Treasury auto-enrolled 60 million more children, but employer contributions still hinge on proposed rules, a per-employee cap and parents claiming accounts
Every eligible child in the U.S. now has a Trump Account. Whether employers put money into those accounts is a separate question, and the answer still depends on rules that aren't final.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury said on Oct. 1, 2026, that it had finished automatically enrolling eligible children in Trump Accounts, giving every eligible child under 18 with a valid Social Security number an account. President Donald Trump marked the milestone at the White House on Oct. 7, saying 70 million children are now enrolled, a figure that includes about 10 million whose parents opted in after the July 4 launch.
"Millions of children have already enrolled in Trump Accounts. With automatic enrollment, over 60 million more eligible children now have an account ready to be claimed," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
A parent or guardian still has to claim a child's account through the Trump Accounts app before family members, friends or employers can contribute, according to Treasury. Claiming is also required for children born from 2025 through 2028 to receive the one-time $1,000 federal seed deposit. Children born before 2025 have accounts but don't get the seed money.
That puts part of the work on employees. An employer contribution can't land in an account a parent hasn't claimed.
What employers can offer
Trump Accounts were created under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and total contributions are capped at $5,000 per child per year. Under Section 128 of the Internal Revenue Code, employers can contribute up to $2,500 a year without that money counting as taxable income to the employee.
That $2,500 limit applies per employee, not per child, under proposed regulations the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released on Aug. 11, 2026. A parent with three children doesn't get three exclusions.
The proposal also confirms a route that requires no direct employer contribution. Employees can make pretax contributions to a dependent child's Trump Account through a Section 125 cafeteria plan, the same structure many employers already use for health flexible spending accounts and dependent care. The pretax option doesn't apply to an employee's own Trump Account, and employees can change or revoke their elections at least monthly, going forward only.
The compliance work behind it
Employers that contribute would need to run a formal Trump Account contribution program. Under the proposal, that means a separate written plan, notices to eligible employees, annual statements, verification that money goes to a valid Trump Account and reporting to the account trustee. The program would also have to pass nondiscrimination testing so it doesn't favor highly compensated employees.
The U.S. Department of Labor cleared one hurdle on June 18, 2026, when it issued Technical Release 2026-02 saying employer contributions to Trump Accounts are generally not subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
The IRS rules are still proposed. They would apply to plan years beginning after final regulations are published, though employers may rely on the proposed version for earlier plan years. A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Oct. 15.
Where employers stand
Interest has been slow to turn into action. A February 2026 Mercer poll found nearly 16 percent of employers planned to offer Trump Account funding or were actively considering it, roughly 30 percent were undecided and more than half didn't expect to act.
When HRD looked at what employers needed to know as Trump Accounts went live in July, Sharon Freilich, a partner at Pullman & Comley in Hartford, Connecticut, said payroll providers and banks were still building the infrastructure. She also said demand would likely track demographics, with younger workforces raising children more interested than older ones.
The timing lands in the middle of open enrollment for 2027, as HR teams also deal with expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies pushing workers toward employer health plans. A pretax Section 125 election adds a family savings option without new employer spending, provided the cafeteria plan document is updated to describe it.
A direct contribution is a bigger call. Employers will need to price it like any other benefit and weigh it against everything else on the list, the same exercise as budgeting for more employee benefit offerings in any plan year. Until the rules are final, many employers may decide the cafeteria plan route is the safer first step.
