Empower Retirement
Sucks at investingAuto 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.