President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to create a  for workers who don't currently have access to a 401(k) or another workplace plan.
Roughly 56 million Americans lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan at work, according to 2025 research from the Pew Charitable Trusts, an independent public policy nonprofit.
The order calls for the launch of a new website next year, TrumpIRA.gov, where workers could research, compare and enroll in private-sector individual retirement accounts through which, if eligible, they could collect a matching contribution from the federal government.
"You'll then be able to access the same type of retirement accounts that federal employees enjoy through the Thrift Savings Plans, which are incredible, as part of the federal program," Trump said at a White House press conference. "Low-income Americans will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 per year in matching funds deposited directly into their accounts."
The accounts will be integrated with the Saver's Match, a provision from 2022 legislation known as Secure 2.0, which provides matching contributions of up to $1,000 for lower-income Americans saving for retirement.
Now, the Trump administration hopes to work with Congress to pass legislation that will expand access to the program and make the match larger.
Two pieces of legislation which were proposed in 2025 could help provide a framework for Congress to do just that â and aspects of each could be hugely beneficial for American retirement savers, according to a study investment research firm Morningstar published on Thursday.
After running some proposed provisions, such as expanding access to matching contributions, auto-enrollment and boosting the value of the match, through their model for retirement outcomes, researchers found that cumulative American retirement wealth could rise by as much as 77%, adding up to $1.35 trillion in projected retirement wealth over 10 years.
How legislation could expand the executive order
Trump's executive order targets Americans who currently don't have access to a workplace retirement account or to matching contributions from an employer.
Some 40.6 million full-time American workers do not participate in a retirement plan, and about 48.8 million do not benefit from an employer match, according to White House figures.
Integrating the new accounts with the Saver's Match will reach some of them.
Starting in tax year 2027, single taxpayers with a modified adjusted gross income of up to $20,500 or joint filers making up to $41,000 qualify for a government match worth 50% of up to a $2,000 contribution to a qualified retirement account, for a maximum match of $1,000 a year. Single filers with annual incomes between $20,500 and $35,500 qualify for reduced matching contributions. Joint filers making up to $71,000 can qualify for a reduced match.
At Trump's press conference, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett called for legislation which could expand the benefit to more Americans. "We're working with Congress to significantly expand this program and are looking forward to legislation this year," he said.
Hassett has previously endorsed the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, a piece of bicameral legislation reintroduced to Congress this week. The bill was first introduced in 2022. Congress could also draw on the Automatic IRA Act, reintroduced in December, but first introduced by Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.) about two decades ago.
It remains to be seen whether Congress will rally around one singular piece of legislation or pull in aspects from multiple sources and pass reform through the reconciliation process, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested it might when Trump first floated the idea during his State of the Union address in February.
Here are some key provisions of each.
The Retirement Savings for Americans Act
- Full- and part-time workers who lack access to an employer-sponsored plan would be eligible for an account and automatically enrolled at 3% of their income.
- Low- and moderate-income workers would be eligible for a 1% automatic contribution and up to a 4% matching contribution from the federal government, with a phaseout at median income.
The Automatic IRA Act
- Requires employers with more than 10 employees that do not sponsor a retirement plan to automatically enroll employees in IRAs.
- Employees would have a default contribution rate of 6%, which would escalate by 1 percentage point per year, up to 10%.
How proposed legislation could boost retirement outcomes
Researchers at Morningstar took aspects of both plans into account when measuring the possible effectiveness of an enhanced version of Trump's order, says Spencer Look, associate director of retirement studies at Morningstar retirement and one of the study's co-authors.
They arrived at a "base case" for their simulation, which included auto-enrollment into retirement plans at a 3% savings rate. Under that scenario, Morningstar estimates 32.3 million new savers would enter the system and retirement wealth would increase by 28% overall.
The big difference-maker in all of Morningstar's simulations, Look says, is automatic enrollment.
"If it's a voluntary enrollment kind of structure, we would not expect a lot of take up," he says, adding that making people opt out of retirement plans instead of opting in would be the major way to "move the needle."
The researchers tinkered with other levers, too. They boosted the Saver's Match from 50% to 100% and bumped the income cap for single filers from $35,500 to $60,000. They tested the program with a 3% automatic contribution and one that escalated from 3% to 6%. They ran scenarios where rules prohibited savers from accessing their matching funds until age 62.
Each of these provisions would help boost Americans' savings, and all of them in concert would create a 77% increase in U.S. retirement wealth, with a particularly high impact on lower-income people, according to Morningstar.
No matter which laws eventually come to pass, the key for retirement savers is to consistently add to your portfolio over time, says Look. Workers with 10 or more years of sustained participation in retirement plans could see 67% to 125% higher retirement wealth under autoâenrollment scenarios, Morningstar found.
"The finding that underpins all of this is that consistent savings behavior â saving consistently over time â is the biggest determinant of growing your nest egg," Look says.
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