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Empower Review: The Motherboard for All Your Financial Accounts

Review Updated
Lyle Daly
By: Lyle Daly
Lyle Daly
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Lyle Daly is a personal finance writer who specializes in credit cards, travel rewards programs, and banking. He writes for The Ascent and The Motley Fool, and his work has appeared in USA Today and Yahoo! Finance. He was born in California but currently lives as a digital nomad with a home base in Colombia.

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Empower might be for you if: You're looking for financial planning and investment advice. Formerly known as Personal Capital, Empower is a wealth management platform that offers investment accounts, a budgeting app, and advisory services. Read our full Empower review to learn more about what it offers.

Empower
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On Empower Secure Website.

Ratings Methodology
Empower

Empower

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Our Rating:

Rating image, 3.5 out of 5 stars.
3.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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Bottom Line

Empower is a do-it-all app and web platform that tackles investing, budgeting, and retirement planning. The easy-to-use interface stands out, and the option to get investment advice is also a valuable benefit. But fees for the wealth management services are on the high side.

Fees:

0.89% advisory fee for assets up to $1 million. Private clients with higher assets can qualify for fees as low as 0.49%.

Account Minimum:

$100,000

Open Account for Empower

On Empower Secure Website.

Alternatives to Consider

We recommend comparing brokerage options to ensure the account you're selecting is the best fit for you. To make your search easier, here's a short list of our best trading platforms of 2024.

Account Fees Account Minimum
Logo for SoFi Active Investing
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
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$0 for stocks, $0 for options contracts $0
Open Account for SoFi Active Investing
Logo for Robinhood
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair
= Poor
$0 for stocks, ETFs, and options; $5 monthly for Robinhood Gold $0
Open Account for Robinhood
Logo for E*TRADE
Rating image, 4.5 out of 5 stars.
4.5/5 Circle with letter I in it. Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale. 5 stars equals Best. 4 stars equals Excellent. 3 stars equals Good. 2 stars equals Fair. 1 star equals Poor. We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
 = Best
= Excellent
= Good
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= Poor
Commission-free; other fees apply $0
Open Account for E*TRADE

Full Empower review

Empower's self-directed investment accounts are fine, but they don't offer the kinds of features and research tools you get with the top trading platforms. The main reasons to use Empower are its personal finance tools and its financial advisory services. Keep in mind that while Empower is popular for wealth management, its fees are somewhat high, so you may want to compare options first.

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Investment offerings

Empower offers a variety of investment and account options.

Investments

Here are the types of investments available with Empower:

Brokerage accounts

Here are Empower's brokerage account options:

TIP

Other financial services

Empower also offers a high-yield cash account, Empower Personal Cash™. It offers an APY that's competitive with the best high-yield savings accounts.

TIP

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Commissions and fees

Empower's fees depend on the type of brokerage account and the services you use. If you want to set up your own self-directed portfolio, you can do that with an Empower Investment Account, which charges the following trading fees:

Investment type/service Commission/fee
Stocks and ETFs $0 for the first 1,000 trades per calendar year, then $6.95 per trade
Options $0.65 per contract
Mutual funds $25 per buy and sell and $5 per exchange (thousands available for free)
Fixed income (bonds) $20 per transaction for U.S. Treasury securities, corporate bonds, and agency bonds
CDs No fee for new-issue CDs, a $20 transaction fee may apply for CDs purchased in the secondary market or sold prior to maturity
Data source: Empower.

With Empower's wealth management services, the fee amount depends on your investment assets. For primary and premium clients with up to $1 million in assets, Empower charges a 0.89% annual management fee.

If you have over $1 million in assets, you'll be in the private client tier. The fee amounts for Empower private clients are listed in the table below.

Assets Annual management fee
First $3 million 0.79%
Next $2 million 0.69%
Next $5 million 0.59%
Over $10 million 0.49%
Data source: Empower.

Research and education

Empower is designed for financial planning and investment advice. As such, it doesn't have the same types of in-depth investment research tools you find at many of the top stock brokers.

But Empower does have lots of useful financial tools that most other brokers don't. These tools include:

  • A personal dashboard where you can see all your accounts in one place
  • A retirement planner to see if you're on track for retirement
  • A net worth calculator
  • A budget planner to track your spending and set savings goals
  • An investment check-up with Empower's free portfolio analyzer

Interface

Empower has a web platform and a mobile app. Both of them allow you to access your dashboard to get a big picture view of your finances, and you can also manage your investments through either one.

Empower may not be the best choice for active investors or those who need advanced trading tools. That's not what it's designed for, and there are other stock brokers with better charting tools and trading platforms. But for long-term investing where you primarily buy and hold, Empower's platform will be fine.

App

The Empower app is arguably its biggest selling point. It has excellent reviews, including 4.8 stars for the iOS version in the App Store and 4.2 stars for the Android version in Google Play. The app largely mirrors the web platform. In addition to your investment portfolio, it provides a personal dashboard where you can connect all your accounts and use a wealth of personal finance tools.

Customer service

Empower's customer service is a mixed bag. It doesn't have 24/7 support like some brokers offer, and there have been complaints online about a lack of assistance with technical issues.

The main customer service option with Empower is calling 1-855-756-4738. Phone support is available from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. MST Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. MST on Saturdays. You can also submit questions through your Empower account.

Security

Empower has high security standards. It uses multi-factor authentication and sends proactive security alerts if certain changes are made to your account, and it uses AES-256 data encryption. Investment accounts are protected by SIPC insurance. Empower Personal Cash™ accounts offer an aggregate of up to $5 million in FDIC insurance coverage.

About

Empower traces its roots back to 1891, when it started as Great-West Life Assurance Company in Canada. It began offering retirement plans for U.S. employers in 1940, and it eventually became the country's second-largest retirement plan provider in 2014.

Personal Capital launched in 2009, offering wealth management and financial advisory services. In 2020, Empower acquired Personal Capital.

FAQs

  • Personal Capital completed its rebrand to Empower Personal Wealth in February 2023.

  • Personal Capital was largely unchanged when it was acquired by Empower. It was eventually rebranded to Empower Personal Wealth, but it still offers the same features as before.