Trump Accounts vs 529 vs Custodial Roth: Which Wins for Your Grandkids

DANO WEIR: By July 4th, 2026, the federal government could be handing your young grandkid $1,000 to invest today on It's All Money. We're going to be talking about the three mistakes that high net worth families might be making with, brace yourself, Trump Accounts.

DANO WEIR: Financial confidence for your hip pocket. Money is really just energy. If you're checking out It's All Money.

DANO WEIR: Hey, welcome to It's All Money, powered by Sonoma Wealth Advisors. We are in the Sonoma Wealth Conference Room on the Sonoma Square. My name is Dan O'Weir. I'm the Marketing Director, and I'm joined by our co-founder, our Managing Principal, Darren Blonsky, CFP. And Darren, this is the official name of the account.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So we have- I feel like there's a lot of official names coming out these days that start with T.

DANO WEIR: Yeah.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: I don't know. Is it just me or- He does no branding. He does no branding. I think there's a new passport coming out. I've heard two even.

DANO WEIR: He used to sell bottled water, shoe, and steaks. But now he's got accounts, Trump Accounts. We're talking about these retirement accounts, college accounts for kids today. What are they?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Sort of and sort of. Yeah, they could be a really great tool, and they could also be a really painful tool if not used appropriately. Like all things, there's the headline, and then there's... Like our friend Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story. We're going to dive into some of the rest of the story today on these guys, but they can be a really powerful tool.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: The challenge for people who are in states like New Jersey, California, for sure California, California doesn't seem to be playing by the same set of rules. Shocking, right? There is a spat going on between our governor and Trump at this point, so I think the politics are of it that... Anyone who wants a Trump account here in California needs to pay attention to what we're about to say.

DANO WEIR: I'm glad you said the P word politics because we actually don't represent that here at the firm. We're agnostic. So this episode is neither an endorsement of or a denigration for of the Trump Accounts. We're talking about the reality. We're talking about, you know, this exists. It's happening.

DANO WEIR: It's coming. They're even potentially going to give you some free money. So how can you handle it as a high net worth family? And what are the realities of their official name, which is a 530A account? That's how the IRS is. That's right. Adding them. So let's start with a little bit of the backstory.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Why don't we just call them 530A accounts just like 529s and 401ks? It's too simple.

DANO WEIR: Not the same. 530A.gov is not as cool as Trumpaccounts.gov apparently.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Apparently.

DANO WEIR: So.

DANO WEIR: Let's run back the history real quick of where these came from, what they're all about. This was part of the, quote, big, beautiful bills. Another branding. We all got all kinds of names back in July 2025, which had a ton of tax legislation in it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: I just want to know, with the next president, depending on who it is, if by one executive order, the names of all these things get changed with one signature.

DANO WEIR: So this was rolled into that big bill.

DANO WEIR: And was the brainchild of Senator Ted Cruz, but it also has its roots in a similar proposal by Senator Cory Booker or something called baby bonds. So this idea, the roots of this are on both sides of the aisle.

DANO WEIR: And in general, what they're trying to solve for is, Hey, maybe you shouldn't be just counting on Social Security at the end of the day. Maybe we need to teach people about investing early on and maybe the government can help them do that. So I think that's what they're going.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And there's a larger arc here too, Dan, I think in. What you'll start seeing more and more of in politics and decisions getting made by our politicians.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Americans aren't having babies anymore for lots of reasons. There's a lot less babies than there used to be in all countries across the world. America is actually in better shape than some of the other countries because of the immigration flow, but we're not having babies anymore.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And so the larger arc of this from a demographic perspective is that Politicians are trying to do stuff to induce and support families, right? We saw this happen in Russia, right? Russia just passed or made some law. They're going to pay women to stay home and have babies or something like that, right? Like, don't want to trigger anyone there.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But like there's, there is things changing demographically because there's just not the population reproduction that we need to replace our current systems, right? Because if we don't have more babies coming out, To pay more Social Security dollars, guess what? Our retirees have no Social Security. So unless we all have babies to pay for our Social Security money, not happening.

DANO WEIR: Yes, this is delicate territory. It is really delicate territory. We're trying to cover the whole. But I think it's important. You've got to paint the picture. You've got to paint the whole background, the tableau, before you really get into it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And you've got to understand the demographic context of it, right? I think often Trump does these things that are bombastic. Is inflammatory to people who don't support him.

DANO WEIR: He likes to draw a lot of attention, and this is certainly trying to do that.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But if we look under that, there is some good intention here, right? Like you mentioned, you've got Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Cory Booker, opposite sides of the aisle, both trying to solve for the same issue, and that is how do we support families? Because we need more families to create. Reproduction in society.

DANO WEIR: So what is a Trump account? A 530A account? It's an investment account for a minor. It allows anyone, a parent, a grandparent, a family friend, and in some cases, even an employer to contribute up to $5,000 a year in an investment account for a minor.

DANO WEIR: The employer piece is certain large employers like NVIDIA are saying, if our employees fund this account, we'll match. So there is some employment and there is sort of a 401k type aspect to it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So this pause there for a SEC, because I think this is important just to structure the conversation because it can get really in the weeds. There's a lot of misinformation and there's a lot of really confusing information.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Even when you look at the actual rules, no one really knows how this is going to lay out. The easiest way to think of this, if you understand what a traditional IRA is, it's basically a traditional IRA with some funding exceptions.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Meaning you're allowed to start a traditional IRA earlier and there's some changes to those rules that allow you to do that, which are really important, which can be really helpful for saving and building a wealth engine for your children and grandchildren, loved ones, whatever. But you got to know the rules.

DANO WEIR: Some of those rules include the investment must be in low cost, broad based US equity index funds.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So you're not going to YOLO this thing into fart coin, Dan. I'm sorry.

DANO WEIR: This is not going into polymarket.

DANO WEIR: The expense ratio is capped at one at 0.1 percent no active management no sector funds no international u.s equities only zero withdrawals before 18 no exceptions not for college not for medical not for anything and at 18 the account converts to a traditional IRA there in just one caveat there is some questions being asked out there about making this an able account for a child with a disability.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So there's some nuance there. But generally you should put the money in and expect that kid cannot touch it till 18. And even if they touch it 18, that to be real, the tax penalties are going to be significant. So money that goes into these accounts needs to be money that you're not going to need for a very long, long time.

DANO WEIR: The custodian is, it's all going to live at BNY Mellon. However, once the account is created, it can be rolled.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So we're yet to see which firms are going to offer that. We don't know. Yeah.

DANO WEIR: The thousand dollar government seed contribution so the government is saying if you were a child born between January 1 2025 and December 3rd 31st 2028 so basically in the next three years we're in the midst of it right now babies right now basically people who are born during that period right are going to get a thousand dollar government seed contribution think the stimulus that we got during Covid that just appeared out of nowhere from a helicopter This is going to...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That was pretty impressive how they got money into her. I'm like, wow, I didn't realize the government had a direct connection to my account. Apparently they do.

DANO WEIR: Maybe they can take money out if they feel like it. So they're going to get $1,000. So in a way, sort of a birth incentive type of thing, but we would never call it that.

DANO WEIR: What do you do if your child is not born between those ages? Well, Michael and Susan Dell of Dell Computers and the Dell Foundation, they stepped up and they are committing a $6.25 billion deposit. This is of their own volition that kids who were 10 and under as of January 1, 2025, have a chance to get $250 from them. So if you're...

DANO WEIR: Basically, three years old in the next couple of years, you have a chance to get $1,000 from the government. If you're under 10 before Jan 1, 2025, that child could get $250 from the Dell gift. Those gifts are not stackable, meaning you're either in that first range for the $1,000 or you're in the second range for the $250. You can't get both. So that's basically the basic outline of it.

DANO WEIR: And we're going to get to three mistakes that we feel high net worth families might be making with it. But first, I kind of want to give, we like to paint with both brushes at this firm. We like to talk about, we said it right at the start, we look at both sides. We try to be agnostic. So let's look at this from a positive standpoint first. What are the positives of the Trump Accounts, the 530A accounts?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, so first off, it solves an issue, right? I was working with a client this morning actually and the client said, hey, can I have my kids be a part of my retirement plan in my company so that I can start funding their retirement?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And the answer to that is yes and no, right? Why? Because on the federal side, you can absolutely do that. On the state side though, depending on the child's age, there's child labor laws. So in order to fund a retirement account, you have to have earned income.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, if you can't hire a kid because of child labor laws, then how do you get earned income? So the federal side, they might be fine with it, but then the state looks at them like, well, you have... Child labor issues. So you have to kind of play two devils.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And I think that's the high arcing soundbite for this is understand what your state rules are, because the Fed are different than the state. And they're not playing well together right now, especially on Trump Accounts, especially in California. So if you think about what's good about it, though, is that the Trump account doesn't require an earned income.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So that I can make a contribution of $5,000 a year from zero on up for that child and start saving. If you think about that from, you know, zero to 18, you're getting about $60,000 in there. Tax deferred growth at the Fed side. California, again, still hasn't really told us if it's tax deferred growth. So we don't really know.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: It doesn't look like they're going to play ball. We shall see. So if the Trump account. Grows up to $60,000, let's say, and then with some growth in that account and your low-cost ETF of US equity only, and it goes to 100 grand, when that child turns 18, they have 100 grand. Now what? They've got 100 grand that they can then convert into an IRA.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's the biggest planning opportunity right in that moment. And there's a lot of nuances there, but there are ways to get that 100 grand converted into a Roth. By using the tax code to your benefit. A lot of people are selling that online, a lot of social media stuff about that. The reality though is they're all ignoring the rules of California that might not be tax deferred growth.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So what's absolutely critical with any Trump account is if you're going to open one, you really keep track of the basis. What's that mean? How much you bought, whatever you bought in that account for. So if I bought it for $10, you need to know that because you might be taxed on it in the future. And if you don't have the basis, you could be taxed on the whole thing.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: The other thing to keep in mind is when you start doing that Roth conversion, you need to pay attention to a pro rata rule. Basically, you have to pull out just as much taxable as non-taxable money. And there are ways to manage that. We're going to talk about the kiddie tax in a minute, but it also depends at 18, is your child still on your taxes or not? How's that working out for you?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So every family is different. There's a lot of planning considerations. It can be an incredibly powerful tool because you don't have to have that earned income. It's a way to get money in that's different above and beyond a 529. Another one of my clients, we were just talking and he's like, Darren, I don't think my kid's going to go to school.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Like he's just not into academics. He wants to do something different. Well, I'm like, well, you can still use a 529 for a trade school and then you can convert it to a Roth IRA up to $35,000 if you want. So a 529 can be a great funding mechanism for retirement too, but it has that cap. Whereas you can get more money into the Trump account. You don't need the earned income.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: You can't use it for school. It just basically becomes an IRS. So the easiest way to think about the Trump account, again, is it's an IRA, a traditional IRA, with some funding exceptions to it to get money in. But you've got to understand the basis of, and what I mean by that is, how much you buy what you buy for in that Trump account, because it will come to haunt you at 18.

DANO WEIR: And I think in general, if we're talking about positives for it, it's a great thing. To be encouraging people to think about being self-sustainable, taking care of themselves, investing, thinking ahead to the future. And not just assuming that someone's going to swoop in and solve all their future plans for them. It's a good idea to be talking about investing.

DANO WEIR: And so I think that's generally what they're trying to do. Is they're trying to generally get you thinking about, hey, there's going to come a time when you're not going to be able to work. And you're going to need to be living off money. And maybe it shouldn't just be Social Security. Right? That's kind of what they're doing.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So there's another point that I think is good. Right? So, and I think...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: When you look at the landscape of how do I help my kid and how do I save money for my kid, it's difficult to do as an American. Like I want to contribute to my kid's stuff, but there's these Coverdell plans I can put money in, but at 18, it's their money. There's UGMA plans, same thing. If, you know, kids into hot cars and rock and roll and...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Gonna blow the money like you don't really want them to have control of it so then people have defaulted did you just watch American graffiti or something hot cars and rock and roll it is Sonoma county man American graffiti this is the homeland that's true people used to drag actually baxter you know where baxter sports is no it's right on the way out to bodega bay and there's a there's like a fishing store there and that's the store they went and robbed right yes Thanks.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: One of my childhood friends owns half of that now, so it's kind of fun. That's crazy. Yeah.

DANO WEIR: There used to be a sign when you entered downtown Santa Rosa for forever that said no cruising.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah.

DANO WEIR: Right? They finally took it down. Anyways, you just made me think of that. Yeah, I cut you off. What were you saying? If you've got kids who...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So there's... If you think about it, so you've got... Coverdells, UGMAs, you've got 529s. There's kind of this whole, like, what if I just want to save money for my kid to use someday?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: There's nowhere really to do that. You can open a brokerage, but then as a parent, you're taxed at your tax rates for the kid.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But there's control issues, right? And so people have used 529s because if little Johnny's not going to go to school and be into hot cars and rock and roll, then you can change the beneficiary and give it to little Sally.

DANO WEIR: Right.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Now, that's a unique thing about these is you can't change the beneficiary. So if I give it to Dan, he's my kid, it's his. At 18, it's his IRA. One of the kind of nice things and not so nice things is whatever that money's grown to at age 18, it converts to a traditional IRA. It's the kid's money, but if he pulls out, he's going to get penalized.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Extremely he or she is not going to be able to get their hands on it for many decades many decades but then that's where the Roth conversion and that's especially if that kid is still on their parents tax return converting it to Roth could be problematic if that kid's off the tax return then there's planning strategies.

DANO WEIR: All right, so you're getting towards what we're getting, which is the second half of it. So we've talked about what some of the good things are, some of the upsides. Let's look at the critical viewpoint here. And I'll start. You're printing $15 billion. That's how much the seed money is expected to be. Like, we know that they love to do that. But who cares, Dan?

DANO WEIR: That goes direct into the stock market, which is direct into the biggest companies with a 59 and a half year padlock on it. So, like, in a way, like, you're just, like, laying in a sweet little foundation. And the stock market is $63 trillion, so it's probably too small to really matter. But, like, you're locking up a pretty significant amount of money, like, that no one can touch.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But here's what's real, Dan. People keep saying, why does the stock market keep going up? Well, think about how Americans have been trained. Every two weeks, what happens to your paycheck for most Americans?

DANO WEIR: 401k contribution.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: 401k contribution. So, you have this flow of money going into the market. Right. What they've done with the Trump account is they said, That's great. We want more flows, but guess where it can't go? Into international equities. I think this is going to get challenged from a fiduciary standpoint, and here's why.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: In the 401k world and under ERISA regulations, which is the regulatory framework that runs 401ks and tells you what you can and can't do, right? Those are those rules we have to tell our clients, well, sorry, you can't do that. That's because the ERISA rules, right? There's been a lot of lawsuits about offering a broad range of investment options.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So in a 401k, a trustee of a 401k, meaning a company like NVIDIA running their 401k, has to offer investment in international stocks and bonds and has to have a broad swath of offerings to those individuals. By forcing all those individuals in their Trump account to only invest in U.S.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Equities, you're kind of spitting in the face of a lot of other stuff that's been worked out in the courts, which is you have to give the individual options. You can't restrain the option so much that it steers the money one way or the other. So I wouldn't be shocked if we see a lawsuit over the type of investments that are in the Trump account.

DANO WEIR: And specifically, it speaks to, this is not new, many people are talking about this. A lot of people are starting to feel like the S&P 500 is like America's pension fund. And that it's...

DANO WEIR: Risk-free it's 10 every year and just stick it in an s&p just stick it in an s&p there's a lot more stocks just u.s stocks outside the s&p 500 but this locks it up in there well i don't think it's restricted to the s&p i didn't read that is that the case it it it was must be in equity equity index funds well that's not just the s&p so that could be like the russell 3000 that could Even so, even so, it locks it up in there as if it's a sure thing.

DANO WEIR: As if 10% is like, sure, it's going to be fine. To put a different risk meter on it and to put it into a different decade, there was a time when the stock market was considered risky, right? And to put a different lens on it today, imagine if they were saying this all has to be invested in polymarket, right? How, oh, that hits you right in the gut.

DANO WEIR: You're like, no way, I wouldn't do that, right? But now it's like, oh yeah, I just put it in there. That'll be a safe place to put it, which is obviously that's part of our business, right? We navigate around that. We're not saying that it's not a safe place to put it, what I'm saying. It just presumes a lot about what the U.S. Stock market is going to do and provides no diversification.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah, it's an issue because you see this in other investment vehicles being debated legally, being debated by politicians. When you look at the 401k world, with Secure Act, they're now trying to make it so that you can put private equity in 401ks and you can put crypto in 401ks.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So on the one hand, we got one side of government, Department Of Labor, all these rags going through and lawsuits saying, oh, no, you need to allow for diversification. You need to have access to all these things. Well, now the Trump Accounts are like, well, it's just US equity. So it's not going to be long before... All the other types of investment asset classes that want access to this chunk of money.

DANO WEIR: Right.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Start suing to get in. Right. Now the thinking is why it's a Trump account.

DANO WEIR: Or lobbying to get in.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Lobbying to get in, however you want to say it. So, you know, the thinking is, well, yeah, but why this kid's 18? Like, let it just be U.S. Equity. Let it appreciate. That's fine. And then when it goes to traditional IRAs, you can YOLO it in some coin.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: You I think that debate is going to happen. I think there's going to be lawsuits. I don't think anything's going to happen until there's lots of money in it. Because once there's enough money in the Trump Accounts, all the class action attorneys will be like, oh, I'll sign up for that. Right. And get in the middle of that lawsuit. There's nothing to sue right now.

DANO WEIR: So we've touched on a little bit, but tell me how, so we'll move on. That's kind of the positives and the negative viewpoints of, of we're going to be critical and we're going to be positive. That's how we might view it. Tell me how we've talked about what Trump Accounts are. Tell me how, again, this is different from a 529 and a custodial Roth.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Yeah. So let's just start with a 529.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: We could literally like draw a table here and be like, this is that, and like, it'd be rather complex, but let me keep it high level. Trump account, one person, one beneficiary, forever more. 529, you can change the beneficiary. Roth custodial, you cannot change the beneficiary. Roth custodial, you have to have earned income to make a contribution.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: A Trump account, you do not need earned income. A 529 has a higher limit, so you can put a lot of money in a 529. You can only do $5,000 a year in a Trump account. In a Roth custodial, you're limited to 100% of earned income up to whatever the current Roth IRA contribution limit is.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So I think one of the biggest things to keep in mind, a 529, you can change the beneficiary on. Trump account can't, Roth custodial, you can't.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: The Trump account is an IRA that is pre-funding without earned income, and that's what's happening.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So a Trump account it solves the problem of a kid needing earned income that's where it's really great you can get money now in for a kid if they don't have earned income let's talk about three mistakes that high net worth families and individuals might make if they do decide to use a Trump account so number one assuming that the annual gift tax exclusion applies Well, so there's a limit.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: You can only give someone $19,000 a year, right? That's the rule right now. If you give more than $19,000 a year, if I give you $19,000, I give you $20,000, I'm going to be taxed on that overage, right?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So there's some confusion now, and I think this gets worked out. One of the nice things about the Trump account is it allows anyone to gift the child money. It doesn't just have to be the parent. And they haven't quite figured that out. Again, we've got federal law, state law, and we don't really know how this impacts the long-term gifting for the estate.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: If you're going to go over the $25 million threshold, give or take, there's going to be some gifting issues potentially that crop up. So it will impact your estate plan potentially, depending on how many kids you give it to and how you do it.

DANO WEIR: Mistake number two, what is the kiddie tax trap on a Roth conversion?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, so this is what I talked about earlier. So in theory, right, you could open the Trump account at birth. You could fund it with $5,000 every year. You could do that until the kid is 18. At 18, it could convert to a traditional IRA, and the kid goes, oh, I want to do a Roth conversion. So Roth conversion is when we take money that was never taxed and convert it.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And this is kind of one of the weird nuances of a Trump account. When you're put money in, technically, it's already after-tax money. It's already, already been taxed, right? So if I'm going to fund the Trump account, I'm going to put $5,000 that I've already paid federal and state taxes on.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: It's going to grow tax-deferred in that traditional IRA. And then if I just convert all of it out into a Roth, that becomes taxable income in the year in which I convert it. If I'm on my parents' tax return, then I could be getting and paying the highest tax. If I'm not on my parents' tax return, then I can stay below the exemption levels where I'm not actually paying any tax.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So again, it all depends. Are you going to keep that kid on your tax return? Are you going to claim them? Because if you're going to claim them, you might want to wait on that traditional IRA. You need to kind of play those tax rules to your benefit.

DANO WEIR: And speaking of taxes, mistake number three is the state tax trap. So you've got, as we've said a couple times now, you've got what the Fed wants to do, and then you've got the state saying, yeah, maybe. So how does that actually... What is the discrepancy there?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, so the Fed is saying, look, you can put $5,000 in for any kid under 18. It can grow tax deferred and convert to a traditional IRA at 18. That's what the Feds are saying.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: The state's saying, well, it might be tax deferred. We're not sure yet.

DANO WEIR: For our state, when you're filing your state, whatever you do with your federal return, when you file your state return, we're not sure how we're going to consider it yet.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Right.

DANO WEIR: We say you might have- We're still negotiating. It's part of another 16-point deal. It's a deal point in there, right?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: And it's part of- So if you think about it, if I put $5,000 I've already paid on for one of my kids in a Trump account, that account makes money through the year. And I have what's called, if it's not a Trump account, capital gain. And that capital gain, if it's distributed to me, I need to pay taxes on that capital gain in the year in which I receive that capital gain.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So the state is saying maybe we're going to make it subjected to capital gains tax at the state level. Whereas the Fed's saying it's tax deferred and goes into an IRA.

DANO WEIR: The state is saying we need to fund a train and we're trying to figure out.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's right.

DANO WEIR: Just kidding.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: But this is the argument being had at the state level.

DANO WEIR: That is the type of stuff that ends up influencing it. Is they look at budget items and they go, well, we need to take this from there. Well, we could tax the Trump Accounts. Right? I mean, this is how the game is played.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: That's right.

DANO WEIR: It's not because it's the right or wrong thing to do. It's that what need is it going to fill right now?

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Well, again, it's part of a larger arc that's being discussed. And you've heard this brought up at the California state level quite a bit. And that is that should we tax appreciated assets that haven't been sold already, right? Someone owns a piece of real estate. They bought it for $250,000.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: It's worth $1.5 million. It's a big deal here in Sonoma. Their house is worth $1.5 million. That whole gain, a good chunk of it could be taxable, right? And so the proposals that have gone at the state level many times now is we should tax that now because we'll get a lot of revenue in.

DANO WEIR: We'll solve all of our problems right now.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Right? But that's the Trump account issue is if these funds are not tax deferred. You might have to do one set of reporting for the Fed, one set of reporting for the state.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So kind of my thinking about this as I've thought through the complexity until we know more on it, I think unless you're filing your own taxes and you really understand basis and how basis works, you probably want to wait and see because the cost of prepping your taxes and dealing with the Trump account. Could be more than you make in the account at only 5,000, being able to put 5,000 in there.

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: So having to hire a CPA to discern what the state says and what the Fed says and what I should pay my taxes. I'm sure TurboTax will figure it out at some point. But I think that's an issue right now. We don't have enough clarity. And so if you just chunk all this money into there, you might be paying some professional to help you figure out how much your tax is.

DANO WEIR: So I hope you can see that we're talking on both sides of the aisle here. I love that people ask me, they're like, which party are you in? I'm like, neither of them, buddy. I go after everybody. So I think...

DAREN BLONSKI CFP®: Try to equally offend. That's right.

DANO WEIR: Yeah, that's right.

DANO WEIR: I think, you know, some of the easiest things, if what we've said today is interesting to you, if it sounds like a hole that you've been needing to fill, if it sounds like something you've been intrigued by, here are some easy actions that you can do right away.

DANO WEIR: July 4th, 2026 is when they're going to begin funding these accounts with the initial $1,000 of seed money for children that were born January 1st, 2025. To December 31st, 2028. So if you're interested in getting that money, you register your kids at trumpaccounts.gov. Not 538accounts.gov. That's right.

DANO WEIR: In addition, that is also where you can register a child who was 10 or under before January 1st, 2025 to get access to the Dell Family gift, which is $250. I've actually done this for my kids because I wanted to see what the process would be like. I will tell you it's a very easy website to use.

DANO WEIR: It is the easiest government website I have ever used in my life, which means that Trump probably paid a private person, a private company to actually make it instead of who usually makes government websites. So I have to commend them. The total time to register on it was under 10 minutes, might have even been five minutes. It was easy.

DANO WEIR: So if you're interested in it, that is where you start. And if you have questions, that's what we're here for. So we're Sonoma Wealth Advisors.

DANO WEIR: We are a planning-led firm, a fiduciary in Sonoma, California. We're sitting in our conference room right now. Darren is the managing principal. We have several more advisors, and we can talk through situations like this for you. Does this account make sense? Is this something that I need? And how does it fit into a larger financial plan that you're building for your family and your future?

DANO WEIR: To get started with us and book a wealth analysis, you start at SonomaWealth.Com. Thank you so much to our clients and future clients who found this episode. You can subscribe wherever you found it, whether it's on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and we will see you next episode.

DANO WEIR: Thanks so much.

DANO WEIR: With a bunch of words at the end. Listen close, though. You might find out something you didn't know. It's All Money is powered by Sonoma Wealth Advisors. Sonoma Wealth Advisors helps individuals and families in Northern California and across the country with building, managing, and sustaining wealth.

DANO WEIR: Sonoma Wealth is a comprehensive, holistic finance solution offering financial planning, asset management, tax planning, 401k solutions, and appropriate insurance. Take our free wealth analysis now at SonomaWealth.Com.

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DANO WEIR: Voice over by me, Dano. Thank you for listening to the very end. We appreciate diligent viewers and listeners. Fermata Advisors LLC is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements.

DANO WEIR: This content was produced by Fermata Advisors LLC, DBA Sonoma Wealth Advisors, DBA, Formata 401K, DBA, Formata Tax. The opinions expressed by Fermata Advisors LLC on this show are their own.

DANO WEIR: Information presented on this program is believed to be factual and up-to-date, but we do not guarantee its accuracy, and it should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. Discussions and answers to questions do not involve the rendering of personalized investment advice, but are limited to the dissemination of general information.

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