits package has become a bigger priority industrywide, and Trump Accounts fit squarely into that trend.
“I think it’s a very exciting program,” Freilich said. “I hope folks won’t trip over the fact that they’re called Trump accounts, because they really have a lot of potential for young people and a lot of potential for getting folks in the habit of saving.”
For now, the regulatory picture is still catching up, and so are the vendors. Until then, understanding how the benefit works now means employers can move quickly once the rules and infrastructure are in place.
