A coalition of business leaders, lawyers, and financial market managers, gathered in Convergência Brasil, created a socio-economic project that provides for annual government contributions, invested in stocks, for every Brazilian between the ages of 18 and 18.
The group, which presents itself as non-partisan, was created six years ago, during the pandemic, with the goal of seeking agendas that—as its name suggests—can bring together different political spectrums.
Among the names involved in the organization are Jayme Garfinkel, Jorge Gerdau, Paulo Hartung ,Wilson Ferreira , Roberto Rodrigues, Fabio Barbosa , Alvaro de Souza, Carlos Kawall , and Luciano Timm, currently president of Convergência Brasil.
The project was created by Luís Felipe Teixeira do Amaral, founder of Drýs Capital , who has been managing stocks in the Brazilian market for decades. In an interview with NeoFeed , he explains that the project was inspired by the Invest America Act — a program that the United States government turned into law in 2025.
The American program that served as inspiration was dubbed "Trump Accounts" by the press—which, according to Amaral himself, doesn't help in the attempt to unite the Brazilian left and right around the project. "But the idea was preserved," he says.
In the United States, however, researchers like Ray Boshara of the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis argue that the idea of children's savings accounts "has long had bipartisan support" in the United States.
Although named after the president, the structure of the American project also emerged from independent initiatives seeking political support. The mastermind was Brad Gerstner, founder and CEO of the asset management firm Altimeter Capital, who began publicly advocating for an investment account for every American baby starting in 2020.
Gerstner created the Invest America Foundation to give traction to the project. According to the organization's website, Senator Ted Cruz — the formal author of the text — even said, at an event at the White House, that the law would not exist without the manager's "vision, execution, and tireless commitment."
In Brazil, the project originated as Conta Convergência and is seeking potential support during this year's elections. According to Amaral, the intention is to present the topic to candidates from different parties and gauge each candidate's adherence to the proposal.
"It would be great if we could bring this up in the candidates' debate, present it to everyone, regardless of party, and understand who supports it," says Amaral. He himself took on the task of shaping the proposal and moving it forward within the group.
Released at 18
The idea is that each Brazilian would reach the age of 18 with approximately R$ 22,500. Of this total, decreasing annual contributions from the government would amount to R$ 9,500 per person, while the remainder would be obtained from returns in the stock market over that period.
All investment would be allocated to index funds that replicate the Brazilian stock market — without the government choosing specific companies.
To arrive at these figures, the paper supporting the proposal considered a real return of 7% per year. The material also tests a more conservative hypothesis of 5% — which would reduce the balance at age 18 to approximately R$ 17,500. And another more optimistic one of 10% — which would raise the value to approximately R$ 32,700.
The projection is based on the historical real return of the Ibovespa , which has totaled around 6% to 7% per year in recent decades — a period marked by high volatility and long periods of stagnation, such as between 2010 and 2015.
"It's a project that could reverse this discourse of separation and align people with the proper functioning of the economy and the creation of wealth by companies. The way to do this is to make people participants, to make them investors from the beginning," says Amaral.
The project stipulates that, upon turning 18, the account holder can withdraw the funds for three specific purposes: financing technical or higher education, a down payment on a home, or starting a business.
Those who prefer to keep the money invested can wait until they are 30 years old — when, even without new government contributions since the age of 18, the forecast is that the balance will already be around R$ 50,700, driven by the same effect of compound interest. From that age onwards, withdrawals become unrestricted, without being tied to any specific purpose.
The total costs of the program would depend on the birth rate and would increase progressively until it reaches full maturity at age 18. The projection is that, at that point, the budget expenditure would be R$ 22.8 billion per year — equivalent to about 0.2% of GDP and 0.35% of the total 2026 budget of R$ 6.54 trillion.
One way to offset this additional cost suggested by the program is to compensate for it with a reduction in spending elsewhere in the budget—in this case, Social Security, currently the largest item of federal government expenditure. The proposal is to gradually postpone the minimum retirement age by two months per year, over 18 years, until accumulating a three-year increase.
According to the group's own calculations, this measure would be sufficient, under specific conditions of pace and scope, to neutralize the fiscal cost of the Convergence Account in the long term. However, unlike the creation of the accounts themselves, this compensation mechanism requires a Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC), since it affects minimum ages established by the 2019 pension reform.
Despite his dream of turning the initiative into a reality, Amaral admits that "the challenge will be gigantic": "We have to make this project known to civil society as a whole in order to gain support. Only then will we be able to push this agenda to the politicians."
