Trump Accounts: We Ranked All 5 ETFs Available for Kids

On July 4, 2026, American parents gained another tool for investing toward their children's future. Families already have options such as 529 plans for education expenses, custodial UGMA and UTMA accounts and, once a child has earned income, custodial Roth IRAs.

The newest addition is the Trump Account, and it comes with some substantial benefits of its own.

For every eligible American child born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, the federal government will contribute $1,000 to a tax-deferred account established in the child's name, with a parent or guardian acting as custodian until age 18.

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Parents can open an account by completing IRS Form 4547. The election can be submitted through the Trump Accounts app, as part of the tax-filing process or through the IRS Individual Online Account website.

Parents can simply leave that initial contribution invested and allow compounding to do the work, but they also have the option to contribute up to $5,000 annually.

But unlike the investment lineups commonly found in workplace 401(k) plans, which often consist primarily of mutual funds, the initial Trump Account investment roster features five low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

All five are passively managed index funds focused on the U.S. equity market, giving children exposure to stocks, as well as decades for that investment to potentially compound.

Five choices may not sound like enough to create analysis paralysis, especially when thousands of ETFs trade in the U.S. today. Yet these funds look remarkably similar at first glance. All provide broad U.S. stock exposure, all charge low fees and their largest holdings overlap considerably.

Look underneath the hood, however, and some meaningful differences emerge. The indexes they track determine how many companies they own, whether small- and mid-cap stocks make the cut and how concentrated they are in the largest companies.

For parents deciding where to invest money that could remain untouched for nearly two decades, those finer details are worth understanding.

For this article, we compared all five Trump Account ETFs across fees, index methodology and portfolio composition, then ranked them from our least-preferred option to our top pick.

How to read our Trump Account ETF comparison

The table below provides the key specifications for all five Trump Account ETFs at a glance.

The numbers look similar in several places, so it helps to understand what each metric actually measures and how much it should matter when choosing between them.

Expense ratio measures the annual operating cost of an ETF as a percentage of its net asset value (NAV). You don't receive a separate bill for this fee. Instead, it's deducted gradually from the fund's assets and reflected in its performance.

All five ETFs are exceptionally inexpensive. A 0.02% expense ratio works out to approximately $2 annually for every $10,000 invested, while 0.03% costs approximately $3.

Assets under management (AUM) tells you how much investor capital an ETF manages. Among other things, it can provide a rough indication of how established and commercially viable a fund is.

Small ETFs can occasionally close if they fail to attract enough assets, forcing shareholders to liquidate or move their money elsewhere.

That's not a meaningful differentiator here. Every ETF on our list manages billions of dollars, while several are among the largest ETFs in the U.S.

30-day SEC yield provides a standardized estimate of the income generated by an ETF's underlying portfolio over the previous 30 days, annualized after expenses.

It's important to understand that distributions are not free money. When an ETF makes a distribution, its NAV generally falls by approximately the amount distributed, all else being equal.

30-day median bid-ask spread measures the difference between the highest price buyers are willing to pay for an ETF and the lowest price sellers are willing to accept.

The narrower the spread, the better, because less value is lost to this implicit transaction cost when buying or selling shares. There's effectively nothing separating our five choices in terms of liquidity.

Finally, 10-year annualized total return measures the average compounded rate at which an investment grew each year over the trailing decade, including both changes in share price and reinvested distributions. This differs from cumulative return, which simply measures the total percentage gain over the entire period.

Annualized returns make it easier to compare investments over a common timeframe. Past performance, of course, does not determine which ETF will produce the highest return in the future.

How we ranked Trump Account ETFs

These headline statistics also leave out several important differences.

They don't tell you exactly which stocks each ETF owns, how expensive those stocks are relative to their fundamentals, how exposure is distributed across sectors of the U.S. economy or how much of the portfolio is invested in large-, mid- and small-cap companies.

They also don't capture the rules governing each ETF's benchmark, including how its index decides which stocks are added or removed and how individual holdings are weighted.

Here's we ranked the five ETFs available for investment using Trump Accounts.

5. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF

• Expense ratio: 0.03%
• Assets under management: $889 billion
• 30-day SEC yield: 1.0%
• 30-day bid/ask spread: 0.01%
• 10-year annualized total return: 15.1%

Putting the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) in last place should not be interpreted as an indictment of the ETF. The differences between these five Trump Account options are extremely minor, and IVV remains an exceptionally low-cost and effective way to own U.S. stocks.

But for the purposes of ranking five similar funds, we have to pick winners and losers. IVV falls slightly short based primarily on the breadth of its benchmark.

IVV tracks the S&P 500 Index, which is commonly treated as a proxy for the U.S. stock market but is technically an incomplete representation of it. Companies must satisfy requirements related to market capitalization, liquidity, public float and positive earnings.

There's also a human element. The S&P 500 is maintained by an index committee that ultimately determines which eligible companies are added and which existing constituents are removed. Consequently, inclusion is not governed entirely by an automatic market-capitalization ranking.

More importantly for our comparison, the S&P 500 focuses exclusively on large-cap stocks. That leaves out hundreds of mid- and small-cap companies that collectively represent a meaningful portion of the American economy and stock market.

For a Trump Account potentially investing on behalf of a child for close to two decades, we prefer having that additional diversification available.

The large-cap focus also leaves IVV fairly top-heavy. As of August 27, the technology sector represented just under 38% of the portfolio, while its 10 largest holdings accounted for more than 35% of assets.

All seven of the so-called Magnificent 7 stocks–Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA), are prominently represented.

That concentration has worked considerably in IVV's favor during a period dominated by U.S. mega-cap growth stocks.

It could become a relative headwind if market leadership eventually rotates toward smaller companies, particularly given that IVV has no dedicated exposure to the mid- and small-cap stocks that could benefit from such a resurgence.

There is otherwise little to criticize. For straightforward S&P 500 exposure, IVV does exactly what it's supposed to do.

Against the four other choices available in Trump Accounts, however, we think its narrower large-cap mandate leaves it just slightly behind.

Learn more about IVV at the iShares provider site.

4. State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF

• Expense ratio: 0.02%
• Assets under management: $172 billion
• 30-day SEC yield: 1.0%
• 30-day bid/ask spread: 0.01%
• 10-year annualized total return: 15.1%

Our fourth-place ranking may be another controversial choice, particularly because the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM) is the default investment option for Trump Accounts.

There's plenty to like about it. Most notably, SPYM is currently the cheapest S&P 500 ETF on the market, charging an expense ratio of just 0.02%.

That undercuts IVV's already minuscule 0.03% expense ratio while providing essentially the same economic exposure. Both ETFs track the S&P 500, so investors receive virtually identical portfolios of roughly 500 leading U.S. large-cap companies.

That difference is tiny, but when ranking otherwise similar ETFs intended to compound over many years, every basis point counts.

The problem is that SPYM inherits the same benchmark limitations we discussed with IVV. Its portfolio is restricted to large-cap stocks, leaving out thousands of mid- and small-cap companies.

The ETF is thus heavily influenced by the largest companies in the S&P 500, resulting in considerable concentration among mega-cap stocks and a particularly large allocation to tech stocks.

For investors who believe today's largest U.S. companies will continue leading the market, those characteristics may be perfectly acceptable.

SPYM's S&P 500 exposure is diversified across hundreds of profitable, established businesses, its turnover is relatively low and its 0.02% expense ratio leaves very little performance drag from fund expenses.

SPYM's lower expense ratio allows it to eke out a slight advantage over IVV, but its S&P 500 mandate carries the same concentration and market-coverage limitations.

For that reason, we rank it fourth behind the three broader U.S. stock market ETFs still to come. But SPYM's status as the default option is also understandable given its combination of simplicity, liquidity, and rock-bottom fees.

Learn more about SPYM at the State Street provider site.

3. State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF

• Expense ratio: 0.03%
• Assets under management: $14 billion
• 30-day SEC yield: 1.0%
• 30-day bid/ask spread: 0.01%
• 10-year annualized total return: 14.7%

S&P Dow Jones Indices recognizes that the S&P 500 doesn't capture the entire U.S. stock market. That's why it maintains two companion benchmarks covering areas the large-cap index misses: the S&P MidCap 400 Index and the S&P SmallCap 600 Index.

Combine all three and you get the S&P Composite 1500 Index, which is the benchmark tracked by the State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 1500 Composite Stock Market ETF (SPTM).

That immediately gives SPTM an advantage over IVV and SPYM. Instead of stopping at approximately 500 large-cap companies, the ETF expands its portfolio to around 1,500 stocks, adding dedicated exposure to both mid- and small-cap companies.

This provides broader participation in the U.S. equity market and reduces some of the dependence on today's largest companies.

However, the S&P MidCap 400 and S&P SmallCap 600 are more selective than simply owning every publicly traded U.S. company that falls within their respective size ranges.

Constituents must satisfy requirements involving factors such as market cap, public float (which measures how many shares are readily available for public trading) and minimum trading volumes.

Importantly, S&P also applies a profitability screen. Prospective constituents generally need positive earnings for the most recent quarter and positive aggregate earnings across the previous four quarters.

Like the S&P 500, these indexes therefore intentionally exclude some companies that otherwise fit their respective market-cap categories.

As a result, SPTM's approximately 1,500 holdings still don't represent the entire investable U.S. stock market. That makes it considerably broader than SPYM and IVV, but not quite as comprehensive as the two total-market ETFs higher on our ranking.

You can see the lingering large-cap influence in its portfolio. The Mag 7 stocks remain prominent among SPTM's largest holdings, while technology still accounts for roughly 36% of the ETF. That's lower than the allocation in the S&P 500 ETFs, but large-cap tech exerts considerable influence over its performance.

For parents looking for a middle ground, however, SPTM gets the job done well. It retains substantial exposure to the large, profitable companies that dominate the S&P 500 while extending the portfolio further down the market-cap spectrum into hundreds of mid- and small-cap stocks.

SPTM therefore earns our third place ranking as a useful compromise between the concentrated large-cap exposure of IVV and SPYM and the more comprehensive total-market portfolios still to come.

Learn more about SPTM at the State Street provider site.

2. iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF

• Expense ratio: 0.03%
• Assets under management: $97 billion
• 30-day SEC yield: 1.0%
• 30-day bid/ask spread: 0.01%
• 10-year annualized total return: 14.5%

S&P Dow Jones Indices maintains more than one way to measure the U.S. stock market. As discussed above, the S&P Composite 1500 combines the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, and S&P SmallCap 600 into a single benchmark. According to Morningstar, that combination captures roughly 90% of the investable U.S. stock market.

For investors seeking even broader exposure, however, S&P offers the S&P Total Market Index, the benchmark tracked by the iShares Core S&P Total U.S. Stock Market ETF (ITOT).

The index is designed to capture 95% or more of the U.S. equity market, extending further down the market-cap scale and incorporating considerably more small- and micro-cap exposure than the S&P Composite 1500.

That difference is readily apparent when looking inside the ETF. ITOT currently holds 2,439 stocks, compared with roughly 1,500 for SPTM.

Parents choosing ITOT therefore gain exposure to nearly another thousand U.S. companies without paying anything extra for the additional diversification: its expense ratio remains at the same 0.03%.

The benchmark still maintains eligibility requirements covering areas such as liquidity and investability, so owning ITOT does not mean indiscriminately buying every security that happens to trade on a U.S. exchange.

But compared with the S&P 500 and S&P Composite 1500, it provides a substantially more comprehensive representation of the investable U.S. equity market.

There is one important limitation to what that additional breadth accomplishes. ITOT remains market-cap weighted, meaning the largest companies receive the largest portfolio allocations. Adding hundreds of smaller stocks does not suddenly give them equal influence over returns.

Consequently, ITOT's largest positions remain dominated by the same group of Magnificent 7 companies found at the top of our other ETFs, albeit at slightly lower weights. Its technology allocation also remains substantial at approximately 35% of the portfolio.

Still, we think ITOT's additional market coverage gives it a meaningful advantage for a Trump Account with a potentially multi-decade investment horizon. That combination of extremely low fees and moderately broader diversification earns ITOT our second-place ranking.

Learn more about ITOT at the iShares provider site.

1. Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF

• Expense ratio: 0.03%
• Assets under management: $666 billion
• 30-day SEC yield: 1.0%
• 30-day bid/ask spread: 0.01%
• 10-year annualized total return: 14.5%

The late Vanguard founder and chairman John Bogle once summarized his investing philosophy with a simple quote: "Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack!"

His point was that investors do not necessarily need to identify which individual stocks, sectors, or investment styles will outperform. Instead, they can own as much of the market as possible at a low cost and allow the collective growth of American businesses to compound over time.

As we've seen with the previous Trump Account ETFs, buying the S&P 500 doesn't quite give you the entire haystack. The index excludes mid- and small-cap stocks altogether. The S&P Composite 1500 goes considerably further, while the S&P Total Market Index gets closer still.

Arguably the most comprehensive interpretation of Bogle's philosophy among the five choices is the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), which holds more than 3,500 large-, mid-, small- and micro-cap U.S. stocks.

The ETF previously tracked the CRSP US Total Market Index. The Center for Research in Security Prices originated at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and became an important provider of historical securities data and market indexes. Following Morningstar's acquisition of CRSP, the index has been rebranded under the Morningstar name, while its underlying methodology remains unchanged.

VTI uses a sampling approach to accomplish this. Rather than owning every security in its benchmark to replicate it, Vanguard constructs a portfolio designed to closely track the index's overall characteristics while avoiding the least-liquid securities.

The objective is to minimize tracking error, which is the difference between the ETF's performance and that of its underlying benchmark.

VTI still looks top-heavy when viewed by individual holdings. Like ITOT, it is market-cap weighted, so Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Tesla continue to occupy prominent positions.

The difference is what sits underneath them. With more than 3,500 holdings, VTI gives a Trump Account exposure to a much deeper cross-section of publicly traded American businesses.

That makes it particularly well suited to a hands-off account designed to compound for many years. Parents don't need to decide whether large caps will continue outperforming, whether small caps are due for a comeback or which sector will lead the market next.

VTI simply owns the market and allows those relative weights to evolve as companies grow or shrink.

Vanguard itself also strengthens the case. The firm operates under a cooperative ownership structure in which Vanguard's U.S. funds own the management company and fund shareholders indirectly own Vanguard through those funds.

Without public shareholders demanding a separate stream of profits, Vanguard has historically emphasized returning economies of scale to investors through fee cuts.

Learn more about VTI at the Vanguard provider site.

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