At ICI Summit, Hassett Details New Trump Executive Order Expanding Retirement Saving

ICI President & CEO Eric J. Pan in a fireside chat with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett at the 2026 ICI Leadership Summit.

President Trump’s National Economic Council Director, Kevin Hassett, used a keynote appearance at the Investment Company Institute’s Leadership Summit on Friday to lay out the administration’s agenda for expanding access to long-term saving and investing, including a new executive order that aims to give tens of millions of American workers without access to a workplace retirement plan an individual retirement account.  

The executive order directs the Treasury Department to build TrumpIRA.gov, a federal platform set to launch in January that will help workers compare low-cost IRAs by cost, quality, and investment options. Hassett's remarks came during a fireside chat with ICI President and CEO Eric Pan before an audience of asset management executives, independent directors, and policy leaders gathered at ICI’s flagship conference in Washington, D.C.

Pan welcomed the announcement and used the conversation to underscore ICI's view that the most durable path forward for building widespread retirement security is to rely on the strength of the existing voluntary system, which has channeled more than $30 trillion into Americans' futures and reaches 70% of U.S. households. Hassett agreed the private sector is central to the effort, noting the order is designed to leverage the asset management industry's expertise in delivering low-cost, well-regulated investment products.

Hassett praised the industry and ICI’s role in advocating for the interests of individual investors served by asset managers. “You’ve got really one of the most legendary organizations in America,” Hassett said.  “If you think about organizations that have had a positive effect on Americans, this has to be right near the top of the list.”

The conversation turned to Trump Accounts, the program creating tax-advantaged investment accounts for American children. Hassett described implementation as a top Administration priority and made the long-run economic case for giving every child a stake in U.S. capital markets, suggesting the accounts could meaningfully broaden household participation in markets over 10- and 20-year horizons.

On private markets, Hassett underscored the Administration's view that broader access is essential to giving retirement savers the same opportunities long available to institutional investors. He cited the Department of Labor's recent proposal to expand 401(k) access as a critical step.  

He noted that the rising costs of being a publicly traded company have driven a growing share of American businesses into private ownership—meaning that investors limited to public-only portfolios miss exposure to a meaningful slice of the U.S. economy. Pan noted that ICI's members consider the rule's asset-neutral approach essential and have flagged the importance of insulating plan sponsors that follow the safe harbor from speculative litigation that could drive up costs and eliminate choices for individual investors.

Across each of these initiatives—the Trump IRA, Trump Accounts, and expanded 401(k) access—Hassett returned to the common theme that broad participation in capital markets is the most powerful long-run tool for building household wealth and reinforcing American economic stability and social cohesion.

“As important as the wealth building is the way it gives us hope for the future and a better understanding of how economies work,” Hassett said. “If every American has capital, it should lead to every American being a capitalist.”