Empower Accused of Misusing 401(k) Data to Push Pricey Platform

Empower Advisory Group LLC was sued Friday by 401(k) investors who say the company uses deceptive sales tactics to push participants out of their workplace retirement plans and into a pricey managed account program.

An Empower affiliate abused its position as a recordkeeper for workplace 401(k) plans to “harvest highly confidential, private financial data” from plan participants, the proposed class action claims. It then shared that information with Empower Advisory, which used misleading and deceptive sales tactics to target investors with large account balances and pressure them to rollover their money to an investment platform that earned high fees for ...