Executive Order 13847, signed on August 31, 2018, directed the Department of Labor to streamline regulatory requirements for retirement savings plans, specifically enabling small businesses and self-employed workers to establish Association Retirement Accounts (ARAs). Rather than requiring individual employers to navigate complex compliance frameworks independently, the order permitted small employers to collectively pool resources and offer 401(k)-style retirement plans at substantially reduced administrative costs. This represented a regulatory relaxation intended to lower barriers to entry for businesses with fewer than 100 employees.

The direct beneficiaries were small business owners and self-employed individuals seeking to offer competitive retirement benefits to their workers, alongside the employees of these smaller firms who previously lacked access to employer-sponsored retirement savings vehicles. Companies with 50 or fewer employees comprised the primary target demographic. By reducing compliance burdens through cooperative arrangements, the executive action theoretically expanded retirement security options for millions of workers excluded from traditional large-employer pension ecosystems.

This action operated within the broader Trump administration economic agenda focused on deregulation and business relief, though its approach differed markedly from later trade-focused interventions. Unlike the import surcharges and tariff mechanisms implemented in 2026, or the cybercrime enforcement initiative targeting financial schemes, this order emphasized market expansion through regulatory simplification rather than protective barriers. The retirement plan measure represented an earlier iteration of business-oriented policy, predating the more interventionist trade posture evident in subsequent years.

The executive order faced no documented major legal challenges or court blocks, largely because it operated within existing Department of Labor authority to issue guidance and modify regulatory interpretation. However, the practical implementation depended significantly on subsequent rulemaking and agency resource allocation, which proceeded unevenly across the remainder of Trump's first term. Congressional Democrats expressed concerns about the order's potential impact on protections for plan participants, though no legislative reversal occurred before the administration's end.