Empower hit $62 billion in retirement plan sales in the first half of 2022, naming 3M, JetBlue, F.W. Webb, and Kinder Morgan, among other clients, as part of the reason.
The Colorado-based Empower said it added several large corporate and state-level plans to its book of business, “which now encompasses more than 71,000 retirement plans and covers approximately 17 million retirement plan participants.”
Despite macroeconomic headwinds, request-for-proposal (RFP) activity is on pace to exceed past levels across defined contribution plans, including 401ks, 457(b)s, and 403(b)s of all sizes covering corporate, government, not-for-profit employers, and Taft-Hartley plans.
“The retirement ecosystem remains strong, and it is a reliable source of insight into how employers and workers alike are thinking about the path ahead,” Empower President and CEO Ed Murphy said in a statement.
He noted that the need for superior client service doesn’t change amid market volatility.
“As macroeconomic factors and market volatility grab both headlines and the attention of individual investors, our ability to serve client needs is crucial,” Murphy added. “We want plan sponsors and our advisor partners to be able to meet the needs of those individuals every day, and we are grateful to have the chance to help a vast and growing array of employers and their workers.”
Empower’s government markets segment for public sector employers administers $200 billion in assets for 3.7 million plan participants as of April 30, 2022.
Mentioning its Advisor Managed Account offering, Empower said its advisor-sold business, which encompasses plans with up to $50 million in assets, has added 1,400 plans since the start of 2022.
The company completed the acquisitions of the Mass Mutual and Prudential retirement plan businesses in December 2020 and April 2022, respectively. Empower administers approximately $1.4 trillion in assets for over 17 million retirement plan participants and is the nation’s second-largest retirement plan recordkeeper by total participants.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
