I've seen the discussions about using Empower as a net worth tracker, but does anyone use them to actually manage money?

Seems like a good product but I'm not super familiar with money managers/products outside my Edward Jones account.

I would expect it to be worse than Edward Jones at managing money and probably a similar fee charge.

In my opinion if you were considering a change from EJ you should be looking to go to an independent RIA that can offer more services and investments than you'll get from a big box firm.

Think of it like right now you're at HR Block and if you switch to Turbo Tax or Jackson Hewitt it's pretty much the same. If you were to want improvement you'd want to find a boutique CPA firm.

Our firm, Holistic Planning, offers fee only investment advice and tax planning advice and tax return preparation all in one. www.holisticplanning.com

Oh my gosh. My first employer's 401K is still with Empower, and I am so sick of it that I am taking steps to roll it over to Fidelity, earlier than I planned. Lack of transparency, clunky and unreliable website, just awful. I have or had exposure at a number of sites beyond Fidelity including Vanguard, T Rowe Price, and Schwab. Empower is the worst.

MemphisAg1 said:

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Oh my gosh. My first employer's 401K is still with Empower, and I am so sick of it that I am taking steps to roll it over to Fidelity, earlier than I planned. Lack of transparency, clunky and unreliable website, just awful. I have or had exposure at a number of sites beyond Fidelity including Vanguard, T Rowe Price, and Schwab. Empower is the worst.

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What issues are you having? We still have my wife's 401k at Empower so it's kind of wild to hear this since it's now powered by Personal Capital which was the Gold Standard for this.

I keep hearing that Empower has ruined the PC platform but I haven't noticed anything different with it than when it was not owned by Empower.

Or are you talking about the features that aren't part of PC?

YouBet said:

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MemphisAg1 said:

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Oh my gosh. My first employer's 401K is still with Empower, and I am so sick of it that I am taking steps to roll it over to Fidelity, earlier than I planned. Lack of transparency, clunky and unreliable website, just awful. I have or had exposure at a number of sites beyond Fidelity including Vanguard, T Rowe Price, and Schwab. Empower is the worst.

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What issues are you having? We still have my wife's 401k at Empower so it's kind of wild to hear this since it's now powered by Personal Capital which was the Gold Standard for this.

I keep hearing that Empower has ruined the PC platform but I haven't noticed anything different with it than when it was not owned by Empower.

Or are you talking about the features that aren't part of PC?

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Empower took over that 401k 20 years ago or more. A Fortune 200 company. At the time it was comparable to other programs, but it's remained stagnant since while others passed it by. Periodic downtime on a 401k website for a few days to a week. Call to complain, "oh, IT is working a ticket on that; we'll know more in a day or two, or three."

Performance updates for core funds are usually posted 45 to 60 days after month end, while you see them with little delay at other sites. I've had two other 401k progams since that one, and they are light years ahead (not with Empower).

I don't know anything about Empower PC, but the Empower logo on that program is the same as the Empower on my 401k. I'm running away from it after year end.