Empower Retirement
Sucks at investing
Auto enrolled into this shit-stain of an Empower Retirement through my internship. Despite opting out, they put me back in when it came time to process the first payment.
These assholes took about $130 off my paycheck and refused to give it back until 2 months after it “vested” (that or some other bullshit–regardless, it was way too long for what amounted to a refund).
Once it came to that time, I was given a few other reasons to delay my payment.
I can’t remember what for, as it was three months ago, and those reasons basically amounted to them being a bureaucratic hellscape.
But finally, I got them to start the refund–only after realizing, to my horror, that they “invested it.”
In the month they played it in the stock market, my $130 shrank to about $100—a loss.
I want to point out that this is the longest bull economy in our nation’s history. How in the economic fuck did they pull that off?
Naturally, they took a fee for the refund, and then I incurred a $19 tax for the early withdrawal of my 401k.
The auto-enroll payment that should have never went through occurred in August 2018.
It is now February 2019, and I am looking at a $77 check from Empower.
While I figure getting that back is better than forgetting about the account forever, I’m still pissed that we live in a world where companies like this exist.
tl;dr: Anti-consumer. Bureaucratic. It sucks at investing. They all probably eat babies.
Horrible company
After leaving mu current employer i decided to cash out my 401k. Process was pretty easy called a rep stated it can take 7-10 business days. Here i am wayyyy past the 10 days only for them to say if it was lost it would be the postal service fault and they didnt have any tracking # or any other info. They could put a stop on the check but it would take ANOTHER 10days!!! What a fucking joke of a company!
Is this company even real?
Got a letter from Empower retirement under a name that has over the years appeared on my credit report but is not, nor has ever been my legal name (and with my first name misspelled). I called the number listed and the first thing the asked for was my SSN. Not giving that out on the phone to a company I know nothing about. Waited for a person… they said (even though I had an account number listed, that they could not look my account up without my SSN – again, not giving that out to just anyone). A week later I got a check for $383.00 under the Never-been-my-legal-name. And it’s just sitting in my purse. Can’t cash it, it’s not my legal name, can’t get it fixed because I won’t give out my SSN to strangers over the phone. Kind of stuck in limbo. I did have a retirement fund out in CO back in 2001 that I never got my money out of – so that could be it, but how am I supposed to know when they won’t just look up the account by the account number? Overall, if this is a real company, they are super sketchy.
I requested a withdrawal of my 401 because an urgent financial situation to pay my bills after I lost my employment.
I also consider that joining empower retirement is a mistake but it was the retirement company my employer was working with. I requested a withdrawal of my 401 because an urgent financial situation to pay my bills after I lost my employment. I received an email that the check was mailed on Friday, February 2, and that will take up to 5 business days.
Today is Wednesday, February 21, and still no check on site. I called customer service and they said that the check has not been cashed yet and they can put a stop payment and issue another which can delay another 3 or more weeks.
I decided to wait until Friday, February 23, and see if I can finally get the check, hopefully will arrive since my utility bills can wait any longer. Please beware of this company! I never heard of a retirement company that takes that long with the payment. They should start working with UPS (which issue a tracking number) instead of the USPS where have no way to track the check.
I just want them to send me my money.
I have to admit that I had not had any issues with Great West, now Empower prior to this year. As a physician we are allowed to set aside money in a “Rabbi trust” which is a non qualified plan which is basically a salary deferral.
This year’s distribution was removed from my account on Feb 5th,. My employer’s part was immediately paid to me in my next paycheck. I did not receive my part of the deferred salary that I had put away so I made a call on Feb 20th to customer service.
I was told it might take up to 10 business days to arrive. On the 22nd it still had not arrived so I called back and after discussing it with the customer service rep made the decision to stop payment on the check. I was given the number on the check so that if it did arrive not to cash it and wait for the new check.
I was told it would take 5 to 10 business days before the new check would arrive but would most likely be less. I have had prior distributions over the last 10 years and they have been very prompt.
I'm concerned now that the implementation just lost my funds!
Empower failed to provide written announcements on a outage to convert to their Empower Retirement plan. Our Payroll department obtained a soft-copy and distributed it to staff after the black-out had started.
We have not been able to see our balances since and the last transaction in my history has that date and described as a distribution. A distribution I cannot view – says: “Your plan does not allow this option”.
I’ve been through numerous plan black-outs in my 40+ years being in qualified plans. Never has I seen such a poor implementation. I’m concerned now that the implementation just lost my funds!
It shouldn't be this difficult
Can’t count how often I’ve called this company to assist me to simply transfer the 401K assets of my spouse into an account in my name in accordance with a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) signed by a judge and issued by a court on 13 February. Empower says they never received the order sent to them by my attorney in February.
I personally faxed a copy of the QDRO to Empower on 9 March and my attorney sent them a copy on 12 March. According to Empower representatives, it takes 2–3 weeks for their legal department to review a 3-page court order and then send it to someone to punch a couple of buttons to actually make the transfer.
In the interim, I’ve had to keep cancelling attorney appointments which delay my submitting the necessary paperwork to apply for MEDICAID for my disabled spouse. Despite my pleas to expedite the process, Empower doesn’t seem to care that I’m paying a nursing home facility $7,000 per month out-of-pocket while they take their time to process the transfer and provide me a letter certifying the assets have been transferred so the MEDICAID application process can begin. It shouldn’t be this difficult, Empower…
So of course I was unable to receive it because it was not the instructions given to them.
It is unbelievable the amount of reviews that I am seeing consistent with what I am currently experiencing and have been experiencing for the last 6 weeks. I sent in paperwork to have my money moved to another 401K as I was no longer with the employer.
They mailed the check to an old address as I am no longer even in the state instead of the new retirement bank even though the instructions were clear and I verified it with the representative. They mailed it regular mail…a retirement check…regular mail! So of course I was unable to receive it because it was not the instructions given to them.
I then called to speak with a supervisor and Matt Hudson went back and forth giving me a run around after I faxed a notarized letter last Wednesday directly from the new retirement company with a confirmation with my new address so that it could be expedited. I was told it would be overnighted to me and the fees waived. Did not happen.
I had to go spend money, time and effort faxing it yet again and speak with another supervisor since…well Matt simply disappeared. Finally I speak with Denise on Friday and she tells me she’s received the fax but that oh…no ones in the office today so nothing will be processed until Monday…
however…rest assured she will get it processed first thing as soon as someone gets in the office. It is now 5:30pm on Tuesday and was the check overnighted to me? Is it finally in my hands as promised?
We thought we had found a great retirement firm until we went to liquidate the funds owed us
We thought we had found a great retirement firm until we went to liquidate the funds owed us. Originally we were told it’d take 5-7 business days to get funds even when using a power of attorney document. We can’t even get the CEO to answer our emails!
We have sent emails, made phone call and NO ONE HAS GOTTEN IN CONTACT WITH US.
Several days ago my husband got a check from Empower Retirement. He took the check to our bank and deposited it. The teller told my husband that the money would not be available until April 19th. Much to our surprise the money was in our checking account just a few days later.
Hubby has written checks to pay off some bills, etc…. Then at the end of last week, hubby is checking our account and we are in the negative. I called the bank and was told that EMPOWER RETIREMENT had PUT A STOP ON THE CHECK.
Couldn’t not get a straight answer from the guy my hubby talked to. All he could say was he would look into it and call back by 10PM that evening, NO PHONE CALL and our checks are being returned for insufficient funds. We have sent emails, made phone call and NO ONE HAS GOTTEN IN CONTACT WITH US.
Bad Service
My father worked there for awhile and felt a little un-patriotic at times as US profits headed right back to the Canadian parent company Great-West Lifeco.
After calling, they simply said that expedited applied ONLY to the delivery
I closed out my account on December 12. It was a rollover to another IRA, so I paid for expedited delivery to have the rollover processed in. I finally received the checks the last week of January.
Today, I received my summary for the first quarter and discovered that they charged me $50.00 for expedited delivery (5 weeks ??). After calling, they simply said that expedited applied ONLY to the delivery, there was no urgency to Empower’s processing of the request.
Told my coworkers and they want to back out too.
Negative Stars! I am in the middle of submitting a hardship application and keep getting the run around. First I submitted it with the wrong application and they told me they were going to email me the correct one but they never did. I searched for the correct one and sent that in and now was told my included documents were not valid…okay
Why didn’t you tell me this when I sent my request the first time? They are so quick to take your money but when you really need it and follow the rules on requesting it they make you jump through hoops for your own money. IT’S MY FREAKING MONEY!!!! Crooks and horrible customer service. Told my coworkers and they want to back out too.
Also my balance keeps changing, it goes up it goes down. But I check the transaction history it doesn’t reflect any recent activity but my balance keeps changing??? Crooks!!!!!! Keep your money away from this company. I’m going to email HR and the CEO of the company I work for so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
I recently left a company.
I recently left a company. When I went to cash out MY!!!!!!! money, I was told it would be unavailable for six months. Why can’t I have the money that is mine? Six months! That is ridiculous. What a poorly ran company. If you are an employer looking for a company, skip this one.
Scammer
Garbage Benefits Provider, Garbage Website
Avoid this company at all costs.
This company is terrible. My employer used Principal Financial which was averaging 8-9% return and switched to this joke of an investment firm. They’re averaging – 7.5% loss for the year so far.This is a retirement fund. If I could give a negative star rating, I would. Avoid this company at all costs.