Empower vs. Vanguard

If your 401(k) is with Empower

Most people find Empower through work. Empower is one of the largest retirement plan companies, with more than $2.1 trillion in assets under administration as of June 30, 2026 and more than 20 million people served. If your employer’s 401(k) is on Empower, you usually can’t roll it out while you still work there unless the plan allows in-service withdrawals, and the plan’s investment menu and fees are set by your employer and the plan, not by Empower alone.

Some plans let you convert pre-tax 401(k) money to Roth inside the plan. At Empower you can request this online or by form if your plan allows it. Empower doesn’t withhold tax on in-plan conversions, the converted amount is taxable that year, and the conversion can’t be undone, so set aside cash outside the plan for the tax bill.

Vanguard’s role for most individual investors is different: it’s where you’d hold an IRA or rollover, and workplace plans, including ones run by Empower, can include Vanguard index or target-date funds on their menus. If yours does, you get Vanguard’s low fund costs without moving anything.

The 2026 limits are $24,500 in employee 401(k) deferrals and $7,500 for IRAs, at any provider.

Where to keep an IRA or rollover

Vanguard charges $0 for online stock and ETF trades and is known for low-cost index funds. Its Admiral Shares funds usually need $3,000 to start, for example the Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares at 0.04% a year, and its ETFs have no minimum. Uninvested cash sits in a money market settlement fund (VMFXX, 3.81% 7-day yield on October 9, 2026). The fees to watch: $25 a year per account unless you choose e-delivery, $25 for a broker-assisted trade and $100 to close or fully transfer an account out.

Empower offers a Brokerage IRA with no minimum and 1,000 free online trades a year, then $6.95 a trade; a Premier IRA with no advisory fee (fund expenses apply); and a Premier Managed IRA starting at 0.50% a year. Empower’s IRA page notes that other fees may apply under its fee schedule, which we couldn’t find published in full.

For a hands-off investor buying a few index funds, Vanguard costs less once e-delivery is on. The $100 exit fee is the main catch if you might move again.

Advice: the biggest price gap

The cost of advice differs a lot between the two.

• Vanguard Digital Advisor charges a gross 0.20% a year for an all-index portfolio, which Vanguard says nets to about $15 to $16 per $10,000 after fund revenue credits. It needs $100, includes tax-loss harvesting and charges nothing for the first 90 days.
• Vanguard Personal Advisor Select costs 0.30% a year with a $500,000 minimum and gives you a dedicated advisor and a custom plan.
• Empower Premier Managed IRA starts at 0.50% a year.
• Empower Personal Strategy starts at 0.89% a year with a $100,000 minimum, with higher service tiers at $250,000 and $1 million.

On $500,000, that’s about $1,500 a year at Personal Advisor Select’s 0.30% against about $4,450 at Personal Strategy’s starting rate of 0.89%, before Empower’s tiered discounts.

Be careful with sales calls. In August 2025 the SEC found that Empower didn’t properly disclose that its retirement plan advisors were paid bonuses to enroll participants in its managed account service. Empower paid $5,989,969.94 in disgorgement, interest and penalties, without admitting or denying the findings. If an Empower representative suggests rolling your 401(k) into an Empower IRA or a managed account, compare the fee in writing with a low-cost IRA elsewhere before you agree.

Tools, service and track record

Empower’s free Personal Dashboard, which came from its purchase of Personal Capital, lets you link bank, brokerage, retirement and loan accounts from any firm and see your net worth, a fee analyzer and a retirement planner at no cost. You can use it while keeping your money at Vanguard.

Vanguard’s tools focus on its own accounts. Its phone line for personal investors is open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern, it has no branches, and its Trustpilot score is 1.3 out of 5, mostly from complaints about phone waits and transfers. Empower Retirement has an A+ from the BBB with 515 complaints in the last three years. Both apps rate well: 4.8 for Empower and 4.7 for Vanguard on the US App Store.

Both have recent SEC settlements. Vanguard agreed in January 2025 to pay $106.41 million over target date fund tax disclosures, and Empower paid about $5.99 million in August 2025 over advisor incentives. On FINRA BrokerCheck, Vanguard Marketing Corporation lists 52 regulatory events and 8 arbitrations, and Empower Financial Services lists 5 regulatory events and 1 arbitration.

Brokerage accounts at both are covered by SIPC up to $500,000, including $250,000 in cash.