Trump IRA Accounts: How Much Americans Without 401(k)s Could Save

On April 30, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order aimed at closing the retirement-savings gap for those without 401(k) plans through the creation of TrumpIRA.gov. The federal platform is designed to connect uncovered workers with low-cost individual retirement accounts and pair those accounts with the Saver’s Match, created under SECURE 2.0. While the Saver’s Match itself was established by 2022 legislation signed by President Biden, Trump’s 2026 executive order creates the federal infrastructure to help workers without employer plans actually access that match. Here is what you need to know.

A financial advisor can help you build a retirement savings plan that accounts for your income, goals, and the options available to you.

What the Executive Order Does

The Trump IRA executive order directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish TrumpIRA.gov, a federal platform that connects workers without employer-sponsored retirement plans to low-cost IRAs offered by private-sector financial institutions. It requires the platform to be operational by January 1, 2027.

The order does not create a new type of retirement account or new tax incentives. Instead, it establishes infrastructure to make existing benefits more accessible to workers who currently have no straightforward path to claim them.

Several provisions shape what the platform will look like in practice:

• Cost protections. IRA providers listed on TrumpIRA.gov must maintain an annual expense ratio of 0.15% or less. Additionally, providers are prohibited from imposing minimum contribution or balance requirements. ¹ These rules are designed to ensure low-income workers can participate without being priced out by fees or excluded by minimums.
• Targeted workers. The platform is aimed at independent contractors, self-employed individuals, gig workers and employees of small businesses that do not offer retirement plans. Accounts are modeled on the retirement options available to federal workers through the Thrift Savings Plan, long considered one of the most cost-efficient retirement structures in the country.
• Required account features. Listed accounts must provide access to the Federal Saver’s Match, diversified index-based investment options, automatic portfolio defaults for workers who do not actively select investments and portability between providers if a worker chooses to switch.
• Voluntary enrollment. The order does not automatically enroll workers in any account. Participation is opt-in. That said, the administration has directed Treasury and the National Economic Council to draft legislative recommendations for automatic enrollment.
• Legislative pathway. The order directs the Treasury to prepare recommendations to codify the TrumpIRA.gov framework into permanent law. There are several elements that would benefit from statutory authority rather than relying on executive action alone.

Who Qualifies and How the Saver’s Match Works

The Saver’s Match goes into effect in tax year 2027 under rules established by the SECURE 2.0 Act, providing a federal matching contribution for qualifying low- and moderate-income retirement savers. The match replaces the older non-refundable Saver’s Credit with a direct federal contribution deposited into the saver’s retirement account.

The income thresholds and match structure work as follows: ²

• Full match income limits. Single filers with modified adjusted gross income up to $20,500, and joint filers with modified AGI up to $41,000.
• Match amount. 50% of contributions up to $2,000 per year, for a maximum match of $1,000 per person annually, or $2,000 for married couples filing jointly when both spouses qualify and contribute.
• Phase-out ranges for partial matches. Single filers with incomes between $20,500 and $35,500 receive a reduced match; joint filers with incomes ranging from $41,000 to $71,000 can qualify for a partial match; and heads of household phase-out range between $30,750 and $53,250. ³
• Eligible account types. The match applies to contributions made to 401(k) plans, traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs, including accounts opened through TrumpIRA.gov.

How Much Workers Could Save

The financial impact of consistent participation can be substantial. This is particularly true for workers who start early and capture multiple years of the full match.

Modeling from Morningstar found that a federal auto-enrollment plan could bring approximately 32.3 million new savers into the retirement system, even after accounting for opt-outs, and increase retirement wealth by 28% to 49% depending on plan design. ⁴

So, How Much Could You Potentially Save?

As a general example, let’s take a look at a worker who starts saving for retirement at age 30 and wants to retire at 65. They contribute $2,000 per year with the $1,000 annual match. This would give the worker 35 years for the money to grow, and at a 6% annual return, their nest egg could add up to approximately $334,000. Here’s the general math:

• Total annual contribution: $3,000 per year ($2,000 from the worker + $1,000 from the federal match).
• Annual return: 6%.
• Years of contributions: 35.

First, let’s figure out what happens to a single dollar if it grows at 6% per year for 35 years. A 6% return means your money grows by a factor of 1.06 each year (the 1 represents the dollar you already have, and the .06 represents the 6% it earns).

After one year, your dollar becomes $1.06. After two years, that $1.06 grows by another 6%, so you multiply 1.06 by 1.06. After 35 years, you multiply 1.06 by itself 35 times, which gives you $7.69. That means every dollar invested today would be worth about $7.69 after 35 years of compounding at 6%.

Next, let’s subtract the original dollar you started with to see how much came from growth alone. That leaves $6.69 (7.69 – 1 = 6.69). In other words, for every dollar you invested, $6.69 of the ending balance came from returns, not from money you put in.

Now, let’s divide that growth by the annual return rate. This step adjusts the math to reflect what happens when you’re not just investing once, but adding new money every year.

This example assumes contributions are made at the end of each year. Under that assumption, your first contribution has 34 years to grow, your second has 33, your third has 32, and so on, all the way down to your last contribution, which is added at retirement without a year of compounding.

Dividing by the return rate (6.69 / 0.06 = 111.4) captures the combined growth of all those contributions landing at different times. Think of 111.4 as a multiplier: for every dollar you put in annually over 35 years at 6%, you end up with about $111.

Finally, let’s apply that multiplier to the annual contributions:

• $3,000 per year multiplied by 111.4 = approximately $334,000 total at age 65.
• $2,000 per year multiplied by 111.4 = approximately $223,000 from the worker’s own contributions.
• $1,000 per year multiplied by 111.4 = approximately $111,000 from the federal match.

For comparison, let’s take a look at a worker starting at age 40 with the same contribution level over 25 years. Here’s how that example breaks down:

• Total annual contribution: $3,000 per year ($2,000 from the worker + $1,000 from the federal match).
• Annual return: 6%.
• Years of contributions: 25.

Using the same steps as above, a single dollar growing at 6% per year for 25 years becomes $4.29 (1.06 multiplied by itself 25 times). Subtract the original dollar and you’re left with $3.29 in growth. Divide that by the return rate (3.29 / 0.06 = 54.9) and the multiplier drops to 54.9, roughly half of the 111.4 in the 35-year example.

Applying that multiplier to the annual contributions:

• $3,000 per year multiplied by 54.9 = approximately $165,000 total at age 65.
• $2,000 per year multiplied by 54.9 = approximately $110,000 from the worker’s own contributions.
• $1,000 per year multiplied by 54.9 = approximately $55,000 from the federal match.

The difference between both examples is almost $170,000, even though the earlier start involves only $30,000 more in total contributions over the extra 10 years ($3,000 per year times 10 additional years). The remaining $140,000 comes from compounding, which is why starting as early as possible matters as much as it does.

Several variables affect actual outcomes:

• Contribution consistency over the full working life. The projections assume uninterrupted annual contributions, but interruptions or pauses can have a meaningful impact.
• Realized investment returns vs. the 6% modeling assumption. In reality, returns can vary significantly across decades.
• Years in the program before retirement. Longer participation will produce disproportionately larger balances due to compounding.
• Continued income eligibility. Workers whose income rises above the phase-out range will lose access to the match in higher-earning years.

How the Trump IRA Compares to Biden’s Saver’s Match Legislation

Biden’s 2022 SECURE 2.0 Act created the financial incentive (the Saver’s Match). Meanwhile, Trump’s 2026 executive order created the federal infrastructure (TrumpIRA.gov) to help workers without employer plans access that incentive. In other words, the two policies are complementary rather than competing, with the executive order building on SECURE 2.0 rather than replacing or modifying it.

Here’s a recap of what SECURE 2.0 accomplished:

• Established the Saver’s Match itself. This replaced the older non-refundable Saver’s Credit with a direct federal contribution deposited into qualifying retirement accounts.
• Set income thresholds, match percentages and account eligibility rules. These rules govern who qualifies and how much they can receive.
• Scheduled the program to take effect in tax year 2027. This gives the Treasury time to build out the administrative infrastructure to deliver matching contributions.

And here is what SECURE 2.0 did not do:

• Create a platform or discovery mechanism. This would allow workers without employer-sponsored plans to find and enroll in qualifying accounts.
• Address the access gap. Millions of workers are currently eligible for the match but have no employer-sponsored vehicle to receive it.

As it stands, about 26 million full- and part-time workers who qualify for a full or partial Saver’s Match currently do not have access to a plan where they can collect the benefit, according to the Economic Innovation Group. ⁵ That figure sits within a larger gap: roughly 56 million Americans lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan altogether, according to 2025 research from the Pew Charitable Trusts. ⁶

The Trump executive order addresses this gap by creating TrumpIRA.gov as a discovery and enrollment platform. This gives eligible workers a federally curated list of low-cost IRA providers that meet the platform’s standards.

As a result, a self-employed worker eligible for the Saver’s Match in 2027 will no longer need to research providers, compare expense ratios and navigate minimum balance requirements on their own. Instead, they can use the federal platform to find a compliant account directly.

What Still Needs Congressional Action

The executive order is constrained by the boundaries of executive authority. Several of the most consequential expansions of the Trump IRA framework require legislation to take effect. The administration has directed Treasury and the National Economic Council to draft legislative recommendations. Ultimately, though, the timeline and content of any resulting bill depends on Congressional priorities.

Major outstanding items include:

• Automatic enrollment. The White House has asked agencies to draft recommendations for automatically enrolling workers without employer plans into TrumpIRA.gov accounts. This would significantly expand reach by addressing the inertia that limits voluntary programs. Implementing automatic enrollment requires Congressional approval since it involves changes to both retirement law and employer obligations.
• Income limit expansion. Trump has signaled he wants Congress to raise the Saver’s Match income threshold above the current $35,500 single-filer cutoff to extend benefits to more middle-income workers. Any change to the income limits requires amending SECURE 2.0 rather than executive action.
• Codifying the framework. The executive order directs Treasury to prepare recommendations to make the TrumpIRA.gov structure permanent through legislation. This is as opposed to relying on executive authority that future administrations could modify or rescind.

Potential Solutions

Several existing legislative proposals already address parts of the coverage gap and could provide vehicles for codifying or expanding the Trump IRA framework. These include:

• The Retirement Savings for Americans Act. This would create portable, tax-advantaged retirement savings accounts with federal matching contributions. It would be similar in spirit to the TrumpIRA.gov framework but with statutory rather than executive authority.
• The Automatic IRA Act. This would require employers with more than 10 employees to enroll their workers in automatic IRAs or other automatic retirement contribution plans. This would address the coverage gap from the employer side rather than the platform side.

State-level activity provides useful context for the policy direction. Twenty states have already adopted auto-IRA programs, with more than 1 million Americans enrolled, according to AARP. ⁷ The state-level precedent suggests broad operational viability for the auto-IRA model. However, federal legislation would standardize coverage across states with and without existing programs.

That said, whether Congress acts on a single comprehensive piece of legislation, incorporates elements through budget reconciliation or leaves the Trump IRA framework operating only at the level the executive order can support remains uncertain. TrumpIRA.gov is required to be operational by January 1, 2027, the same year the Saver’s Match takes effect. This creates pressure for legislative action in the intervening period if the program is to reach the workers it was designed to serve.

Bottom Line 

The Trump IRA executive order creates a new on-ramp to retirement savings for tens of millions of workers who currently have no clear path to employer-sponsored benefits. To do so, it builds directly on the Saver’s Match infrastructure established by SECURE 2.0. The two policies work together rather than against each other, with Biden’s legislation providing the financial incentive and Trump’s executive order providing the access platform.

Retirement Planning Tips

• A financial advisor can help you determine whether you have enough saved for retirement and recommend strategies to grow your nest egg. Finding a financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with vetted financial advisors who serve your area, and you can have a free introductory call with your advisor matches to decide which one you feel is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
• Once you retire, required minimum distributions from your TSP or IRA can push you into a higher tax bracket if you are not prepared. Use SmartAsset’s RMD calculator to estimate your distributions and plan your withdrawals accordingly.
• SmartAsset’s Social Security calculator can help you estimate future monthly government benefits.

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