Empower Gets the Job Done
Updated May 22, 2025

Empower Gets the Job Done

Laurie Grzejka | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Empower

We use Empower as our 401K broker/provider. Our employees log into Empower to sign up, make changes, take out a loan or close their account. We don't have the time to do these administrative tasks for 401K. When the change is done, we will get a report to make the change in our payroll system. Empower also provides any reports we might need.

Pros

  • Keep track of all our employee's 401K accounts
  • They take care of all notices for account holders
  • They take care of all tasks in a timely manner.

Cons

  • The transfer of payroll information from our payroll software to Empower, without getting charged on both ends.
  • The fees can be a lot
  • Notifying us when a notice or letter is returned to sender, so we can try to find out the new address.
  • More employees use Empower
  • Statements are delivered in a timely manner
Employees can log in and access their 401k accounts. They can make changes, check their balance or take out loans, with confidentiality. I give it an 8 because it takes 10 days to 2 weeks for those changes to get to me (the administrator) so I can make the necessary changes to their payroll profiles. I think a 5 day waiting period would be more reasonable.
Empower gives me as an administrator, more access to accounts, and more access to customer service reps than ADP ever did. With Empower, if there is an issue, and a simple fix is needed without a rep being called, then I can do it. ADP had to open a ticket than wait up to 10 days for simple issues to be resolved.

Do you think Empower delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Empower's feature set?

Yes

Did Empower live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Empower go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Empower again?

Yes

Does all the work for correct deductions from employee's pay. When there is an issue with any employee's account, Empower works hard researching the issue and getting to the problem to correct it in a timely manner. My submitting payroll deductions is fast and easy. There are no issues there.

Empower Feature Ratings

7.6
Customer data management / contact management
9
Workflow management
8
Territory management
8
Opportunity management
7
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)
7
Contract management
7
Quote & order management
7
Interaction tracking
8
Channel / partner relationship management
7
8.0
Case management
8
Call center management
8
Help desk management
8
8.0
Lead management
8
Email marketing
8
7.3
Task management
8
Billing and invoicing management
6
Reporting
8
8.0
Forecasting
8
Pipeline visualization
8
Customizable reports
8
8.0
Custom fields
8
Custom objects
8
Scripting environment
8
API for custom integration
8
9.0
Role-based user permissions
9
Single sign-on capability
9
7.5
Social data
8
Social engagement
7
6.0
Marketing automation
6
Compensation management
6
Platform ()
Not Rated

Using Empower

150 - 148 are employees or participants and 2 are administrators.
2 - Myself - Payroll Manager / HR
Our CFO.
  • Monitor 401k accounts
  • Send out all types of notifications to participants
  • Keep track of loans
  • reports for audits
  • reports for taxes
  • not sure
We have had no problems and will stay with Empower for our 401k needs.

Evaluating Empower and Competitors

  • Ease of Use
Very user friendly website with all contacts listed for additional help if needed.
We have been with Empower for a long time. Before that it was Merrill Lynch.
This has to be 20 years now.

Empower Implementation

  • Don't know
  • Happened many years ago before I worked for the company

Empower Training

  • No Training
Pretty much. I asked a few questions. But mostly it was self explanatory.
I basically needed to know the paths to complete tasks. Also asked a few questions about running reports. I also had to learn that I needed to check notifications almost every day. There is always something an employee needs approved.

Configuring Empower

When we changed payroll companies, it was pretty easy for empower to work with them. We still have to log into Empower to submit payrolls, but the payroll report is uploaded to them in 24 hours after submitting payroll. The only problem we have are loans. Empower is not recognizing when a participant has 3 or more loans. It will not list those loans in the Pending Contributions, and I have to add them manually.
They need better "communication" with outside sources, as in payroll companies and software. There should be no reason they are not listing all loans each participant has. These are being deducted from their pay, yet are not being included in the Pending Contributions. This causes extra work for us. If Empower is supposed to make our life easier, this is not it.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code

Empower Support

Had a past participant from 20 years ago, receive a letter from the government saying they might have a retirement account. Empower helped this employee and I didn't have to play detective concerning this person. They back tracked to Merrill Lynch to find this former participant and help her. I was impressed.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
No, Support has been good so far. I did not even know that this support exists. However I do not see why you would have to pay extra to have any kind of support. And wouldn't all support be premium? They should not differentiate between support and "premium" support, let alone make you pay for it.
Had a past participant from 20 years ago, receive a letter from the government saying they might have a retirement account. Empower helped this employee and I didn't have to play detective concerning this person.

Using Empower

ProsCons
Like to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • Dealing with rejects on pending payroll contributions.
  • Approving loans and changes
  • running reports - have to go through 2 or more reports to get the correct information.
  • Correcting pending contributions where Empower forgets to list a loan deduction.

Comments

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