Is Empower Investment Advisor the right fit for you?
Last Updated: 04/18/2025
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Mostly recommended9 total votes
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Highlights
Community Rating
Mostly recommended
Minimum Initial Investment
$0
Management Fee
0.49% - 0.89%
Number of Reviews
Empower Investment Advisor Review
Personal Capital investment advisor is founded in 2009 and based in San Carlos, CA.
Personal Capital investment advisor Pros & Cons
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Personal Capital investment advisor FAQ
What fees does Personal Capital investment advisor charge?
Personal Capital investment advisor uses a fee-only model.
This means Personal Capital investment advisor gets paid a flat fee regardless of what financial products or services you use. It also means they have a fiduciary responsibility to their clients. Instead of making money on trades commissions or selling products, they recommend an asset allocation and get paid a flat-fee or a percentage of the assets under administration. That requires that they act in their client’s financial best interest at all times.
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| Monthly Service Fee | $0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Annual Fee | $0 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Management Fee | 0.49% - 0.89% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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What management fees does Personal Capital investment advisor charge?
Personal Capital investment advisor charges an annual management fee that starts at 0.49% and ranges up to 0.89%.
Many financial advisors charge based on how much money they oversee by using a fee-structure called “assets under management,” or AUM. For instance, a 0.40% fee translates to $4 per year for every $1,000 an investment advisor manages. Management fees, also known as maintenance fees, cover the operating costs of investment advisors and are typically deducted from your account every month or quarter. The management fee does not cover the underlying expense ratios of the investment vehicles purchased by investment advisors.
What are the investment expense ratios of Personal Capital investment advisor?
Hiring an investment advisor with competitive investment fees is one of the most important steps to maximizing your portfolio's performance. Investment expense ratios can vary drastically depending on the types of accounts and assets involved. A survey by the ICI puts the average expense ratio for actively managed funds at 0.76% and indexed funds at 0.08%. The investment expense ratios of an investment advisor will vary depending on the type of assets they invest in and whether they attach additional charges to fund fees.
Personal Capital investment advisor does not charge fees based on an investment expense ratio. What type of investment accounts and asset classes does Personal Capital investment advisor support?
Empower offers the following types of assets and account types.
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Empower does not offer any of the investment vehicles that we track.
What is the minimum amount you have to invest to open an account with Personal Capital investment advisor?
Personal Capital investment advisor does not have a minimum amount to open an account.Empower Investment Advisor Disclosure: Empower Personal Wealth, LLC is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training nor does it imply endorsement by the SEC. Past performance is not a guarantee of future return, nor is it necessarily indicative of future performance. Keep in mind investing involves risk.
SuperMoney Disclosure: SuperMoney.com is an independent, advertising-supported service. The owner of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Read more...
Editorial Disclaimer: Editorial and user-generated content on this page is not provided or commissioned by the issuer. Opinions expressed here are the author's alone and have not been approved or otherwise endorsed by any financial institution, including those that are advertising partners.
Message from Personal Capital investment advisor
Message from our editor
What We Love About Personal Capital
Personal Capital will allow you to track your monthly living expenses and your investment portfolio from one place. You can check your credit card statement and calculate your mutual funds’ fees over time, as well as compare their performance against the main market indices. They also allow you to use all the data collected from their free personal finance app to improve their management of your investments. That combination makes Personal Capital one of the best personal finance and wealth management apps around.
As a financial planning website and app, it is as good, if not better, than the best personal finance apps available. Think Mint and BillGuard but with a special focus on tracking your investments.
What Could Personal Capital Do Better?
Personal Capital charges a modest fee for some of its more advanced services like money management and financial planning. You can get some of the same services elsewhere at a lower cost. The fee also covers their one on one advice with a financial adviser.
Personal Capital is also not well-suited for those with smaller investment portfolios. They tend to target those with much greater assets rather than the casual investor, which cuts down their user base somewhat.
Personal Capital’s Background
Personal Capital was launched in 2011 in Redwood, California, and is run by Bill Harris, the former CEO of Intuit and PayPal. The four main features of their service are:
- A net worth calculator that analyzes your assets and liabilities
- A fee analyzer that tracks fees across all of your accounts
- An investment checkup tool that compares your investments to market indices
- A retirement planner to help you grow your money over time
The Verdict
The personal touch of dealing with a human financial advisor is the big difference between Personal Capital and wholesale investment managers, such as SigFig and Betterment.
Providing the option of talking face to face with an expert is a huge deal for wealthy individuals who don’t want to pay the exorbitant fees of big-time investment companies but also don’t want to trust their life savings entirely on a roboadvisor.
Personal Capital can be a great choice, but before signing up with them, be sure to check out their website for information on fees and account minimums.
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SuperMoney Net Recommendation Score
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Empower Investment Advisor Community Reviews
Would you recommend Empower Investment Advisor to your friends?
Mark C.
Jul 8, 2021
May or may not recommend
Terrible advice. No reachable customer service. Advisor had me liquidate funds at another company which cost me huge SHORT TERM capital gains, rather than waiting a few months and doing it at LT CG rate. All so he could get more money under management and higher management fee. Then performance was WORSE than if I had left the money in the single mutual fund at my ...Show More
EO
Eunice O.
Dec 7, 2020
May or may not recommend
Personal loans gave me a choice to boycott credit cards and payday loans. I have been a moderate spender with a good FICO score, but then, I was afraid of choosing the right lender. Thanks to your guidelines, they sure opened my eyes, and I am currently enjoying the loan.
Linda H.
Sep 28, 2017
May or may not recommend
I know this will be the answer to many. We all spend our money and then wonder where it went.
U
Anonymous
Dec 28, 2015
May or may not recommend
I'm looking for a better way of managing my investments than paying an 'adviser' at a big name firm.
I signed up with PC and they called and asked a lot of questions and scheduled a call to review their proposal.
It was like he was reading from a script. When I asked some questions about their view of certain current financial issues the sales guy seemed unhappy and kept saying ...Show More
U
Anonymous
Mar 26, 2015
May or may not recommend
I have had various financial apps in the past and Personal Capital is my most used one. I do still have to keep another on board to budget for my bills and what not, but Personal Capital is essential to me. It's something I've recommended to friends and something I check weekly. I'm a fan of the various tools it offers over its competitors and will continue to use it. ...Show More
Mani K.
Oct 2, 2014
May or may not recommend
This tool probably has everything that you would imagine in a personal finance tool. Data analysis, advice, investment tracking and personalized investment manager to help you with your moves. The catch? $100,000 entry cap. Hmmm.. I'll wait.
Audrey H.
Jun 18, 2014
May or may not recommend
One reason rich people get richer and stay richer than the rest of us is that they have access to hands-on advice on a demand basis. They gladly pay for this advice, viewing it, correctly, as an investment to protect their net worth. Most of the time, the rest of us must make do with “off the rack” services, making any needed adaptations on our own.
But Personal Capital ...Show More
Andrew L.
Apr 19, 2014
May or may not recommend
Even though Personal Capital is clearly a lead generator for the financial management company behind it, it's still an excellent personal finance app. A serious competitor for the other big personal finance apps out there, such as Mint.com and Check.me.
Although Personal Capital has all you really need to track your personal finances, it does lack some of the budgeting tools offered by Mint.com and other personal finance apps. Where ...Show More
DebtRoundUp
Jan 20, 2014
May or may not recommend
This is my go-to money management tool. They do many of the same things that Mint.com do, but they have a clear focus on investments. Super easy interface, but they do lack budgeting tools.
Showing 9 of 9 reviews
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