The White House has directed the US Treasury to build TrumpIRA.gov, a federal website intended to guide workers who don’t have employer retirement plans toward private individual retirement accounts that meet tight fee and quality criteria and accept a new federal matching contribution.

Under an executive order signed today, the portal must be live by 1 January 2027. It will list financial institutions offering IRAs under US tax law that agree to accept the Federal Saver’s Match created by the bipartisan SECURE 2.0 Act, and that meet objective standards set by Treasury.

Those standards are notable. Listed IRAs must:

• Cap all‑in annual fees at 0.15% (including operating, management and administrative costs).
• Offer diversified, index‑based investment menus that include target‑date or balanced options, or funds designed to protect principal.
• Set no minimum contribution or balance requirements.

The site will explain the criteria, allow users to filter and compare options, and prominently flag eligibility for the Federal Saver’s Match of up to US$1,000 for qualifying contributors, as provided for in law (26 U.S.C. 6433). The order tasks Treasury with taking “all necessary steps” to ensure eligible savers who contribute to IRAs — including those chosen via TrumpIRA.gov — receive the match, and to encourage providers to accept it.

Beyond the portal, Treasury and the Labor Department are directed to issue rules or guidance to protect account holders, bolster transparency, and prevent prohibited transactions. Treasury and the IRS are also asked to clarify how charities can fund IRAs for members of a charitable class without risking their tax‑exempt status. The Administration will prepare legislative recommendations to lock in the policy.

The policy framing explicitly compares the intended investment mix and low‑fee approach to what US federal employees access through the Thrift Savings Plan. Unlike past attempts to create government‑run starter accounts, the order builds an informational marketplace of private IRAs rather than a public account, with the federal match as the incentive.

For providers, the 0.15% expense cap and the requirement to accept federal matching contributions set a high bar that likely favours large, index‑focused managers. For savers, the promise is portability, simple defaults, and a clear path to the SECURE 2.0 match.

For New Zealand readers, the closest analogue is a centrally promoted set of low‑fee options with target‑date or balanced defaults — conceptually familiar from KiwiSaver — but with the US government’s cash match paid into private IRAs rather than employer schemes. The order is silent on income thresholds or operational details of the match beyond what SECURE 2.0 provides, and implementation is subject to rulemaking and funding.