Empower Personal Finance Dashboard Review 2026

Empower is a US-based financial tracking platform and investment manager. It is 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 even named Empower one of our best budgeting apps of 2026!

What does it offer?

Empower combines free financial tracking tools with alternative banking and wealth management services designed for long-term investors. Here’s a closer look at its key features:

Empower offers a high-yield cash account with a competitive interest rate and no minimum balance requirement. At the time of this writing, it offers 3.00% APY, and deposits are FDIC insured up to $5M. You can view your account details on your Empower Personal Dashboard, the same place you can plan your budget, loan repayments, and track your net worth.

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money management

For clients with investable assets of $100,000 or more, Empower offers wealth management services. The annual advisory fee is based on a percentage of assets under management, and ranges from 0.89% to 0.49%.

personal strategy

Empower’s core wealth management service, Personal Strategy, offers professionally managed portfolios that include a mix of low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and individual securities. You provide Empower with your investment goals, time frame and risk tolerance, and it builds a customized portfolio accordingly, taking into account tax efficiency and rebalancing. Individual Strategy clients have access to a team of financial planning experts when needed. AUM fees start at 0.89%.

private customer services

For high 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 not only with automated investing platforms, but also with traditional advisory firms.

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 take control of your investment decisions yourself, 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.

IRA

Empower offers retirement accounts including traditional and Roth IRAs as part of its managed investment services. These accounts are linked to its retirement planning tools, so you can easily see how your IRA contributions and investment growth affect your financial outlook over the long term.

financial instruments

Last but certainly not least is Empower’s suite of financial tools, which is free to use. It includes net worth tracking, budgeting and cash flow analysis, a retirement planner, portfolio analysis tools, loan payment tracking, savings planning, an emergency fund tracker, and transaction monitoring. You would be hard-pressed to find another financial company that offers all these tools (for free) on a single platform.

Are there any fees?

The biggest advantage of Empower is that its core financial tracking tools are completely free. You can link your accounts, monitor your net worth, use a retirement planner and analyze your spending without paying a cent.

That said, fees apply if you choose wealth management. As mentioned, Empower charges a percentage of assets under management (AUM), starting at 0.89% annually, with tiered pricing that decreases as your balance grows. There are no trading fees with managed portfolios, but the underlying ETFs may charge their own expense ratio. There is no monthly maintenance fee for the high-yield cash account.

How does Empower compare?

Empower is a little different from other popular investment 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 alternative 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.

How do I open an account?

You can get started with Empower in just minutes by creating a free profile and linking your financial accounts. This unlocks the dashboard and free planning tools. From there, you can explore other products like cash accounts and wealth management services. Advisory services will require an onboarding process that will include a consultation with an advisor to assess your financial goals.

Is it safe to use Empower?

Yes, you should consider it safe to use Empower. It uses 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 by 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 nearly every budgeting and investment-tracking app on the market.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours using Empower for testing and tracking my own finances, using both the web version and the app on my iPhone.

Combine my personal experience with 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 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 many personal finance platforms. When it comes to investing, keep in mind that its money management fees are higher than most robo-advisors. If you value personalized advice, this can be a strong option. But if low-cost investing is your priority, there are cheaper options worth considering.

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