An Empower Personal Dashboard review for people who want the free net worth and retirement tools without wandering into a 0.89% advisory fee.
Empower’s Personal Dashboard, the app formerly called Personal Capital, is one of the best free money tools around. Link your accounts, and it shows your net worth, spending, investments and retirement outlook in one place.
It’s also a very polite sales funnel. The dashboard is free because Empower would like to manage your money for a fee. Neither of those facts cancels the other. You can use the first and decline the second, as long as you know which is which.
How I reviewed it: the fee, privacy and security details here come from Empower’s own terms of use, privacy policy, help center, product pages and its advisory brochure filed with the SEC, checked in October 2026. No affiliate links.
I used the free dashboard for less than a year, mostly for the cash flow view and the retirement planner. The planner was useful and a little optimistic, the way a real estate listing is optimistic about the word “cozy.” Some of my accounts never would link, which is the price of letting a third party do the plumbing. I never paid for the advisory service, I don’t remember an advisor ever calling, and I don’t use it anymore.
Empower Personal Dashboard Review: The Verdict Up Front
| Empower Personal Dashboard | |
|---|---|
| Verdict | PASS for the free dashboard. SKIP the paid advisory service unless you’ve compared it with a low-cost alternative. |
| Best for | Anyone with accounts in several places who wants one view of net worth and retirement readiness |
| Price | Free. The optional Personal Strategy service costs 0.89% a year under $1 million |
| Linking | Through Yodlee’s FastLink; Empower says it doesn’t store your login credentials |
| Security | 256-bit AES encryption and two-factor sign-in, per its help center |
| Watch out for | Calls and texts recommending its advisory services |
What Is Empower Personal Dashboard?
It’s a free financial dashboard. Empower’s terms of use say the Dashboard is offered free of charge, and its help center confirms it’s the product formerly called Personal Capital. You link bank, brokerage, retirement, loan and mortgage accounts, and it pulls them into one picture.
According to its financial tools page, it includes:
- Net worth tracking across everything you link
- Budgeting and cash flow, with a redesigned budget tool in its July 2026 release notes
- A retirement planner that runs scenarios, not just a calculator. Some scenario features are web-only.
- Portfolio analysis, which compares your allocation with a recommended target
- A savings planner, plus debt paydown and emergency fund tools
It’s on the web and in free iOS and Android apps.
How Empower Makes Money From a Free Tool
Empower doesn’t hide this. Its privacy policy says it may use your phone number to contact you by phone or text to recommend services and product offerings, and says plainly that its objective is to win you over as an Empower advisory client. Its terms say you agree to receive those calls and texts. To stop the advisor calls, the privacy policy says to tell the advisor at the time of the call.
On data, the same policy says Empower does not sell your personal data and does not share it with affiliates for their marketing. That’s a better promise than many free apps make.
The Paid Part: Personal Strategy
Personal Strategy is Empower’s managed portfolio service. Per its advisory brochure dated May 18, 2026, the minimum is generally $100,000 per household, and the fee is 0.89% a year for balances under $1 million. Above that, tiers start at 0.79% on the first $3 million.
For comparison, Betterment’s digital plan charges 0.25%, and Fidelity Go charges no advisory fee under $25,000 and 0.35% above it. On $250,000, the difference between 0.89% and 0.25% is $1,600 a year, every year. Run your own numbers in the fee drag calculator. Over 20 years, that gap is a car, maybe two.
Personal Strategy includes human advisors, which some people value. Just price that against what a flat-fee financial planner would charge for a one-time plan.
Security and Privacy
- Encryption and 2FA. Empower’s security page cites 256-bit AES encryption and two-factor authentication at sign-in.
- Linking. The terms say account aggregation runs on Yodlee’s FastLink platform. Empower’s privacy policy says it doesn’t store your login credentials, and its help center says no individual at Empower has access to client credentials.
- Money movement. The dashboard can move money between Empower’s own accounts, but for outside accounts you link, transfers start at your own bank or broker.
- No data sales. The privacy policy says Empower does not sell your personal data.
Pros and Cons
- Pro: genuinely free, and the net worth and retirement views are excellent
- Pro: one picture of accounts spread across several institutions
- Pro: clear privacy promises, including no data sales
- Con: expect calls and texts about its advisory service
- Con: the advisory fee is high compared with robo-advisors
- Con: linking runs through a third-party aggregator, and some of my accounts never connected at all
Who Empower Is For, and Who Should Skip It
Use the free dashboard if you:
- Have money in three or more places and no single view of it
- Want a retirement projection that uses your real accounts
- Can say “no, thank you” to a friendly phone call
Skip it if you:
- Don’t want any financial account linked to a third-party app
- Have one account and already see everything in it
- Know a sales call will talk you into something
If you want an independent second opinion on your whole portfolio, Morningstar’s Portfolio X-Ray does a similar job without an advisory upsell, for $249 a year; see my Morningstar Investor review. For a dividend-specific view, see the best dividend tracker apps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Empower Personal Dashboard really free?
Yes. Empower’s terms say the Dashboard is offered free of charge. Empower makes money from optional paid services, mainly Personal Strategy, its managed portfolio service.
Is Empower the same as Personal Capital?
Yes. Empower’s help center describes Empower Personal Dashboard as formerly Personal Capital.
Will Empower call me if I sign up?
It may. Its privacy policy says it may contact you by phone or text to recommend services, and its terms say you agree to receive those calls. You can ask the advisor to stop at the time of the call.
How much does Empower Personal Strategy cost?
Per its May 2026 advisory brochure, 0.89% a year for balances under $1 million, with a minimum of generally $100,000. Lower tiers apply above $1 million.
Is it safe to link my accounts to Empower?
Empower cites 256-bit AES encryption and two-factor sign-in, uses Yodlee for account linking, and says it doesn’t store your login credentials. As with any aggregator, use a unique password and turn on two-factor authentication at each linked institution too.
Does Empower sell my data?
Its privacy policy says Empower does not sell your personal data and does not share it with affiliates for their marketing purposes.
Bottom Line: My Empower Personal Dashboard Verdict
PASS on the free dashboard, with clear eyes. It’s one of the best free ways to see your whole financial life on one screen, and the retirement planner is worth the setup. Just treat its projection as the sunny version and test it with more conservative assumptions. Link your accounts, turn on two-factor authentication, and use it.
When the call comes, and it may, remember the number from the brochure: 0.89% a year. If someone is going to manage your money for that, compare it with a robo-advisor or a flat-fee planner first. The dashboard is the gift. The fee is the business.
Reviews on The Witty Investor are built from fee schedules, disclosures and math, labeled for what they are. No company paid for placement, and nothing here was tested with real money. How I review.