Honest comparison
PeakWorth vs Empower
Empower's free dashboard is a great net worth tracker — and a wealth-management funnel. PeakWorth is the full planning platform, with no advisory arm to sell you.
The short version
Credit where due: Empower (formerly Personal Capital) ships a genuinely useful free dashboard — the net worth view and investment fee analyzer are solid, and free. The business model is what follows: link over $100k and the dashboard becomes the front door to a 0.49–0.89%/yr advisory relationship. PeakWorth is the other path — a living financial model at a flat monthly fee that projects your trajectory and prices your decisions, with no advisory arm to route you into.
Empower is best for
Households comfortable being marketed an advisory relationship priced as a percentage of their assets.
Free dashboard. Wealth Management: 0.49–0.89%/yr AUM, $100k minimum.
PeakWorth is best for
Households who want a great planning tool at a flat monthly fee — and would rather keep the 0.5–1% / yr that AUM-based advisors quietly extract.
14-day free trial. Then $9.99/mo Navigator.
The shift worth making: a dashboard that tracks your wealth and a model that grows it are different products. Empower's free tools show you the present with polish. PeakWorth feeds the same data into a projection — so your balances stop being a scoreboard and start being an answer to “when does work become optional, and what moves that date?”
Question by questionWhat each one can answer
| The question | PeakWorth | Empower |
|---|---|---|
What's my net worth today? | ||
Are all my accounts in one place? | ||
What am I paying in fund fees? | ||
How are my current spending habits changing my future? | Limited | |
Can I plan one-time, annual, and ending expenses? | Limited | |
When does work become optional — a dated year? | Retirement planner | |
Can I test the house / job / career-break decision first? | Decision Hub | |
Will someone call about wealth management? | No | Expect a call over $100k linked |
What does it cost? | $9.99/mo flat | 0.49–0.89%/yr on advised assets |
Cost on a $1M portfolio? | $119.88/yr | $4,900–$8,900/yr |
A dashboard that tracks your wealth is not the same thing as a model that grows it.
PeakWorth vs Empower (Personal Capital) — head to head
Empower's free dashboard aggregates accounts and routes you to a 0.89% AUM advisory; PeakWorth is the planning tool without the upsell. Confirm current terms on Empower's site.
| Feature | PeakWorth | Empower (Personal Capital) |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | Flat $119.88/yr (~$9.99/mo); free Quick Start, no signup | Free dashboard; advisory ~0.89%/yr of assets |
| Account minimum | $0 — doesn't custody assets | $0 dashboard; advisory targets ~$100k+ |
| Automated portfolio management | No — it's the planning layer, not a custodian | Yes — via its paid advisory (~0.89% AUM) |
| Retirement output type | Dated FI Age — plus a year-by-year projection to age 95 | 'Will I have enough at 65' success probability |
| Tax-aware lifetime projection (federal + state) | Yes — year-by-year to age 95, all 50 states | Basic single-question planner |
| Decision modeling (buy-vs-rent, bonus, debt payoff) | Yes — the Decision Hub scores each decision's dollar-and-year impact | No |
| Dual-income household modeling | Yes — first-class (separate incomes, accounts, and goals) | Limited |
| Advisor sales outreach | No — ever | Yes — once linked assets cross ~$250k |
| Data export | Yes — CSV import/export of your data | Limited |
Run the math on your own portfolio
Open full calculatorReal, after inflation
Typical 0.8–1.2%
USD per year
Terminal wealth — flat fee
$6,778,888
Terminal wealth — 1.00% AUM
$5,385,796
Foregone wealth from fees
$1,393,092
after 30 years
Estimates only. Assumes fees come out of returns each year and the flat fee comes out of contributions before they compound. Actual results vary with market returns, tax treatment, and contribution timing.
The real reasonsWhy people switch
- A flat $9.99/mo doesn't grow with your portfolio. AUM fees do.
- No advisor cold calls after you link your accounts.
- All the planning tools, none of the upsell.
- On a $1M portfolio over 20 years, the AUM fee delta compounds to six figures.
Watching the number grow isn't the same as steering it
Most people link their accounts to Empower to finally see the whole picture. It's a real milestone. Then the questions change — from “what do we have?” to “what should we do?” — and a dashboard can't answer the second kind.
The questions the free dashboard answers
- What's our net worth, across everything?
- How did the portfolio do this quarter?
- What are the funds quietly charging us?
- Is our allocation roughly sane?
The questions you're asking now
- When, exactly, can we stop working?
- Should we pay off the mortgage or invest the difference?
- What does selling the rental in 2028 do to the plan?
- Do we even need an advisor, or just a model?
Your financial life changes over time. Your budget should too. Empower's answer to the second list is a human advisor priced as a percentage of your assets. PeakWorth's answer is a living financial model at a flat fee — you keep the judgment, and the difference.
Imagine knowing this before making the decision
This is what a projection does that a dashboard can't — answers in dollars and years, before you commit:
“At the 0.89% tier, an advisory relationship on our $800k costs more than $150k in compounded value by 2045.”
“Paying off the 6.1% mortgage beats the brokerage — but only until the balance drops below $120k.”
“Selling the rental in 2028 and indexing the proceeds moves FI from 58 to 56.”
“We can retire at 55 on current habits — the question was never the portfolio, it was the spending.”
Every one of these comes out of the Decision Hub and the AUM fee calculator with your real numbers — modeled as separate scenarios, each against your baseline.
Should you switch?
Stay with Empower if…
- You genuinely want a human managing the portfolio and are comfortable paying 0.49–0.89%/yr for it.
- You only want the free dashboard and don't mind the wealth-management outreach.
- Your situation is complex enough (concentrated stock, business sale) that hands-on management earns its fee.
Add PeakWorth if…
- You want the plan without the sales relationship — and would rather keep the fee compounding for you.
- You keep wondering “could we already be done?” and the retirement planner gives you a range, not a date.
- A big move — mortgage payoff, rental sale, early retirement — needs to be priced before you commit.
Context
Empower is two products: a free dashboard with a polished UI, and a wealth management service that costs 0.49–0.89%/yr of assets under management. The free dashboard is the lead-generation funnel for the advisory service.
If you want planning tools without the sales relationship, a flat-fee tool like PeakWorth saves a meaningful amount over a long horizon. On $500k of assets at the 0.89% Empower tier, you pay $4,450 in year one — versus $119.88/yr for PeakWorth.
Find out what the fee is really costing you
Connect your accounts or enter numbers by hand. In about ten minutes you'll see your dated FI age, your 30-year trajectory, and what a flat $119.88/yr keeps compounding versus a percentage of everything you own.
Run your own numbersFrequently asked
Is Empower's dashboard really free?
Yes — Empower's dashboard is genuinely free. The business model is generating leads for the wealth-management arm, which charges 0.49–0.89% / yr of assets. If you have over $100k linked, expect a call.
What does PeakWorth do that Empower's dashboard doesn't?
FI age projection, the Decision Hub, an AI advisor that uses your data, and a multi-decade projection model. Empower's planner is a retirement-only tool; PeakWorth models the full strategy.
Why is the AUM fee a big deal?
0.89% / yr sounds small. Over 20 years on a portfolio that grows from $500k to $2M, those fees alone subtract roughly $200k in compounded value. PeakWorth's flat fee doesn't scale with your wealth.
PeakWorth provides educational projections, not financial advice. We are not a registered investment advisor, broker-dealer, tax preparer, or attorney. Consult a licensed professional before making major financial decisions. Read full disclosures