Empower Launches ‘End-to-End’ Retirement Planning Solution

Empower Retirement will launch an end-to-end retirement management experience for plan participants designed to help an individual from the goal-setting stage at the start of the one’s career through a withdrawal strategy that’s implemented when their working years conclude.

The new offering, called My Total Retirement, blends a traditional retirement managed account with a digital and mobile multi-touch experience designed to help meet the needs of today’s employees.

In addition, Empower is announcing plans for a phased launch of a new brand for its participant offering, called EmpowerUp, which is to be focused on the broad needs of individuals. The new program will join My Total Retirement with health care savings, budget management, decision support tools and other elements of Empower’s current suite of retirement services.

My Total Retirement will fully integrate into Empower’s online participant experience. Individuals can use the new offering to view and model their savings as potential future monthly income. Empower will pull real-time data from all of a participant’s income sources, savings and investment accounts and integrate those factors with demographic data into a planning experience using the input of investment professionals and Empower proprietary technology.

My Total Retirement will include a multi-channel participant communication program that provides and implements personalized recommendations and is designed to increase engagement and action.

Employees in retirement plans that implement My Total Retirement will have access to a range of services through Empower Retirement Advisory Services provided by Advised Assets Group, LLC, a registered investment adviser. Advised Assets Group is a part of Great-West Investments, which has more than $100 billion under management or supervision.

According to Empower, through My Total Retirement, employees will have a new means to:

• Personalize their strategy: The new offering creates full alignment with each employee’s life situation and goals to create a holistic view of all relevant information from inside and outside the retirement plan;
• Manage as needs change: Participants will have access to ongoing professional investment management, with regular reviews and access to one-on-one support with investment adviser representatives;
• Transition to retirement: As one’s working years draw to a close, their strategy shifts to a focus on capital preservation with steady retirement income; and
• Optimize for Social Security: Participants can receive guidance to help get the most from Social Security.

The new experience includes ongoing access to a team of specially trained investment adviser representatives who can answer questions about an employee’s current strategy, discuss any changes to goals or potential income sources and help an employee personalize their profile for a more customized strategy.

“We will be offering My Total Retirement so that employers and their advisers can help employees with a holistic retirement planning experience that goes beyond savings and investing,” says Edmund F. Murphy III, president of Empower Retirement.

Murphy notes that My Total Retirement includes fiduciary support that is designed to keep the best interests of participants in mind through improved employee education. In line with U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Qualified Default Investment Alternative (QDIA) rules My Total Retirement may serve as a plan’s default option.

Later this year, Empower will unveil a new branded participant program that will bring many elements of the firm’s offering in to a single holistic and integrated experience.  EmpowerUp will provide engaging features and educational elements designed to make it easy for individuals to take action on their financial health and wealth.

EmpowerUp will serve as a unifying theme, guiding participants to take steps to increase savings, invest wisely, manage their budget, plan for health care and consider their entire financial picture as they save for the future. 

Murphy explains that the new program will be formally rolled out later this year with additional elements to come through a strategy of ongoing enhancements.