Quick Summary
- Robust personal finance tracking tools (free to use)
- Wealth management services for higher-net-worth clients
- High-yield cash account offers 3.00% APY
Pros
Cons
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) has evolved into a financial platform that combines free money-management tools with paid wealth-management services. It serves two distinct audiences: people looking for a powerful (and free) way to track everything from their net worth to their monthly budget, and higher-net-worth folks who want personalized investment management. In this Empower review, I'll cover the key features, pros and cons, and help you decide if it's worth making Empower the central hub for your finances.
What Is Empower?
Empower is a U.S.-based financial tracking platform and investment manager. It's best known for its free financial dashboard, where you can track your spending, budget, monitor your investment portfolio, and more. It also offers professional wealth management, where you can meet with a financial planner to manage your portfolio for a fee. They effectively use their free dashboard to generate leads for their investment management services.
Empower was founded in 2010 and was acquired by Empower Retirement in July 2020. In 2023, Personal Capital was rebranded as Empower.
We also named Empower one of our best budgeting apps of 2026!
What Does It Offer?
Empower combines free financial tracking tools with optional banking and wealth management services designed for long-term investors. Here's a closer look at its key features:
Empower Personal Cash
Empower offers a high-yield cash account with a competitive interest rate and no minimum balance requirements. At the time of this writing, it offers a 3.00% APY, and deposits are insured by the FDIC for up to $5M. You can view your account details on your Empower Personal Dashboard, the same place where you can plan your budget, debt repayment, and track your net worth.
Related: The Best Portfolio Analysis Tools
Wealth Management
For clients with investible assets of $100,000 or more, Empower offers wealth management services. Annual advisory fees are based on the percentage of assets under management, and range from 0.89% to 0.49%.
Personal Strategy
Empower's core wealth management service, Personal Strategy, provides professionally managed portfolios that comprise a mix of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and individual securities. You provide Empower with your investment goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance, and it constructs a customized portfolio accordingly, taking into account tax efficiency and rebalancing. Personal Strategy clients have access to a team of financial planning specialists when needed. AUM fees start at 0.89%.
Private Client Services
For higher-net-worth clients, Empower offers Private Client Services. This service includes more personalized planning, access to dedicated advisors, and more in-depth financial guidance. This service allows Empower to compete more directly with traditional advisory firms, not only automated investing platforms.
Investment Accounts
Don't have $100,000 or more to invest? Empower also lets you open managed portfolios, with mutual fund portfolios that are automatically rebalanced. There is no minimum investment required, and annual fees start at 0.50%. If you prefer to control your own investment decisions, Empower offers a self-directed trading option. You can choose from a wide range of mutual funds, ETFs, individual stocks, and options, and you get 1,000 free trades per year.
IRAs
Empower offers retirement accounts, including traditional and Roth IRAs, as part of its managed investment services. These accounts are connected to its retirement planning tool, so you can easily see how your IRA contributions and investment growth affect your financial outlook over the long term.
Financial Tools
Last but certainly not least are Empower's suite of financial tools, which are all free to use. This includes net worth tracking, budgeting, and cash flow analysis, a retirement planner, portfolio analysis tools, debt paydown tracking, savings planning, an emergency fund tracker, and transaction monitoring. You'll be hard-pressed to find another financial company that offers all of these tools (for free) in a single platform.
Are There Any Fees?
One of Empower's biggest advantages is that its core financial tracking tools are completely free. You can link your accounts, monitor your net worth, use the retirement planner, and analyze your spending without paying a cent.
That said, fees come into play if you opt into wealth management. As mentioned, Empower charges a percentage of assets under management (AUM), starting at 0.89% annually, with tiered pricing that declines as your balance increases. There are no trading fees with managed portfolios, but the underlying ETFs may charge their own expense ratios. There are no monthly maintenance fees for the high-yield cash account.
How Does Empower Compare?
Empower is slightly different than other popular investing platforms like Wealthfront or Vanguard. Wealthfront is a pure robo-advisor with lower fees and a more automated approach (no human advisors). Vanguard offers low-cost funds and optional advisory services, but it doesn't have as many financial tracking tools as Empower. The right platform for you will depend on what you're looking for.
Header |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
Rating | |||
Annual Fee | 0.89% | 0.25% | 0.30% |
Min Investment | $100,000 | $500 | $50,000 |
Advice Options | Auto and Human | Auto | Auto and Human |
Banking? | |||
Cell |
How Do I Open An Account?
You can get started with Empower within a few minutes by creating a free profile and linking your financial accounts. This unlocks the dashboard and free planning tools. From there, you can explore the other products, like the cash account and wealth management services. Advisory services will require an onboarding process that would include a consultation with an advisor to assess your financial goals.
Is Empower Safe To Use?
Yes, you should consider Empower safe to use. It employs bank-level encryption and other standard security protocols to protect your information. This includes multi-factor authentication and read-only access to linked accounts. Investment accounts are protected with SIPC insurance, and its high-yield cash account is FDIC-insured through Empower's bank partners.
How Do I Contact Empower?
New customers can contact Empower by telephone at 877-630-4015. If you have an investment account, you can log into your Empower account and contact a representative.
Empower's corporate headquarters are located at:
8515 E. Orchard Road
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Why Should You Trust Us?
I have extensive experience using "Personal Financial Managers" (PFMs) like Empower. I started using Quicken in the early 2000s to track my personal finances, and since then, I've used or tested almost every budgeting and investment-tracking app on the market.
I've spent hundreds of hours using Empower for both testing and tracking my own finances, using both the web version and the app on my iPhone.
Combine my personal experience with that of our amazing team of editors and testers, and we have over 100 years of combined experience using, reviewing, and testing budgeting apps and tools!
Is It Worth It?
Empower is one of the best all-in-one financial dashboards available today, and should be considered a no-brainer if you want a free way to track your net worth and plan for retirement. Its tools are intuitive and very useful, something that can't be said for a lot of personal finance platforms. When it comes to investing, keep in mind that its wealth management fees are higher than most robo-advisors. If you value personalized advice, it might be a strong option. But if low-cost investing is your priority, there are cheaper alternatives worth considering.
Empower Review
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Summary
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is a free financial dashboard with tools to help you track spending, monitor your net worth, and track your portfolio. It also offers wealth management services.
Pros
- Great free net worth and spending tracker
- Solid free options for portfolio analysis
- Attractive APY with the high-yield cash account
Cons
- Their wealth management service costs above-average at 0.89% AUM
- The financial dashboard has been known to suffer from connectivity issues
- You need at least $100,000 to access wealth management services
Editor: Colin Graves Reviewed by: Ashley Barnett
Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
Robert has been featured in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC News, and Forbes, where he has been a regular personal finance contributor for over a decade. His work combines both professional expertise and personal experience – he successfully navigated his own student loan repayment journey and has helped thousands of readers do the same.
He is committed to making the intersection of personal finance and education transparent and accessible. You can learn more about Robert on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.