Mississippi Adopts State Auto-IRA, but Tennessee Changes Gears

State-facilitated retirement savings programs have advanced in recent months, with one state enacting a new program and others working toward bringing their programs online. One state, however, swapped the retirement-savings focus for a bill that is now about Trump Accounts.

Mostly recently—on April 8—Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves signed a law creating a state-facilitated retirement program for private sector workers. Mississippi Work and Save is a voluntary, state-sponsored Roth individual retirement accoun program designed to expand retirement savings access to employees whose employers do not offer a retirement program. The law orders the state treasurer to establish the program to enable individuals to begin contributing no later than August 1, 2028, and allows the treasurer’s office to phase-in implementation in the coming years, so long as it is “substantially completed” no later than July 1, 2028.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the General Assembly recently replaced language in a bill intended to create the Volunteer State’s first state-run private-sector retirement program, with wording that would instead authorize the state to serve as a non-bank custodian for Trump Account funds. According to both the House and Senate versions of the bill, if the state receives approval to act as a custodian, the Tennessee General Assembly could establish a Trump Account for those under age 18 through separate legislation. The Tennessee bill was amended on the same day that the Bank of New York Mellon Corp. as the initial financial agent and Robinhood Markets Inc. as the initial broker for Trump Accounts. The federal announcement did not specify whether other entities will be authorized to administer the accounts.

The Tennessee bill passed the state House on April 9 and the Senate version is scheduled for a vote on April 13.

Earlier this year, several other states also took steps toward to be able to operate state-facilitated retirement programs.

On March 24, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed the Utah Retirement Plan Exchange into law, allowing private sector employers to set up plans through the exchange or adopt an auto-IRA to provide coverage to employees. The law requires the exchange platform to begin accepting applications from plan providers no later than November 2, 2026 and be in operation by January 1, 2027.

The Utah Treasury is to establish and maintain the publicly accessible online exchange. It also will be responsible for creating and disseminating resources for eligible employers and eligible employees about the exchange and its offerings.

The Hawaii Retirement Savings Board voted on February 10 to join the Multistate Alliance for Retirement Security, which was established in 2024 when Rhode Island’s RISavers program partnered with Connecticut’s MyCTSavings program. Hawaii’s program, enacted in 2022 and amended in 2025 to automatically enroll employees, is projected to launch in mid-to-late 2026.

The alliance included 50,000 participants and approximately $60 million in assets under management, according to minutes of the Hawaii Retirement Savings Board’s February meeting.

To date, eight of the 17 state auto-IRA programs have entered into partnership agreements, according to Georgetown University’s Center for Retirement Initiatives. Colorado established the first partnership, the Colorado Partnership for a Dignified Retirement, in 2023. As of January 1, its member states in order of entrance include Maine, Delaware, Vermont, Nevada and Minnesota.