Dj Wall Street Wants In On The 'Trump Accounts' For Babies

By Gunjan Banerji, Alexander Saeedy and Hannah Erin Lang

It took four years — and one important poker game — but a plan to set up investment accounts for young Americans is moving forward. And Wall Street senses an opportunity.

All manner of financial institutions are vying for a role in the program, from banks such as JPMorgan Chase to brokerages such as Charles Schwab and Robinhood Markets to money managers including BlackRock.

The U.S. will seed each of the "Trump Accounts" with $1,000, costing $15 billion through 2034, and tech billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, said Tuesday they would donate $6.25 billion to expand the reach of the initiative.

Participating financial firms likely would earn lower management fees than their typical rates, but the program would be a potential gateway to acquire millions of new customers the companies hope will stay with them into adulthood and grow their accounts over time.

"I've heard from a number of them that they would all love to be a part of it," Michael Dell said in an interview.

Many of the largest banks, brokers and asset managers plan to make pitches to the Treasury Department. The agency already is seeking proposals from firms including Schwab and Robinhood to oversee the Trump accounts' records and perform administrative tasks, people familiar with the matter said.

One priority for the government is to offer low-fee investment options.

"We have given the president and Treasury our assurances that Robinhood can dedicate the technology and capital to making these accounts as robust and intuitive as possible," Robinhood Chief Executive Vlad Tenev said in a statement.

The idea underpinning the "Trump Accounts" was hatched by Brad Gerstner, the venture capitalist and founder of Altimeter Capital, who has been working on it since at least 2021. Though he had support from some Democrats, he said in an interview that he had little luck getting an audience with former President Joe Biden.

Last year, professional poker player Phil Hellmuth was at a tournament at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas when he turned to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) around 2 a.m. and asked: "Hey, have you heard about my buddy, Brad Gerstner?" Hellmuth told Cruz that Gerstner, a regular at a Silicon Valley game he frequents, was trying to bring stock investment accounts to young Americans through an outfit called Invest America.

Hellmuth connected Cruz and Gerstner on a text chain, Gerstner said, and days later the investor was in the senator's office trying to hash out the policy. "In many ways it was my life's work," Gerstner said. "I started with nothing. I know how it feels."

In June, Gerstner and his Invest America group gathered at the White House for a roundtable event with President Trump, Dell, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, Robinhood's Tenev and others. At the event, Trump called the initiative — which by then had been named "Trump Accounts" — one of the most exciting parts of the tax bill he would sign into law in July.

Tenev created a mock-up of what the accounts on his app might look like, and posted on X that the platform was "ready to go."

Anthony Denier, chief executive of competing brokerage Webull, said ever since he heard about the plan, he has been trying to roll out accounts for individuals under 18 to put the company in a position to participate.

The government intends to open an online portal in mid-2026 where parents and guardians can sign up their children for accounts. The accounts initially will be held and created by the Treasury's designated financial agent. The Treasury is creating an app that will be designed by Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb, allowing individuals to invest. The accounts will be "portable" to other institutions such as retail brokerages, Dell said.

Large exchange-traded funds that track market indexes and are offered by firms such as BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street already charge superlow fees, with many set at less than a 10th of a percentage point. The Treasury Department is considering choosing an exchange-traded fund or working with firms to potentially create a market-tracking fund with no fees, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

"We're going to start every American on a compounding journey from year zero," Gerstner said. "It's going to be a total game-changer."

A Schwab spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the company is seeking a role in the Trump accounts. "We have always told every administration that anything we can do to help savers and investors in the country, we will do," Rick Wurster, Schwab's chief executive, said Tuesday in an interview.

Wall Street is particularly excited by the possibility of rollover accounts for the Trump program, which would allow any recipient to move money into a financial institution of their choosing.

"J. P. Morgan has been in touch with Treasury and welcomes the opportunity to make Trump account rollovers available to our customers," said Kristin Lemkau, head of J.P. Morgan Wealth Management.

Dell said he first learned about Invest America in 2021 from Gerstner. The Dell Technologies chief executive spoke with his wife about the investment accounts, and she loved the idea, too.

He spoke with other philanthropists ahead of his Tuesday announcement, and was expecting others to make gifts as well. Other prominent Wall Street investors have championed similar ideas in the past. Hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman once proposed giving every child born in the U.S. a $7,000 investment account to address the country's retirement crisis.

"I'm confident that we'll see others make announcements of significant gifts," Dell said.

Gerstner said a Super Bowl ad promoting the program was under consideration.

Write to Gunjan Banerji at gunjan.banerji@wsj.com, Alexander Saeedy at alexander.saeedy@wsj.com and Hannah Erin Lang at hannaherin.lang@wsj.com