Empower

Oct 2024

401k went from Prudential to Empower. Wow what a downgrade in service and website usability. Be prepared to stay on hold for unreasonable amounts of time. My first phone call lasted two hours between hold time and transfers. Then the representative that I ended up with did not know how to answer my question and said she would call me back. Crickets… a class action lawsuit is in order or contact your attorney general and let them know you can’t get an agent on the phone and that they are holding your money hostage and their website is meant to confuse the user.

Jul 2024

Don’t do business with Empower Retirement. If an employer does business with them, take it as a red flag that they hate their employees. Empower’s customer representative line is useless, incompetent, and dishonest. They make things up and lie to get you off the phone. Empower sent me 3 letters and, per the instructions on the letters, I called the customer rep line and they were surprised I received letters at all, had no record of any of the letters, and proceeded to spin nonsense rather than answering two simple questions. How much do I owe and why? I want to pay these people, and have, but their customer service is designed to be unhelpful. If they actually...read full review

Feb 2021

My wife's employer switched last year from Voya to Empower. If your prospective employer tells you that Empower is their retirement plan provider, this is a reason to keep looking for another job. The customer service is non-existent to terrible. Finding basic answers to questions like their fee structure (boy, do they have a fee structure!) is impossible via the web site. The funds provided as investment options are adequate, but not as good as Voya or any other retirement plan with which we have experience. Most importantly, they nickel and dime you to death! They charge monthly fees for an "asset based charge" in which they take a small percent of everything you've invested -- just because, with no way to opt out. They charge quarterly fees for "Brokerage Account Maintenance" for self-directed brokerage accounts with TD Ameritrade: a "service" in which they do absolutely nothing and you and TD Ameritrade do everything. It's such a rip-off we've wondered who got bribed at the hospital where she works to make the switch. When she retires, one of our very first actions will be to sever all ties with Empower Retirement move those funds elsewhere.