Trump IRA Plan Promises $1,000 in Free Retirement Money. Here's the Catch

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to launch a federally backed retirement program for the estimated 56 million Americans who don’t have access to a 401(k) or equivalent at work.

The order directs the launch of a new website, TrumpIRA.gov, which will give eligible workers a pathway toward building retirement savings. In particular, the executive order noted that employees of small businesses, part-time workers, independent contractors and the self‑employed “face unnecessary barriers to saving for retirement.”

Starting next January, workers without retirement plans will be able to use the platform to research and enroll in portable, “high-quality, low-cost, private-sector IRAs." The program is structured similarly to MyRA, a government-backed retirement account program launched in 2015 under President Barack Obama. The Treasury axed the MyRA program in 2017 during President Trump’s first term.

This new venture has a few notable differences from the MyRA program, though. The latter had a maximum balance of just $15,000 and savers could only invest in U.S. Treasury bonds that earned a yield of around 2%.

Workers who sign up for retirement accounts through Trump IRA next year will have more options. The executive order said it would offer “low-cost investments similar to those offered to Federal workers in the Thrift Savings Plan.”

The Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP, functions essentially as a 401(k) program for government employees and members of the military. It allows workers to invest in a small selection of diversified, low-cost funds, including passive index funds and target-date funds.

One of the TSP's biggest selling points is its ultra-low costs. Expense ratios — which cover funds' management and administrative costs — range from 0.057% to 0.09%. By contrast, expense ratios for 401(k) mutual funds averaged 0.29% in 2024, according to the Investment Company Institute, an industry trade association.

Trump's executive order says “all in” fees for funds offered in Trump IRAs will be capped at 0.15%.

Free money for some workers, but details are sparse

As with other initiatives like TrumpRx.gov and Trump Accounts, the executive order left some specifics up to the Treasury Department and Congress to flesh out.

At a press conference accompanying the signing, Trump said the new platform will integrate the Saver’s Match program established by the SECURE 2.0 Act in 2022. Starting next year, this program will replace the existing “saver’s credit” in the tax code with 50% contribution matching up to $1,000 into eligible workers' IRAs.

Currently, the Saver’s Match is targeted specifically toward the lowest-income workers. The maximum $1,000 match is available to people who earn up to $20,000 a year, while the benefit tapers off on an income-based scale that offers partial contributions for people who earn up to $35,000.

And as with Trump Accounts, the custodial investment savings accounts parents can open for kids (and for which babies born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028 are eligible for a $1,000 onetime contribution from the government), charities will be able to make contributions into workers’ accounts on their behalf.

The low earnings cap prompted skepticism from many social media users, who pointed out that people earning less than $20,000 would likely struggle to contribute $2,000, the amount needed to get the full $1,000 match.

Some in the industry expressed cautious optimism, though. “A proposal that helps bridge the gap between those with and without employer-sponsored plans is a meaningful step forward,” Chris Spence, head of federal government relations and public policy at TIAA, said in a statement.

When Trump first mentioned the plan for a federal retirement program in his State of the Union address earlier this year, Dan Doonan, executive director at the nonpartisan National Institute on Retirement Security, told Money it was encouraging to see “broad, bipartisan support for expanding access to retirement savings.”

But how much of this plan can be implemented solely by executive order remains to be seen. At the press conference on Thursday, the president and White House National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett prevailed on Congress to raise the income cap to make more people eligible for the Saver's Match. “To take it to the next level, we need congressional approval," the president said.