How Empower’s Free Financial Review Helped Me Rethink Retirement

After doing my first free Empower financial professional review back in 2014, I decided to do another investment portfolio review with them. Given the portfolio review is free for anyone with over $100,000 in investable assets, and my financial situation has changed so dramatically since then, I figured, why not spend a little time to uncover potential optimization opportunities?

I also wanted to experience the process firsthand again, in case any of you want to take advantage of their free financial review as well. Overall, I found it to be a worthwhile and educational experience. You can sign up here if interested once you’ve opened up a free account and linked your assets.

For background, I’ve been using Empower’s free wealth management tools since the end of 2012. I even consulted with them part-time in their San Francisco office in 2013 and 2014 when they were still called Personal Capital. Finally, Financial Samurai is a long-time affiliate partner.

Empower’s Free Professional Review of My Retirement Portfolio

Once you sign up for a free Empower account and link at least $100,000 in investable assets, you can schedule a free financial review. The process includes two calls – a short discovery call, followed by a recommendations call.

The First Call: A 17-Minute Discovery Chat

After scheduling my appointment, an Empower professional called to verify my identity and gain a basic understanding of my financial situation, goals, and desires. Note: you must have linked at least $100,000 in investable assets to qualify for the call.

The conversation lasted about 17 minutes. I told him my age (48), my plan to start withdrawing from my rollover IRA after 60, and my goal of maintaining a comfortable retirement with about $60,000 a year in gross income/withdrawals, supplemented by Social Security.

I didn’t tell the Empower professional that I run Financial Samurai or that I’m a personal finance junkie. This way, things were more realistic for retirement to help more people.

For the purpose of the review, I only shared my rollover IRA with about $1.5 million. This was my 401(k) that I maxed out from 1999 to 2012 before leaving my job. I converted it to have more flexibility in my investments and reduce fees. Since the conversion, I haven’t contributed a single dollar.

I was curious to hear whether their recommendations were similar to how I invest my overall public investment portfolio.

The Second Call: A 40-Minute Recommendation Session

A week later, we had the follow-up phone call. I logged into my Empower dashboard where I linked my IRA so he could walk me through his recommendations via slides. No video or in-person meeting was needed, which was convenient.

Based on my $1.5 million in assets, he introduced Empower’s Private Client service, for those who have a minimum of $1 million in investable assets. As a Private Client, you get two dedicated advisors, priority access to their Investment Committee, retirement and wealth planning specialists, and even private equity investment options.

My Rollover IRA’s Current Asset Allocation

The next slide broke down my IRA allocation. I learned that 99.6% of my holdings are in U.S. assets, complete home-country bias. About 97.5% is in U.S. stocks, with the rest in cash, alternatives, international stocks, and bonds. I thought I was 99.9% in stocks.

Sector-wise:

• 34.4% in Communication Services (Google, Meta, Netflix)
• 35.2% in Tech (mostly Apple)
• 12.2% in Consumer Discretionary
• 5.5% in Financials
• 3.9% in Health Care
• 3.7% in Industrials
• 2.1% in Consumer Staples

In my mind, I just lump Google, Meta, and Netflix into “Tech,” but technically they’re Communication Services. So, my IRA is roughly 70% tech-heavy, a concentration I’m comfortable with given my outlook.

Personal Strategy Allocation Recommended By Empower

Empower recommended a portfolio of:

• 75.6% Stocks
• 10.1% Alternatives
• 13.6% Bonds

Within stocks:

• 69.9% U.S.
• 21.8% Developed International
• 8.3% Emerging Markets

Although I worked in international equities for 13 years, I’ve avoided them for years due to corporate governance concerns and political risks. Except for Taiwan Semiconductor (Ticker: TSM), I’ve stayed U.S.-focused. Fortunately, that’s worked out well. U.S. stocks have outperformed for over a decade (though 2025 has been a rare year of international outperformance).

Within Alternatives, about 64% was in real estate (including foreign real estate), which caught my eye since ~40% of my overall net worth is already in real estate. I didn’t ask which foreign markets they meant. Worth asking if you take the review.

A 20.9% gold allocation would’ve been nice, given gold’s record 2025 performance.

At only 13.6%, the bond allocation seemed light for someone retiring in 12 years. However, if you view real estate as bonds-plus type of investment, the overall portfolio roughly resembles a 75/25 stocks/bonds mix, which feels right for someone in my position. That’s about my allocation in my taxable accounts too, so Empower’s recommendation made sense.

Smart Weighting: Empower’s Core Strategy

Empower’s Smart Weighting strategy has been around since my consulting days there. It’s their proprietary method of constructing portfolios by evenly weighting across style, size, and sector, instead of following a market-cap index dominated by the biggest names.

The idea: diversify away from bubbles and reduce concentration risk. You end up with a more balanced portfolio that doesn’t lean too heavily on a single sector like tech.

Smart Weighting is a rational, disciplined approach. However, I’m based in San Francisco and am a strong believer in tech, so I’m fine staying overweight. Still, if this were my only portfolio at age 48, having 70% in one sector would be considered excessive.

For instance, my IRA fell from $1,115,000 to $827,000 in 2022, a 26% drop. That’s nearly five years of living expenses gone in one year, if my $60,000 annual living expenses true. If the exuberance of 1999 is truly back, my tech-heavy portfolio could easily lose 40% of its value during the next bear market.

Therefore, getting a professional review of your investments might be more important than ever.

Smart Weighting May Outperform The S&P 500 During Difficult Times

This below chart tries to emphasize how Smart Weighting outperformed the S&P 500 during two difficult time spans (12/31/1999 – 12/31/04 and 12/31/07 to 12/31/12). However, in a raging bull market, Smart Weighting would underperform given Empower would sell your winners in order to maintain their target weightings.

The closer you are to traditional retirement and the more cautious you are about the stock market, the more Smart Weighting makes sense. Personally, I think the ideal return scenario in retirement is slow and steady returns. I do not like to see more than a 10% downward swing in my net worth in a year, which is why my net worth is so diversified.

On your call with the Empower professional, ask:

• What is the drift threshold (%) per sector / style / size that triggers a rebalancing trade in Smart Weighting?
• How do you balance tax consequences vs. drift correction (especially in taxable accounts)?
• Is there a grace band or “buffer zone” to prevent constant churning?

Holistic Financial Planning

Of course, for most people, a retirement portfolio like an IRA is just one piece of the financial puzzle. Nor is optimizing it the only goal. The slide below shows how Empower can help with broader savings and withdrawal strategies, an area even the most disciplined FIRE enthusiasts often struggle with. Having professional guidance here can make a meaningful difference.

Determining how much to save for your children’s education is another big challenge, especially given the relentless rise in college costs and the uncertain impact of AI on future careers. I’ve explored this in detail in my post on 529 plan savings amounts by age and whether or not to superfund the 529.

For those working in tech with a large portion of compensation tied to stock options, consulting with an advisor on tax-efficient selling strategies can be invaluable. Proper timing and diversification can help reduce tax drag and lower overall portfolio risk.

Estate Planning Is Important But Often Neglected

Finally, estate and legacy planning may be the most overlooked yet essential area of financial management. Most of us don’t like thinking too far ahead, let alone contemplating our own mortality. But having an estate planning specialist walk you through different scenarios can help you minimize estate taxes and ensure your wealth is distributed as intended.

If you’re fortunate enough to die with an estate worth more than the federal estate tax threshold (set to return to around $15 million per person in 2026), you’ll want to plan carefully to reduce the 40% estate tax on every dollar above that limit. One way is through an irrevocable life insurance trust.

Being able to talk to an Empower estate planning professional as part of its service is a big value add.

A Retirement Forecast

Finally, we wrapped up the call by reviewing what my retirement could look like starting at age 60, just 12 years from now, if I followed Empower’s recommendations. You can model similar scenarios yourself using their free wealth management tools by adjusting your own input assumptions.

In general, you want to target at least a 90% probability that your portfolio will support your retirement goals. Ideally, you aim for 99% to build in an extra cushion for unexpected events or lower-than-expected returns.

Based on my assumptions – spending $60,000 a year, receiving $37,416 annually in Social Security, and having ~$1,500,000 in my IRA invested per Empower’s recommendations – I’m comfortably on track.

In fact, if I live to age 92, the projection shows I’d pass away with nearly $4 million left over. This result, ending up wealthier in death than at retirement, is actually quite common when following the 4% safe withdrawal rule.

That’s why, once you officially retire, it’s well worth conducting a detailed financial analysis of your situation and running multiple withdrawal rate scenarios. Doing so can help ensure you strike the right balance between living well today and not running out of money tomorrow.

A More Luxurious Retirement Assumption

Given I don’t want to die with a net worth 2.5X higher than when I retired, I decided to bump up my annual spending from $60,000 to $96,000 and YOLO a little. Even at that level, $96,000 still represents just a 4% safe withdrawal rate if I retire at 60 with a $2.35 million portfolio.

In other words, I’d still be projected to die with around $2.4 million left over. This is plenty of cushion to sleep well at night while enjoying life more along the way. That said, my probability of this retirement scenario coming to fruition is only 81%. So maybe I “only” die with $1-$2 million instead of $2.4 million. That’s fine by me.

The Process Of Hiring Empower

Overall, I thought the 40-minute free financial consultation was worthwhile for understanding where my IRA portfolio stood. It feels great knowing that if I can make it to age 60, I should have no problem spending at least $96,000 a year from my IRA portfolio alone. The projection assumes I rebalance my current highly aggressive portfolio, but since I’ve been semi-retired since 2012, I’m not too worried.

Empower uses BNY Pershing as its custodian, so if you decide to have them manage your money, you’ll simply fill out a transfer form and move your existing assets to Pershing. Having transferred over $1 million portfolios before to get a better mortgage rate, I know the process is straightforward. You just fill out a permission form online and it takes at most two weeks.

Capital Gains Taxes Due To Rebalancing

My main concern was the tax hit from rebalancing. Paying capital gains on roughly $1.2 million of a $1.5 million portfolio would sting. Thankfully, the Empower advisor reminded me that because this was my IRA, there are no tax consequences from buying or selling positions within it.

Therefore, if you are considering hiring Empower, I recommend starting with your tax-advantaged accounts. Alternatively, you could have them manage a smaller taxable brokerage account, ideally close to the $100,000 minimum. This approach helps minimize your tax liabilities.

Empower Management Fees

Empower’s fees are competitive for a full-service wealth management firm.

• 0.89% AUM for investment or wealth management clients with less than $1 million
• Private Clients:
  • 0.79% on the first $3 million
  • 0.69% on the next $2 million
  • 0.59% on the next $5 million
  • 0.49% on assets over $10 million

While nobody enjoys paying management fees, these rates are lower than big names like Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan, which typically charge over 1%, on top of the fees from the funds they invest your capital in.

I know this firsthand because I help manage a close relative’s account for free. She moved her seven-figure portfolio from Goldman to an online brokerage account for me to manage. She was paying over 1% but was unhappy with their service and also wanted to part ways with her ex-husband’s money management firm.

Who Benefits Most From a Financial Advisor

If you don’t like managing your portfolio, aren’t confident in investing, don’t have the time, and want holistic financial guidance, Empower is worth considering. You can try them for a year, learn from their approach, and then decide whether to continue paying or return to managing your money yourself.

Many investors have missed out on huge gains this cycle because they kept too much in cash, paralyzed by indecision. I’ve met many of them and were always shocked to see how much cash they had relative to their net worth. Hiring a disciplined advisor could’ve helped them steadily invest and build wealth.

On the flip side, some investors are too aggressive, trading too often, selling near the bottom, and leveraging near the top. These folks could also benefit from Empower’s structured, unemotional approach to portfolio management.

For those of us who are personal finance fanatics, we can manage our own money just fine. But it’s still smart to get a professional check-up every year or two to ensure we’re on track. Markets change, risk tolerances evolve, and it’s easy to lose perspective during bull and bear cycles alike.

A free Empower financial consultation is a low-effort way to get that second opinion, and maybe uncover a few ways to optimize your wealth along the way.

Thankful For My Free Financial Analysis

Even after decades of managing my own money, I found value in getting a fresh, professional perspective. Empower’s free financial review gave me greater clarity about my retirement plan and confidence that my current strategy still aligns with my long-term goals. Sometimes, an outside set of eyes helps you see what you’ve been overlooking.

It’s funny to think back: when I started Financial Samurai at 32, traditional retirement at 60 or 65 felt like a lifetime away. Now at 48, it suddenly feels right around the corner.

My energy isn’t what it used to be, but my responsibilities have only grown with two young kids and a stay-at-home wife depending on me. The pressure to get our finances right has never been greater. That’s why I’m grateful I went through another free financial review with Empower. It gave me peace of mind and I hope it does the same for you.

Readers, if you’ve had your own free financial review, what are some things you discovered about your portfolio and your overall finances? When was the last time you had a review of your finances and what did you change as a result?

The statement is provided to you by Financial Samurai (“Promoter”) who has entered into a written referral agreement with Empower Advisory Group, LLC (“EAG”). Click here to learn more.