Empower Personal Dashboard Review 2026: Free Tools, Paid Advisory

Empower's Personal Dashboard is free. As of September 25, 2026, the company's own tools page answers its own cost question with "Nothing! The dashboard experience and financial tools are completely free." The catch sits one layer down: Empower also sells a managed advisory service, and that service starts at 0.89% of assets a year with a $100,000 entry point, according to its Personal Strategy page read the same day.

Financeradar data: 35 of the 36 high-yield savings accounts we verify publish an APY, and those 35 average 3.53% as of September 25, 2026 (high-yield savings statistics). Empower's own cash account pays 3.50% APY, per its cash account page, read the same day: a few basis points under that tracked average, and nowhere near what the advisory fee would take out of the same balance if it were managed instead of parked.

What the free dashboard actually does

Empower's tools page lists eight linked tools inside the dashboard: Retirement Planner, Net Worth, Budgeting & Cash Flow, Portfolio Analysis, Savings Planner, Debt Paydown, Emergency Fund and Transactions. You link bank, card, loan and investment accounts, including 401(k)s the way Pontera does for advisors, and the dashboard pulls balances into one net worth view. Setup takes "just a few minutes" per the same page, and no credit card or payment method is requested to use any of the eight tools.

That free layer is why Empower shows up constantly as the answer to "how do I see all my accounts in one place" without a subscription. It is a viewer and a planner, not a manager: nothing in the free tier rebalances a portfolio, negotiates a bill or moves money automatically. The moment a reader wants someone else to run the investing, Empower routes them to the paid side.

The advisory fee schedule, tier by tier

Empower runs three advisory tiers under Empower Advisory Group, and the fee schedule is published on the product pages, not buried in a PDF. Both the Personal Strategy page and the Private Client page, read September 25, 2026, print the same table.

The fee steps down inside Private Client, not at the round million-dollar entry point a reader might expect: someone who joins with barely over the minimum still pays the top Private Client rate on that whole balance, and the discount only starts several tiers higher, at the boundary the table shows. Both pages add that these rates exclude "underlying fund expenses, brokerage fees, or other costs," and that Empower's average ETF expense ratio runs 0.06% on top, so the all-in cost is the advisory fee plus a small fund cost, not the advisory fee alone.

One discount stands out: parents and children of a Private Client can join at a flat 0.79% "with no asset minimum," per the Private Client page, waiving the usual entry point for family members riding on an existing client's relationship.

Watch out for these before you book a call

The dashboard's free eight tools are the lead generator for the fee above. Empower states plainly, in its own terms, that "we may offer you additional services, such as wealth management services provided by EAG, which you may elect to participate in, for a fee," and that enrolling requires "a separate agreement, including a fee schedule, with EAG." Nothing forces a dashboard user into advisory, but the product is built to surface the upsell once a linked net worth crosses the entry point.

A 0.89% fee is a real number to weigh against a robo-advisor. Most robo-advisors that manage a diversified portfolio charge a flat rate well under 0.89% regardless of balance size, so a reader whose only goal is index investing, not a dedicated advisor, financial planning and tax-loss harvesting, is paying for services beyond the portfolio itself. Whether that is worth it depends on how much you use the planning, not the tracking.

The $100,000 minimum is a floor, not a target price. Someone with $40,000 to invest cannot buy into Personal Strategy at all; Empower's paid tier only opens once a reader already has six figures under management, which rules the product out for a reader still building that balance.

Empower against the paid net worth trackers

Monarch, Copilot and Kubera charge a flat subscription instead of an asset-based fee, and none of the three offers a managed advisory arm the way Empower does.

Empower is the only one of the four with a path to a human advisor, and it is the only one whose price can exceed the other three combined once a balance is large enough to push past 0.89% of a seven-figure account. A reader who only wants the tracking, never the advisor, gets the same net worth view for free from Empower and pays nothing, while Monarch, Copilot and Kubera charge a subscription for that same tracking from day one.

Who Empower fits and who should skip the paid tier

Empower fits a reader who wants a free, linked view of every account first, then decides later whether a dedicated advisor is worth the fee once assets clear the entry point. It also fits a family already using Private Client, since a parent's account lets an adult child join advisory at 0.79% with no minimum of their own.

It is a weak fit for anyone below that entry point looking for a subscription-priced advisor, since no lower paid tier exists to buy into; that reader is better served comparing flat-fee robo-advisors in best robo-advisors or a head-to-head like Wealthfront vs. Betterment. It is also a weak fit for someone who only wants bill negotiation or cancellation help, which the free dashboard does not do; that reader wants Rocket Money instead. A reader deciding between letting idle cash sit versus alternative assets can compare Empower's cash APY against is Masterworks worth it or is Arrived worth it, two very different risk profiles from a linked bank account. Someone who already pays an advisor for a held-away 401(k) is closer to Pontera than to Empower's own advisory arm. A reader still comparing free self-directed apps starts at best free investing apps or best AI personal finance apps.

How we checked

We read Empower's tools, cash, Personal Strategy, Private Client and terms-of-use pages on September 25, 2026, for the free-dashboard claim, the cash APY and the full advisory fee schedule. We read Monarch's live pricing page, Copilot's homepage and FAQ, and Kubera's homepage and Black-tier article, all September 25, 2026, for the comparison table. The high-yield savings figure is Financeradar's own statistic, also dated September 25, 2026. No account was opened and no advisory agreement was signed for this review.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm current fees and minimums directly with Empower before enrolling in any paid tier, and see how we make money below.

Financeradar may earn a commission from some links; it never affects rankings (how we make money).

FAQ

Is Empower's Personal Dashboard really free?

Yes. Empower's tools page answers its own pricing question with "Nothing!" for the dashboard and its eight linked tools, and the terms of use, last updated August 1, 2025, state the dashboard "is offered free of charge." No payment method is required to link accounts or use the planning tools.

How much does Empower's advisory service cost?

As of September 25, 2026, Personal Strategy charges 0.89% a year starting at a $100,000 minimum. Empower Private Client, open once a client has $1,000,000 or more, uses a tiered schedule that steps down from 0.79% on the first $3 million to 0.49% once a balance passes $10 million, shown in full in the table above. Underlying ETF expenses, averaging 0.06%, are separate from the advisory fee.

What is the minimum to use Empower's paid advisory tier?

$100,000 for Personal Strategy's Investment Services level, $250,000 for its Wealth Management level, and $1,000,000 for Empower Private Client, per the company's own product pages. Below $100,000, the dashboard's free tools are the only Empower product available.

What APY does Empower's cash account pay?

3.50% APY as of September 17, 2026, variable and set by UMB Bank, per Empower's cash account page. The account carries no monthly fee and no minimum balance, and deposits are covered up to $5 million in aggregate FDIC insurance across Empower's bank network.

How does Empower compare with Monarch, Copilot and Kubera?

Empower's core tracking is free where the other three charge a subscription from day one: Monarch's Core plan is $99.99/yr, Copilot is $95/yr, and Kubera's Essentials tier is $250/yr. None of the three sells a managed advisory service. Empower's advantage is the free tier and the advisor option; its disadvantage is that the advisory fee scales with your balance instead of staying flat like a subscription.

Does using the free dashboard commit me to the paid advisory service?

No. Empower's terms state that wealth management is an optional service you "may elect to participate in, for a fee," requiring "a separate agreement, including a fee schedule." Linking accounts to the dashboard does not enroll you in advisory, and the free tools keep working without ever signing that agreement.

Is this Empower review personalized financial advice?

No. It is general information built from Empower's own tools, cash, Personal Strategy, Private Client and terms-of-use pages, read September 25, 2026, and Financeradar's high-yield savings statistic, dated the same day. Your own eligible balance, state of residence and Empower's current fee schedule determine what you would actually pay, and only Empower or a fee agreement in hand can confirm those numbers.

Cite this: Financeradar, "Empower Personal Dashboard Review 2026: Free Tools, Paid Advisory", September 2026.