Nation's second largest retirement provider introduces Advisor Managed Accounts with independent advisory firms

Empower Retirement today announced a new means of delivering customized advisory services to workers saving for retirement through close collaboration with the skills and expertise of financial advisors.

Advisor Managed Accounts (AMA) drive integration between advisor firms and Empower by combining the strength of advisors’ portfolio construction and plan design expertise with Empower’s newly redesigned advisory services technology platform and client experience.

Empower serves the retirement needs of approximately nine million Americans who are saving for retirement through 39,000 retirement plans. The provision of advice to those individuals typically occurs through retirement managed accounts, which are designed to provide personalized retirement planning through an analysis of an individual’s goals, demographic data and full financial picture.

AMA provides advisor firms with a seamless path to offer their own managed account services directly to their Empower Retirement clients, leveraging Empower’s cutting-edge advisory services experience and infrastructure. Advisor firms serve as the registered investment advisor for the service and control the investment approach as well as pricing and branding. AMA is offered through Advised Assets Group, LLC (AAG), which also provides Empower Retirement Advisory Services.

“There’s no question that the most successful retirement plans are designed to deliver access to professional advice,” said Edmund F. Murphy, Empower Retirement President and CEO. “Advisors play a critically important role in the retirement-planning process and Advisor Managed Accounts creates a stronger partnership between an advisor’s professional investment management philosophy and Empower’s leading managed account service.”

Empower already has launched AMA in partnership with advisory firms SageView Advisory Group, LLC, Mesirow Financial Retirement Planning and Advisory and Resources Investment Advisors, LLC, as early adopters of the new program.

“Advisor Managed Accounts offers retirement investors the best of both worlds – combining the strengths of SageView’s advisors and dedicated investment team with all the services and technology of Empower,” said Randall C. Long, AIF®, founder & managing principal of SageView. “It allows us to focus on designing a prudent retirement strategy for employees while having Empower there to deliver an optimal participant experience. We fully expect this revolutionary new managed account model to drive better outcomes for employees.”

Empower is in active discussions with other advisory firms about offering AMA to their clients.
A white paper published by the Empower Institute last year lays out the fundamental value of using a managed account for retirement savings purposes. See the paper, “Made to Measure: Evaluating the Impact of a Retirement Managed Account”, for further details.

AMA represents the latest of a series of Empower initiatives to focus on delivering managed account services in new ways. In 2017 the firm launched “Empower Dynamic Retirement Manager,” a first-of-its-kind offering designed to integrate target date investing with the provision of managed accounts throughout an individual’s working years.

Last year, Empower created and delivered “My Total Retirement,” 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.

Empower’s AMA offering is geared toward advisor-sold plans regardless of plan size. The program is available to advisors serving the retirement plan needs of employers from across the spectrum of employer types regardless of industry or government sector.

SageView Advisory Group, LLC, Mesirow Financial Retirement Planning and Advisory and Resources Investment Advisors, LLC are not affiliated with Empower Retirement.

About Empower

Headquartered in metro Denver, Empower Retirement administers $570 billion² in assets for more than 8.7 million participants.³  It is the nation’s second-largest retirement plan record keeper by total participants (Pensions & Investments, April 2018). Empower serves all segments of the employer-sponsored retirement plan market: government 457 plans, small, midsize, and large corporate 401(k) clients, non-profit 403(b) entities, private-label recordkeeping clients and Individual Retirement Account customers. For more information, please visit www.Empower-retirement.com. 

Media Contact:

Stephen Gawlik — 303-737-0899 (office), 617-417-4408 (cell)

Monica Mendoza — 303.737.2626 (office), 719-373-2460 (cell)

Learn More

To learn more about how we’re empowering plan sponsors and their participants to be more engaged in their retirement plans than ever before, call us at 800-719-9914.

There is no guarantee provided by any party that participation in any of the advisory services will result in a profit.

Great-West Financial®, Empower Retirement and Great-West InvestmentsTM are the marketing names of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, Corporate Headquarters: Greenwood Village, CO; Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company of New York, Home Office: New York, NY, and their subsidiaries and affiliates, including registered investment advisers Advised Assets Group, LLC and Great-West Capital Management, LLC.

Securities available through Empower Brokerage are offered by GWFS Equities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC and a subsidiary of Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company. Clearing, settlement, custody and other brokerage services are provided by Pershing LLC, Member FINRA/NYSE/SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. Additional information may be obtained by calling 877-788-6261. GWFS and Pershing are separate and unaffiliated brokerage firms. Accounts are subject to review and approval of GWFS.

Advisor Managed Accounts offered by the named registered investment adviser as defined by the advisory services agreement. Subadvisory services are provided by Advised Assets Group, LLC, a registered investment adviser. The named registered investment adviser is not affiliated with AAG.

Online Advice and My Total Retirement TM are part of the Empower Retirement Advisory Services suite of services offered by Advised Assets Group, LLC, a registered investment adviser. RO773730-0319