By Amy Matsui, NWLC | June 2026

In Chinese and many East Asian cultures, jade symbolizes wealth and prosperity. When my daughter was born, an aunt and uncle sent a jade pendant, which to this day she keeps in her jewelry box and wears on special occasions.

As a mom, I was touched by this lovely gift of jewelry and the wishes of good fortune for my baby girl that it represented. As a policy expert, however, I knew that building wealth requires more than a gem in a silk pouch, no matter how lovely. And for many children—especially girls and Black and Latino children—the barriers to building wealth are not just personal, but structural.

While our family is relatively privileged, my daughter will encounter systemic barriers to building wealth that my son simply will not.  On average, women are paid less than men, have higher student loan debt, and disproportionately shoulder unpaid caregiving responsibilities in their households. 

The situation is compounded for women of color, who face the double bind of racial and gender discrimination. The result is staggering wealth disparities: in 2022, Black women owned only 8 cents in wealth for every $1 a single white man owned in 2022. For Latinas, that gap is 14 cents. 

There are real policy solutions that could narrow these historically wide wealth gaps, including expanding access to student loan forgiveness, raising wages, implementing universal child care, investing in care for aging and disabled family members, creating a national paid leave policy, or making more affordable housing available. We also have policies that directly address the unequal distribution of wealth itself. Initiatives like Baby Bonds provide children from economically disenfranchised backgrounds with a meaningful opportunity to build wealth. 

Disappointingly, if unsurprisingly, the Trump administration chose none of those paths. Instead, it is championing 530A accounts, known as “Trump Accounts.”

These “Trump Accounts” were enacted as part of H.R. 1, or the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, last summer. This new law is expected to spike poverty rates after making historic cuts to health care and food assistance that will disproportionately hurt women and children. These cuts were made to offset tax breaks for the wealthiest people and corporations, and to fund the administration’s cruel anti-immigrant policies.

530A accounts are tax-advantaged savings accounts that parents can open on behalf of their children. The government will make a one-time $1,000 seed contribution to accounts for babies born between 2025 and 2028, but will not make any further deposits. Other family members, employers, or philanthropists, however, can contribute up to a total of $5,000 per year, every year, until the child turns 18. 

The administration presents these accounts as a pathway to financial security and wealth-building. In reality, they are structured to reward families that already have wealth to invest. Because contributions beyond the initial $1,000 depend on parents, relatives, employers, or philanthropists, children from wealthier families are positioned to receive far greater benefits than children whose families are already struggling to make ends meet. 

In fact, 530A accounts will not only fail to narrow racial and gender wealth gaps—they will make them larger. That’s because families with lower incomes—among whom women-headed households and families of color are overrepresented—will likely not have the extra money available to invest in their children’s accounts, especially in light of H.R. 1’s profound cuts to basic needs programs, the administration’s tariffs, and the rising cost of gas and other necessities. Meanwhile, families with means could contribute the maximum every year, and are also more likely to benefit from employer contributions. 

The administration’s own projections show that these disparities could grow to nearly $300,000 by the time a child turns 18. This could put children belonging to already-wealthy families hundreds of thousands of dollars further ahead of children from lower- and moderate-income families at age 18.

In this country, wealth begets wealth, which means those without a wealth cushion have fewer opportunities to start their own businesses, own their own homes, attain higher education, and experience economic mobility.

Policymakers have a responsibility to create policies that, unlike my daughter’s jade pendant, give every child—not just those born into wealth—the opportunity to build the wealth that will help them thrive. That means investing in solutions that could help narrow the wealth gap, rather than promoting policies that will make this problem even worse.