Social Security

A. Purpose

The purpose of this emergency message (EM) is to inform technicians about the availability of a new type of resource, Trump Accounts (TAs), and provide documentation instructions for SSI purposes.

A Trump Account (TA) is a tax-advantaged investment account that is established for children and structured similar to a traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA), with special rules that change during the life cycle of the account. TAs are established for the benefit of children and are designed to promote long-term savings. In general, up to $5,000 (adjusted for inflation) can be contributed per year per child, and contributions are invested in low-cost index funds. A federal pilot program provides a $1,000 contribution to the TAs of eligible children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028. A TA beneficiary may have only one TA at a time. More information on TAs is available at trumpaccounts.gov

The income and resource treatment of TAs changes during the life cycle of the account based on the age of the account beneficiary. During the “growth period” of the account, which begins when the initial TA is established and ends on December 31 of the calendar year in which the account beneficiary attains age 17:
· The entire value of a TA is not a resource for SSI purposes.
· Distributions generally are not permitted.
NOTE: The following transactions do not count as distributions: rollovers to other TAs, rollovers to ABLE accounts (only available in the year of age-17 attainment), removal of excess contributions (e.g., over the $5,000 annual limit), and distributions upon the death of the account beneficiary.
· First-party and third-party contributions made directly to the account are generally not income; however, an account beneficiary cannot avoid income counting by direct depositing funds into a TA. For example, a person could not direct deposit their Social Security benefits into a TA to prevent them from counting as unearned Social Security income for SSI purposes.
NOTE: A beneficiary with a representative payee cannot have his or her benefits paid via direct deposit into a TA during the growth period, when distributions generally are not permitted. Due to TA distribution restrictions, the representative payee generally would not be able to use the benefits to provide for the beneficiary’s current needs (see GN 00602.001A.2)
· Contributions to eligible accounts made by the federal government through the Pilot program are not income.

Special development will apply to TAs in and around the calendar years the account beneficiary turns age 17 (to develop potential ABLE rollovers) and 18 (to remove the TA resource exclusion) when applicable.
Policy guidance will follow, providing processing instructions for the special development periods and the income and resource treatment of TAs during the “post-growth period.” Meanwhile, follow the instructions in this EM to document TAs.

While developing resources during initial claims, redeterminations, and change reports for children applying for or receiving SSI:
1. Document the TA on the “Other Resources” page when account ownership is alleged.
· Accept the parent, guardian, or payee’s allegation about the establishment of a TA, and obtain an estimated account value.
· Record the allegation on an “Other Resources” page by selecting “Trump Account (TA)” from the type drop-down menu. In the “Description” field, include the alleged account custodian (e.g., “authorized individual” or “responsible party”), the financial institution administering the account, and the account number if known. See MS 08113.032 for more information on the Other Resources page.

NOTE: Account custodians are not co-owners; the account beneficiary owns the account and funds.

· Enter the entire alleged account value in the “Excluded Amount” field on the Other Resources Page. Use exclusion reason “Trump account (TA).”

2. Post an RT diary to control for future development.
· From the Direct SSR Update Menu (UMEN), manually post an RT diary on the Update Diaries (UDIA) screen. Set the maturity date for January 1 of the calendar year the child will attain age 17.
· Input the following SSR remarks, “RT - [insert maturity date 1/1/xx] Age 17 TA/ABLE Rollover development”

Example:
In a 7/10/26 initial application for a disabled child born 10/1/25, the CS learns from the child’s mother that she made a TA election for the child when she filed her taxes, listing herself as the “authorized individual” and “responsible party” who would oversee the account. No contributions have been made, but she alleges the government is putting $1,000 into the account. The CS lists the TA on the “Other Resources” page, notes the mother as the account custodian in the description, and then posts and excludes the $1,000 alleged balance in July 2026 and continuing with the other exclusion reason annotated as “TA.” The CS adds an RT diary to the record with a maturity of 010142, then annotates in the SSR remarks field “RT-01/01/42 Age 17 TA/ABLE Rollover development.”

Direct all program-related and technical questions to your Regional Office (RO) support staff using vHelp. RO support staff may refer questions, concerns or problems to their Central Office contacts.