Trump Accounts are savings vehicles for foster children. They build financial safety nets. Advocates think this might work if the accounts become flexible and accessible. Two words that have never described government programs for vulnerable populations.
The accounts carry the name of a former president. This will definitely not become politically awkward or require rebranding in five years. Nothing says long-term financial stability like attaching your nest egg to someone's approval rating.
Foster children need money when they age out of the system. That part makes sense. The solution is giving them accounts with concerns about flexibility and accessibility. So we invented a savings account that might be hard to access and inflexible. Groundbreaking work.
Advocates say the accounts may end up being helpful as long as we fix the things that would make them not helpful. This is like saying a parachute works great as long as it opens. The bar for financial innovation sits so low you could trip over it.
The average foster kid ages out with nowhere to go and nothing saved. Now they'll have nowhere to go and a restricted account they maybe can't touch. Progress looks different than I remembered.
Concerns about accessibility mean the money might be locked up when kids need it most. Flexibility issues mean the funds might come with strings attached. We took the one thing foster children don't have—options—and built it into their savings plan.
But sure, name it after a president. That's the part that matters. Every struggling eighteen-year-old leaving the system wants their emergency fund to double as a political statement. The accounts may help build a safety net, assuming we address every single thing wrong with them first.
Photo by Gautam Krishnan on Unsplash
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