Empower Retirement

Empower is primarily a retirement services giant, administering approximately $2 trillion in assets for more than 19 million investors across workplace retirement plans. Its relevance to family office principals sits specifically within its Private Client and Personal Strategy wealth management tiers, which target individuals with $1 million or more in investable assets and offer dedicated advisors, estate planning, tax optimization, and private equity access.

The Private Client tier is where the offering most closely overlaps with family office needs:

• Dedicated financial advisor with estate planning and tax planning included
• Private equity access via collective investment trust structures, including a partnership with Blackstone for private market strategies
• Tax-loss harvesting, intelligent asset location, and dynamic portfolio allocation
• Tiered advisory fees starting at 0.79% on the first $3 million, declining to 0.49% above $10 million
• Family tiered billing at a flat 0.79% for parents and children of Private Clients

The platform uses Smart Weighting, a proprietary diversification approach, and supports daily portfolio monitoring through a combination of human advisors and technology. The Empower Personal Dashboard aggregates investments, cash, credit, and other accounts in a single view. Tax filing support is available through a third-party partnership with Taxfyle.

For a family office evaluating this provider, the honest trade-off is scale versus specialization. Empower operates as a mass-market retirement platform that also offers a high-net-worth tier. Principals seeking bespoke multi-entity structures, direct alternative investments, or deep operational support typical of dedicated family office service providers will likely find the offering insufficiently customized. Where Empower competes is on transparent fee schedules, integrated tax and investment management, and access to institutional-grade private market strategies within a regulated managed-account structure.