December 22, 2025
Professor William Elliott III discussed children’s savings accounts — including the new Trump Accounts — with the Detroit Free Press. The Trump Accounts will give $1,000 to children born in 2025-2028, but have a number of restrictions and require families to fill out a new, additional tax form to receive the contribution.
While Elliott says the accounts are a nice start, he knows from his two decades of research that additional paperwork will substantially limit participation. Elliott favors an automatic enrollment system using social security numbers. "If they don't do automatic enrollment, you'd never get full participation or anything close to it," Elliott said.
