Empower Retirement, the Greenwood, Colorado-based service provider to workplace retirement plans, continues to grow its presence selling and supporting the country's private and public retirement plans.
Last year, Empower seized the second largest spot in the provider space after Great-West Financial acquired J.P. Morgan's Retirement Plan Services and Putnam Investments retirement arm. Great-West then rebranded the new congregation as Empower Retirement.
But the latest numbers released by the company, which project Empower to add one million new participants to the fold by the end of 2015, have come from organic growth, not acquisitions.
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In the first half of 2015 Empower won several commitments from mega plans—those with $1 billion or more in participant assets. International Paper, Bechtel, Southwest Airlines, Illinois Tool Works, Viacom, CSX, American Electric Power, Hallmark Cards and DTE Energy were among the mega plan sponsors in the private sector cited as new clients.
Empower has also won significant new business in the public sector. New relationships with Washington, Kansas, Idaho, and Minnesota, and plans sponsored by the cities of Austin and Tallahassee, in addition to the private sector growth, account for $50 billion in new sales and commitments for the year to date, according to the company.
The strong year so far has brought the total number of employers Empower serves to more than 30,000 and the total number of participants to about 7.5 million.
Smaller plans, which come to Empower via sponsors' relationships with independent plan advisors, have also contributed to Empower's growth, as relationships with more than 3,000 plans with less than $50 million in assets have come through advisor-sold relationships.
In a press release, the company said sponsors are reporting high levels of participant satisfaction with Empower's services and technology.
In July, the company announced it would be delivering an enhanced online planning and education platform to all participants.
Individualized communications will include projected monthly retirement income estimates based on a participant's age, deferral rates and overall account value. It will also project future health care costs, and participant retirement readiness comparisons based on age and income bracket.
"Plan sponsors want to do as much as they can to be sure their employees are on the path to a secure retirement," said Edmund Murphy, president of Empower, in a statement.
"Our offer centers on helping participants understand tomorrow's retirement income needs so we can work with them to make the right decisions today. We are leveraging the very latest thinking and cutting edge technology to help participants understand their needs," he added.
All told, Empower Retirement administers $440 billion in assets.
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Nick Thornton
Nick Thornton is a financial writer covering retirement and health care issues for BenefitsPRO and ALM Media. He greatly enjoys learning from the vast minds in the legal, academic, advisory and money management communities when covering the retirement space. He's also written on international marketing trends, financial institution risk management, defense and energy issues, the restaurant industry in New York City, surfing, cigars, rum, travel, and fishing. When not writing, he's pushing into some land or water.
