Typical Bureaucracy & Non-Fiduciary Brokerage Firm
Pros
The dashboard technology they bought from Personal Capital.
Cons
-Leadership doesn't seem to truly care. They move forward with their agenda and try to spin it as an "advantage" for employees. For example, our sales team was moved from unlimited PTO to non-exempt employees back on "hourly" pay on Christmas Day! Merry Christmas! They tried to spin this and say "Hey this is great for you because now you can make tons of money on overtime." Oh yeah, I'm buying that...I would bet money that in the next few years, they will also be forcing remote employees to come back to the office. When leaders don't follow through with what they say, you eventually stop trusting them. -They are still selling outdated products that I believe as a Fiduciary are completely inappropriate for investors. Their brokerage offering is also expensive and not very competitive. -Marketing in the Direct-to-consumer business is lacking. If you can find your way to the dashboard it's great but getting there is a whole different story. The Empower website is not user-friendly and if you aren't already familiar with the site you will rack your brain trying to navigate where you need to go to access your account. -The best leads you get as a sales advisor are current Empower Premier customers who are in mutual funds and stumble upon the Personal Dashboard. You get to offer these folks the Personal Strategy - Stock - Smart Weighting option which is much better than what they are in. But I must say it is weird selling against your own organization and having to tell customers that what they are using to invest is not really in their best interest. Basically, as a salesperson, you are put in the awkward situation of potentially having to explain why Empower is not united in its values.
