Trump Accounts will focus on the S&P 500 to keep investing “as simple as possible,” said Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev.
In an interview with CNBC released on Wednesday, Tenev was asked whether Trump Accounts users will only have the option to invest in the S&P 500 via the platform in the long term. Trump Accounts are investment accounts for children, launched by the Trump Administration in July.
“That’s correct,” Tenev replied. “Right now, you can get the S&P 500 through a low-cost ETF provided by State Street.” State Street is a financial services and investment management company based in Boston.
“And we wanted to make it as easy as possible for every American, starting at birth, to get access to the great American economy, to get ownership of these companies from birth and see the magic of compound interest,” he added. “So we wanted to make it as simple as possible.”
The executive said that “over time,” there has been discussion about adding more investment options. But the S&P 500 index, which he called “a diversified portfolio of the most prominent companies,” is an effective way to start investing.
In April, the US Treasury designated The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation as the financial agent supporting the rollout of the Trump Accounts. The BNY partnered with Robinhood, a California-based financial services company, which would serve as the official broker for the accounts.
The accounts officially launched on July 4, and the Treasury has pledged to deposit $1,000 into the accounts of children born between 2025 and 2028.
The Treasury said in a press release on July 1 that while the State Street ETF would be the default product for all Trump Accounts, it had selected a lineup of four other low-cost index ETFs: the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF, the Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF, and the iShares Core S&P total US Stock Market ETF.
Parents and guardians will be allowed to allocate funds to these other investment products once they become available “in the coming months,” the Treasury wrote in the release.
The Trump Administration has encouraged US companies to match the government’s contributions for their employees’ children, and many, like Goldman Sachs, Micron, Bank of America, and BlackRock, have done so.
Private investors, like SpaceX’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, and her husband, contributed SpaceX stock to the accounts. Dell CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, also contributed $2.6 billion.
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