Empower Review

Empower sells two very different things under one name. One is a free dashboard that pulls your bank, card, loan and investment accounts into a net worth and retirement view. The other is a managed account priced as a percentage of everything Empower manages for you. Judging the brand means judging each on its own terms.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks 72 personal finance tools as of October 19, 2026, and 60% of them are free, freemium or open source, according to its personal finance ranking. Empower's dashboard sits in that free majority; its directory page is Empower Personal Dashboard.

Methodology: every fee on this page was read on Empower's own Personal Strategy page, its management fee schedule and its dashboard page on October 19, 2026, and on each rival's own pricing page the same day. Dollar figures are our multiplication of the published rates at five balances. We do not measure investment returns, and Dupple has no test lab, so nothing here is a hands-on result.

Empower is a US retirement and wealth company. For individual investors it offers the free Empower Personal Dashboard (budgeting, net worth, a retirement planner, portfolio analysis, a savings planner, debt paydown and transaction tracking) and paid advisory services run by its registered investment adviser.

The advisory side has three levels. Personal Strategy Investment Services starts at the entry minimum with a team of advisors. Personal Strategy Wealth Management starts at $250,000 with a dedicated advisor and a personalized tax report. Private Client starts at seven figures and adds private equity access for accredited investors, plus tax and legacy planning. If you only want the tracking side, our portfolio trackers ranking and budgeting apps ranking cover the field.

The dashboard is free, and it sits right next to Empower's paid advice. Its FAQ says the dashboard and tools are completely free, and signing up asks for an email and a phone number. The same page invites users to put their questions to Empower's professionals, so the free tool and the paid service share one front door. You can use the tools without buying anything.

The advisory fee is charged on the daily market value of the managed assets and deducted monthly in arrears. The fee schedule says it covers portfolio management, trading commissions and custody, and that Empower can sell securities to pay it if the account holds too little cash. Fund costs come on top: Empower says its average ETF expense ratio is 0.06%, higher or lower depending on account size and portfolio.

The schedule has a cliff at the million-dollar line. Below it everything is charged 0.89%. Once you invest a million or more, the account moves to the Private Client schedule, where the first $3M is charged 0.79%, the next $2M 0.69%, the following tier 0.59% and the top tier 0.49%. Empower also offers family tiered billing at a flat 0.79% to parents and children of Private Clients.

What Personal Strategy costs at five balances. At 0.89% a year, the entry balance costs $890, a quarter-million account costs $2,225 and $500,000 costs $4,450. At $900,000 the fee is $8,010. At the million-dollar line the account moves to the Private Client rate of 0.79%, so the fee falls to $7,900, about $110 less than on $900,000. At $2M it is $15,800 a year.

The gap with automated rivals is large. On that half-million balance the same fee would be $1,250 at Wealthfront's 0.25% and $3,250 at Betterment Premium's 0.65%. Vanguard Personal Advisor Select, which starts at that balance, caps its tiered fee at 0.30%, so at most $1,500 on that balance. Empower charges $1,200 to $3,200 a year more than these three at that size, and that difference is what you pay for its advisor model and planning.

Fund expenses sit on top of every figure above. Empower says its ETFs average 0.06% a year, which it counts as part of the all-in cost. Empower also says it can reduce the fee at its discretion, so a large account should ask before signing. Rates were read on the Personal Strategy page and the fee schedule on October 19, 2026.

Use the Empower Personal Dashboard if you want a free net worth and retirement view and do not mind a phone number on file. For tracking alone it costs nothing, which no subscription app here can match. Our Monarch Money review and Monarch pricing breakdown cover the paid alternative, and the Copilot Money review covers another.

Pay for Personal Strategy only if you will use the advisor. The fee buys a person, planning and tax management. A Wealth Management household below seven figures, with a dedicated advisor and real planning questions (retirement income, a rollover, equity compensation) gets something Wealthfront does not sell. A household that wants a diversified portfolio and nothing else pays a large premium for it.

Skip Empower's managed account if you hold a half-million or more, sit below seven figures and care about fees. Vanguard Personal Advisor Select offers a dedicated CFP professional at that size for a capped 0.30%. Below the entry minimum the managed service is not open, so compare Wealthfront and Betterment, or read Wealthfront vs Betterment and our robo-advisor ranking. On Toolradar, the Monarch Money page sits next to Empower's dashboard listing.