What Ohio parents should know about Trump Accounts
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Ohio families are among the nation's earliest participants in Trump Accounts, a new federal investment program offering $1,000 to eligible babies.
Why it matters: The money is meant to give children a financial head start, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling Axios it's "the most important benefit for young people since the GI Bill."
Driving the news: The program went live in July, but the Treasury Department recently announced it had automatically established accounts for eligible children nationwide.
- Parents must still claim the accounts to manage them, allow contributions and receive the $1,000 federal payment.
By the numbers: As of July 30, Ohio had the fifth-highest percentage of early signups nationwide.
- Roughly 230,000 forms had been processed — an estimated 10% of eligible children, compared with 7.6% nationally.
How it works: Eligible U.S. citizen children born between 2025 and 2028 qualify for a one-time $1,000 government contribution invested in the stock market.
- Families and employers can contribute additional money, subject to annual limits.
Zoom in: Parents claiming accounts must verify their identities and relationship to their children.
- Robinhood, the online investing platform, is serving as the initial trustee and brokerage provider for Trump Accounts.
- The company's privacy policy says it collects information including Social Security numbers, dates of birth and government IDs, and can extract facial biometric data from submitted images to "detect/prevent fraud."
- The company says it doesn't sell Trump Account information or use it for advertising, but certain information can be shared with Treasury and service providers.
Yes, but: Not everyone is eager to sign up, owing to security concerns, and some have worried the accounts risk widening the wealth gap.
- The accounts are subject to federal financial privacy protections. Robinhood says it cannot fulfill requests to delete account information and may retain certain records for years after an account relationship ends.
The bottom line: Parents can review the program's terms and privacy policies at TrumpAccounts.gov.