Press Release

Empower Retirement Delivers Broad View of Personal Finances Through New Digital Experience

Issued by Empower

Apr. 28, 2021

Beyond a retirement-focused outlook, investors will see a more tailored and complete financial picture

New experience shows estimated retirement income, net worth, savings, spending and debt

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. -- Empower Retirement, the nation’s second-largest retirement services provider,1 today announced that it will launch a new website for all 12 million Empower retirement plan participants and individual investors. The new offering presents a highly personalized digital experience that can integrate the elements of any individual’s financial picture to help them better understand their current situation and future needs, driving increased financial confidence.

The new experience integrates such elements as estimated retirement income, net worth, savings, spending and debt in a simple snapshot on the homepage, helping individuals and financial advisors better understand progress toward many different goals, such as preparing for a secure retirement, paying off debt or establishing emergency savings.

“Retirement investors who are better informed about their complete financial picture are in a strong position to make better decisions,” said Empower Retirement President and CEO Edmund F. Murphy III. “Empower has designed this new experience to help drive more information into the hands of individuals so they can work with their advisors to achieve their goals.”

The new Empower digital experience was designed based on client and plan participant input as well as the company’s experience serving a broad range of defined contribution plan types and individual investors.

The new digital experience is designed to meet growing interest on the part of individuals to have a more holistic look at their financial picture. Data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute shows that some 80 percent of people want help managing competing financial priorities.2

Empower will begin offering the new experience later this year. It is designed to drive both educational elements and advice to participants through a simplified interface designed to meet the needs of novice and sophisticated investors. With all assets and liabilities presented in one view, meaningful next steps can be synthesized that create a more complete picture of one’s financial wellness to inform a broader, integrated experience.

“We recognize that most people have multiple goals in addition to retirement,” said Murphy. “This comprehensive and holistic approach enables us to better serve their full financial needs.”

Individuals have the choice to use the new Empower digital experience as a stand-alone retirement planning experience or link to accounts with outside financial institutions, including, for example, brokerage accounts, bank accounts, mortgages, credit cards and 529 college investment accounts. As an individual adds new information to the site, personalized “next steps” guide decision-making, with messages customized to the individual’s financial situation. Along the way, in-person financial counselors are available to help.

“Using some very progressive thinking, we are leveraging an innovative set of financial technology tools to deliver a brand-new experience to investors, but our commitment to in-person engagement remains,” said Empower Retirement Chief Product Officer Tina Wilson. “Any individual can call us or their advisor at any time for help.”

The new digital experience can render in both English and Spanish languages. The site can be easily accessed through devices using iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

The new digital experience represents the latest in a long legacy of pioneering work by Empower to help individuals better understand their financial plan. The company first unveiled its revolutionary participant experience, which was designed around rethinking the concept of aggregate lump-sum retirement savings as a more practical matter of monthly retirement income, in 2011. The new digital experience extends that approach to a more robust view of one’s complete financial picture.

“We know that every single individual approaches their financial goals in their own way,” said Murphy. “By providing more information that’s delivered with clarity and simplicity we can help more individuals achieve greater degrees of financial wellness to ultimately help them reach those goals.”

The new digital experience brings together, for the first time, the combined experience and technology of both Empower and Personal Capital, a registered investment adviser and hybrid wealth manager acquired by Empower in 2020. The new offering represents the first stage in a more robust integration of financial technology and know-how between the firms.

About Empower Retirement

Headquartered in metro Denver, Empower Retirement administers approximately $1 trillion in assets for more than 12 million3,4 retirement plan participants as of Jan. 31, 2021. It is the nation’s second-largest retirement plan recordkeeper by total participants.1 Empower serves all segments of the employer-sponsored retirement plan market: government 457 plans; small, midsize and large corporate 401(k) clients; non-profit 403 (b) entities; private-label recordkeeping clients; and IRA customers. Personal Capital, a subsidiary of Empower Retirement, is an industry-leading hybrid wealth manager. For more information please visit empower-retirement.com and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

1. Pensions & Investments 2020 Defined Contribution Survey Ranking as of April 2021.
2. EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey, April 2020
3. As of December 31, 2020. Information refers to the business of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company and its subsidiaries, including Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York and a non-GAAP measure and does not reflect the financial stability or strength of a company. GWLA’s statutory assets total $75.1B and liabilities total $72.9B. GWLANY statutory assets total $3.6B and liabilities total $3.4B.
4. Estimated assets after both the acquisition of the MassMutual retirement business and recent 1Q21 plan conversions.

Online Advice and the managed account service are part of the Empower Retirement Advisory Services suite of services offered by Advised Assets Group, LLC, a registered investment adviser.

Securities offered and/or distributed by GWFS Equities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. GWFS is an affiliate of Empower Retirement, LLC; Great-West Funds, Inc.; and registered investment advisers, Advised Assets Group, LLC and Personal Capital. This material is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide investment, legal or tax recommendations or advice.

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