Designing Early Wealth-Building Policy for Equity, Scale, and Impact

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Early wealth-building policy is at a pivotal moment in the U.S. After decades of research, demonstration projects, and state and local innovation, child-focused asset-building policies are receiving renewed national attention. The recent creation of 530A accounts, or “Trump Accounts,” alongside continued experimentation with child development accounts and related models, has created an opening to shape the future of wealth-building policy. At the same time, major questions remain about how these policies should be designed, who they are most likely to benefit, what barriers may limit equitable uptake, and their long-term effects.

This panel brings together conceptual, qualitative, and empirical research to examine the future of early wealth-building policy in the U.S. Together, the papers address three core questions: how to assess the quality of early wealth-building policy design at scale, how young people themselves understand wealth-building goals and barriers, and what emerging evidence from state and local innovations suggests about impacts and implementation.

The first paper develops a comparative framework for assessing child-focused asset policies across federal, state, and local contexts. Drawing on ten evidence-based design elements, it constructs a transparent rubric for evaluating early wealth-building initiatives. By systematically comparing roughly 30 enacted and proposed policies, the paper identifies where current approaches align with best practices, where they fall short, and what a “best-features” model for comprehensive early wealth-building policy might look like.

The second paper centers the perspectives of young adults themselves. Based on in-depth interviews with low- to moderate-income young adults, it examines the wealth-building goals they aspire to as well as the barriers they face in pursuing them. The findings show that young adults continue to value traditional wealth-building milestones, but face mounting obstacles related to housing costs, education, debt, labor market instability, and limited access to trusted financial knowledge.

The third paper examines long-term outcomes from MI-SEED, a quasi-experimental child savings account initiative launched through Head Start centers in Michigan. Tracking participants from early childhood into adolescence and postsecondary enrollment, the study finds that CSA account holders were more likely than non-account holders to demonstrate stronger academic performance and to enroll in postsecondary education.

The fourth paper uses 24-month results from the CollegeBound Boost randomized controlled trial in Saint Paul to test whether combining guaranteed income and baby-bond-style deposits increases college saving. The findings suggest that the intervention increases college saving primarily among households with higher baseline wealth, pointing to important treatment heterogeneity and suggesting that future policy design may need to account explicitly for wealth when targeting and calibrating benefits.

Taken together, these papers reflect a field moving from proof of concept toward questions of scale, targeting, implementation, and long-term impact. They suggest that the success of early wealth-building policy will depend on designing policies that are inclusive, progressive, and responsive to the real constraints families and young people face. As federal, state, and local governments are reconsidering how to support asset building from childhood onward, this panel examines what it will take for these policies to deliver on their promise.

Policy Area

• Poverty and Income Policy

Chair

• Guangli Zhang, Washington University in St. Louis

Discussants

• Jason (J) Ewas

• Colleen Quint, Alfond Scholarship Foundation

Organizer

• Stephen Patrick Roll, Washington University in St. Louis

Individual Presentations

• Early Wealth Building at Scale: A Comparative Framework for Designing and Assessing Child-Focused Asset Policies - Presenting Author: Stephen Patrick Roll, Washington University in St. Louis

• Young Adults' Perspectives on Wealth Building: The Desire for Financial Stability First - Presenting Author: Sam Atherton, Urban Institute

• From pre-school to college enrollment: Long term outcomes from MI-SEED - Presenting Author: Trina R Shanks, University of Michigan Ann Arbor

• Wealth Thresholds in College Saving: Evidence from the CollegeBound Boost Guaranteed Income–CDA Trial - Presenting Author: William Elliott, University of Michigan