In the News

Cash on Delivery: The Movement to Give Every American a Trust Fund at Birth

Published on Boston.com: February 1, 2009
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow

TRUST FUNDS, IN the popular imagination, go along with Park Avenue addresses, weekend jaunts to Paris, and summer as a verb. Like a private SAT tutor or a boarding-school diploma, a trust fund symbolizes the enormous edge enjoyed by the rich before adulthood even starts.

But a growing movement argues that every baby should be a trust fund baby: a modest trust fund should be a basic right, like education and adequate nutrition. By opening a savings account for every American newborn, the thinking goes, the government would give all citizens a foothold in the financial system, as well as access to a nest egg, however small...

In Oklahoma, Sherraden's center is affiliated with a pilot project in which more than 1,000 randomly selected newborns received "seed accounts" with a $1,000 initial deposit invested in a mix of stocks and bonds. The family is eligible for some matching money, depending on income. At 18, the accountholder will be able to use the funds for higher education. The project, funded primarily by the Ford Foundation, started in 2007, and the beneficiaries will be monitored to see if the accounts increase their likelihood of attending college.

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