How/Is the Trump Retirement IRA Proposal Different from the myRA?
On April 30, 2026, as a follow-up to remarks from the State of the Union address earlier in the year, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) designed to expand retirement plan access and close the nation’s retirement savings coverage gap.[i]
More specifically, it directed the Treasury Department (Treasury) to develop a federal Individual Retirement Account (IRA) savings program (TrumpIRA.gov) to reach uncovered workers, including contract workers, part-time workers, small-business employees, and the self-employed, many of whom lack access to a retirement savings program at work.
Some have drawn comparisons to an initiative during the Obama administration called my Retirement Account, or myRA, which was terminated during the first Trump administration.[ii] At the time, Treasury said the government had spent nearly $70 million administering the program while participants had accumulated only about $34 million in savings.
How Are the Two Programs Similar?
- Same Target Audience. Both target the “coverage gap” — workers without employer plans. They both seek to provide better/more access to retirement savings.
- No Employer Involvement. Both create a default pathway into retirement saving that doesn’t require employer involvement.
How Are the Two Programs Different?
- A Marketplace Versus a Federal IRA Account: The myRA itself was the retirement account — one administered by Treasury — while the TrumpIRA.gov platform envisioned in the recent executive order is more like an on-ramp or comparison portal for IRAs offered by firms like Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab (though the specific firms haven’t yet been designated publicly). Part of the rationale for terminating the myRA program was that there were plenty of viable low-cost alternatives available in the market.
- Type of Investments: myRA was intentionally designed to be ultra-conservative, investing only in Treasury securities similar to the federal Thrift Savings Plan’s G Fund. The new TrumpIRA.gov proposal is expected to take a different approach, likely emphasizing broader access to the stock market via passively managed index funds, as noted in the Trump IRA accounts for children.[iii]
- Federal Matching Impact: There was no federal match for the myRA — in fact, some said the lack of any monetary incentive was a reason for the modest take-up of the program. However, the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 created a new Saver’s Match of up to $1,000 which will be effective January 1, 2027. The executive order contemplates a synchronization of that match with the new TrumpIRA.gov program — which could have a significant impact on both accumulations and take-up (though larger employers are generally expected to facilitate depositing those monies into their workplace retirement plans).
Portability
Structured as a “starter” Roth IRA, the myRA design contemplated an eventual rollover to a “regular” Roth IRA, as it was limited to a $15,000 lifetime cap on the account.
Accounts established via the TrumpIRA.gov would already be part of the existing IRA structures — and might well be either Roth IRAs or traditional IRAs, and thus no rollover would be required.
The Bottom Line — Different Paths with Similar Objective(s)
While both the myRA and TrumpIRA.gov share similar goals — expanding access/reducing the coverage gap — they represent very different ways of achieving that. The myRA was, in fact, a type of Roth IRA administered by Treasury, invested in very conservative portfolios, subject to a lifetime limit, and with no federal match.
The TrumpIRA.gov proposal on the other hand is a platform designed to help individuals not covered by a retirement plan at work find and access vetted IRA plans, either Roth or traditional, with the opportunity to direct Saver’s Match contributions to those accounts, and likely with an emphasis on equity index investments.
What This Means for You
At this point, the TrumpIRA.gov is just an idea — a direction to design with certain parameters, and the final result could vary. But there are several key design elements and options that might produce a different result than myRA did a decade ago — and that could be good news for the nation’s retirement security, particularly workers who still lack access to a retirement plan at work.
[ii] U.S. Department of the Treasury, “U.S. Treasury Launches myRA (my Retirement Account) to Help Bridge America’s Retirement Savings Gap,” press release, November 4, 2015, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jl0250; U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Announces Steps to Wind Down myRA Program,” press release, July 28, 2017, https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm0135.
[iii] U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Trump Accounts — Jumpstarting the American Dream,” TrumpAccounts.gov, accessed June 2, 2026, https://trumpaccounts.gov/