Net Worth at Birth

Many Americans have no assets to their name; they are disadvantaged from the start of their lives. One promising idea to expand opportunity and broaden asset ownership is to endow every newborn child with an American Stakeholder Account (ASA). This paper intends to serve as a vehicle to review and consider the policy design choices that would give this proposal its ultimate shape and direction. It builds on previous analytical work and offers new insights in examining the challenges, benefits, and justification for creating a national system of children’s accounts. After a review of the proposal’s policy context and political rationale, a prototype proposal is then examined in detail, and alternative design features are considered. The final section examines the broader issues of an account-based approach to asset building.

For the complete document, please see the attached PDF version.