A baby born in 2025 or later can now start life with $1,000 already invested in her name, courtesy of the federal government. The catch is that the money does not show up on its own. A parent has to claim it, and right now millions of families either have not done so yet or are still waiting for the deposit to land.
What a Trump Account actually is
Trump Accounts were created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and launched on July 4, 2026. They are tax-advantaged, IRA-style investment accounts for children under 18. The headline feature is a one-time $1,000 federal seed deposit for eligible children, but the account is designed to keep growing for years after that first deposit lands.
The IRS reports that about 4 million children have already been signed up, and about 1 million have claimed the $1,000 seed. That gap is worth noticing. It means many families started the process but have not finished claiming the money, and some who did claim it are still waiting for the deposit to post to the account.
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Which babies qualify for the $1,000 seed
The seed deposit is available for U.S.-citizen children born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028. The child also needs a Social Security number to qualify. If your child was born inside that four-year window, or is born before the end of 2028, the $1,000 is on the table for your family.
This is a limited window, not a permanent program feature. A child born before 2025 does not qualify for the seed, and neither does one born after 2028 under the current rules. For parents expecting a child in the next couple of years, that timing is simply part of the picture worth knowing.
If you are not sure whether your child qualifies, the two things to check are the birth date and the Social Security number. A child born inside the 2025 through 2028 window who has a Social Security number is eligible for the seed. If the Social Security number has not been issued yet, sorting that out is the first practical step, because the claim cannot go through without it.
How to claim the seed: Form 4547 or trumpaccounts.gov
This is the part families miss most often. The money is not automatic, and it does not arrive through birth registration at the hospital or the county. To claim the seed, you either file IRS Form 4547 with your 2025 tax return or register at trumpaccounts.gov. If you do neither, the $1,000 simply does not get deposited.
Because the account is tied directly to that paperwork, it is worth confirming your claim went through rather than assuming it did. If you filed the form or registered online and no deposit has appeared, you are not necessarily doing anything wrong; some deposits are still working through the system. Official updates on the program are posted at the IRS newsroom.
The $5,000 a year you can add on top
Beyond the government’s seed, families may contribute up to $5,000 a year to a Trump Account. Up to $2,500 of that annual amount can come from an employer, which means some parents may be able to build the balance faster through a workplace benefit rather than out of their own pocket alone.
Those contributions are the real engine of the account. A single $1,000 deposit is a nice start, but it is the years of added contributions, invested and compounding, that turn a modest seed into something that matters by the time a child is grown. Even smaller regular deposits, well under the annual cap, add up over 18 years.
It is worth asking your employer whether they offer a Trump Account contribution as a benefit, since the law allows up to $2,500 of the annual total to come from an employer. Not every workplace will, but for those that do, it is essentially extra money toward your child’s future that does not come out of your own paycheck. Even if your employer does not participate, you can still contribute up to the $5,000 annual limit yourself, and it is perfectly fine to start small.
What happens when the child turns 18
Until the child turns 18, the money is invested in low-cost U.S. stock index funds. After 18, the account follows the same rules as a traditional IRA. In practice, that means the balance is meant to stay invested and keep growing for decades, not to be spent during childhood.
For a working family, the appeal is straightforward. A child can reach adulthood with an investment account that has been compounding since birth, seeded with $1,000 that no one in the household had to save themselves. But none of that begins until someone claims the money, so if you have an eligible child, the first step is checking whether the seed has actually been claimed and deposited.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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