Personal Strategy

How it works

By combining our robust technology with the expertise of our financial professionals, we can deliver a truly personalized solution. This means you’ll get a strategy that’s directly linked to your financial goals, with enhanced diversification that could ultimately lead to a better financial outcome for you. And once your Personal Strategy is in place, our advisors can help you with financial planning, retirement, education saving and more.

The result: A sophisticated, transparent and custom portfolio—Personal Strategy.

1.

Portfolio building

All our model portfolios utilize our proprietary Smart Weighting™ methodology and are designed to maximize return for a given level of risk.

2.

Strategy selection

Your portfolio personalization starts with our strategy selection algorithm, driven by factors that are unique to you.

3.

Dynamic portfolio allocation

We implement and maintain a dynamic portfolio allocation for you that changes over time as your financial situation evolves.

4.

Monitoring and maintenance

We monitor your portfolio and make adjustments as needed. This includes disciplined rebalancing, and tax optimization strategies such as tax loss harvesting.

Advantages of your Personal Strategy

Tax optimization

Our sophisticated tax-optimization process focuses on three key areas: asset location, tax-loss harvesting and tax efficiency.

Disciplined rebalancing

We review portfolios daily for rebalancing opportunities. This provides the potential for enhanced returns by creating a systematic way of buying low and selling high.

Smart Weighting™

Smart Weighting provides more even exposure to factors such as size, style, and sector, potentially providing better diversification for your portfolio.

Dedicated advisor

Your own dedicated financial professional will be there along the way to help with financial planning needs and behavioral coaching.

Our benefits

What do you have to gain by choosing Empower as your wealth management partner? Here’s a cost-benefit analysis of our personalized approach to wealth management.

Enhance your annual return by up to:

Tax optimization¹	1.00%
Smart weighting and rebalancing²	0.30%
Behavioral coaching³	1.50%

Financial planning is a core part of our offering and included in our services at no additional cost. Some advisors can also charge at least $100 or more as their hourly rates for these types of services. That means you could expect to pay anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for a single planning item like generating a retirement plan.*

*Investopedia, “What fees do financial advisors charge?”, May 28, 2023

Our fee structure

There are no hidden fees, no trailing fees and no trade commissions.

Annual fee for primary and premium clients

First $1M	0.89%
For Private Clients
First $3M	0.79%
Next $2M	0.69%
Next $5 M	0.59%
Over $10M	0.49%
Includes family tiered billing

1 By avoiding tax-inefficient funds and adding the benefit from tax location and tax loss harvesting, our research shows proper tax management can improve portfolio returns by up to 1.0% annually. Inefficient funds alone can carry an average tax cost ratio of 1.5%, which is based on YCharts data for all domestic equity mutual funds as of March 31, 2024. Calculations take the average tax cost ratio since inception of each fund. If a fund did not provide a tax cost ratio since inception, it was excluded from the calculation.

2 We performed a hypothetical back-test using historical market returns from stocks in the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 indexes. Based on available data, the hypothetical results are time-linked equal returns of size, style, and sector indexes. From 1991 to 1995, results are calculated using an average of equal-weighted S&P sectors and an equal weight of the S&P 500 and Russell 2000. From 1996 to present, results are calculated using an average of equal-weighted S&P sectors and the nine Russell Style box indexes. Results assume the reinvestment of dividends. These retroactive results do not include the effects of cash flows, fees, commissions, or taxes, all of which would have affected the returns. For SW, the current benefit is 0.5%, and this is based on the annualized return of SW that is 11.1%, and the S&P annualized return of 10.6% for the period 12/31/1990 to 12/31/2023. Taking this 0.5% difference and assuming a 55% U.S. equity weighting for a growth strategy, the potential annualized benefit is 0.3%.

3 Vanguard Advisor’s Alpha ® Perspectives: “Putting a value on your value: Quantifying Vanguard Advisor’s Alpha,” corporate.vanguard.com/content/dam/corp/articles/pdf/putting_value_on_your_value_quantifying_vanguard_advisors_alpha.pdf. [corporate.vanguard.com]

All investments are subject to the risk of loss. This information is intended only to illustrate a potential index strategy. Past returns are no guarantee of future performance. There can be no assurance that any strategy will be profitable, or that the equal weighting approach described above will perform better than the S&P 500 or other market-weighted index. Actual results for Empower Personal Wealth Composite Personal Strategies are available upon request.

We performed a hypothetical back-test using historical market returns for the six major liquid asset classes: U.S. stocks, international stocks, U.S. bonds, international bonds, alternatives, and cash. We then selected six of the commonly utilized model client asset allocations, ranging from highly aggressive to conservative, and ran a performance analysis from 1970 to 2022. Two sets of returns were calculated for each asset allocation: one with annual rebalancing and one without. Out of all portfolio outcomes, the annually rebalanced portfolios generated a performance benefit of up to 0.1%. The research, views, and opinions contained in these materials are intended to be educational; may not be suitable for all investors; and are not tax, legal, accounting, or investment advice.

Advisory services are provided for a fee by Empower Advisory Group, LLC (“EAG”). EAG is a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and subsidiary of Empower Annuity Insurance Company of America. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. You may lose money. All visuals are illustrative only. Actors are not EAG clients.

A strategy as unique as you are

Personal Strategy® is a globally diversified multi-asset class portfolio built with individual stocks and ETFs, designed and managed specifically for you.