Treasury taps BNY and Robinhood to run Trump Accounts for kids

The U.S. Treasury Department has selected Bank of New York Mellon as the designated financial agent to build and oversee the infrastructure for Trump Accounts, the government-seeded children's investment program created under last year's landmark OBBBA tax legislation, with the custody giant enlisting fintech brokerage Robinhood Markets as its operating partner.

Robinhood will bring its consumer technology capabilities to bear on the project, developing a dedicated app that will serve as the primary portal for millions of American families.

The platform is being built as a custom, white-label product designed exclusively for Treasury, the federal department said Monday, meaning neither BNY nor Robinhood branding will appear on the finished interface. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

The pairing of a centuries-old custody institution with a more modern retail brokerage built on accessibility reflects the program's dual mandate: institutional reliability and mass-market reach.

BNY's long relationship with Treasury stretches back to the 18th century, when the bank provided the federal government with its first loan. Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev, who at one point last year proposed that investing could fill a post-AI labor void – said the firm's task is "to provide the next generation of Americans with a world-class, intuitive platform to jump-start their financial future."

As of March 31, more than 4 million children had been enrolled, with roughly one million of those eligible for the Treasury's $1,000 pilot program deposit. The accounts are scheduled to go live on July 4. Parents can enroll children and elect the seed funding now at TrumpAccounts.gov or by filing IRS Form 4547 with their 2025 tax return.

Treasury confirmed it will retain operational control of the app and the initial accounts. However, within a year, families will be able to roll accounts over to other financial institutions – a portability provision that will eventually allow competing custodians, including independent broker-dealers and RIAs, to bring these accounts onto their own platforms.

Recap: How the accounts work

Trump Accounts were established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. All children under 18 with a Social Security number are eligible to open an account, but only U.S. citizens born between 2025 and 2028 qualify for the $1,000 federal seed deposit.

The annual contribution limit is $5,000 per child from all private sources, and the government's $1,000 contribution does not count against that cap. Employers may also contribute up to $2,500 per year per employee on a tax-free basis under IRC Section 128, and contributions from qualifying charitable and government entities are similarly excluded from the annual limit.

Several companies and prominent names have already pledged to help fund the accounts in various capacities, including Robinhood and Schwab, BlackRock, centibillionaire Michael Dell and his wife, and hedge fund icon Ray Dalio.

Investments are tightly constrained. Funds must be held in index-tracking mutual funds or ETFs composed primarily of U.S. equities, with expense ratios below 0.1% and no use of leverage. Withdrawals are generally not permitted before January 1 of the year in which the beneficiary turns 18, at which point the account converts to a traditional IRA and is governed by standard IRA distribution rules, including the 10% early withdrawal penalty for distributions taken before age 59½.

Contributions to Trump Accounts are not tax-deductible, but they are not included in the beneficiary's taxable income. Advisors should note that only private, out-of-pocket contributions from individuals such as parents or grandparents create tax basis. The government seed money, employer contributions, and charitable deposits do not create basis and will be fully taxable upon withdrawal along with all earnings.

Read more: NAIFA to IRS: Trump accounts' success will depend on advisors

For advisors, the enrollment window is open now, and the straightforward cost-benefit case – a free $1,000 government deposit and decades of tax-deferred compounding – supports the argument for eligible client families to take early action.