Velira vs Empower Personal Strategy
Empower Personal Strategy is Empower's managed wealth-management service (formerly Personal Capital Wealth Management). It pairs fiduciary human advisors with a polished digital dashboard and manages your portfolio for you, with financial planning, tax strategy, retirement income, and estate guidance layered in. It charges a percentage-of-assets (AUM) fee, requires an account minimum to enroll, and gates some services — such as tax and estate planning — behind higher asset levels. For someone who wants a managed, advisor-run relationship and meets the minimum, it is an established, full-service option.
Velira offers the human advisory layer on a different footing. Its higher tiers add a dedicated fiduciary CFP (Velira Wealth), a dedicated CPA for year-round personal tax planning and 1040 prep and filing (Velira Tax), and a dedicated Estate Planner (Velira Estate) — all flat-fee, with no AUM charge and no account minimum. Underneath sits a read-only daily decision engine for people whose money is complicated — investments alongside business equity, illiquid stakes, earnouts, and private notes — telling you the move your plan calls for each day, grounded in survival math, with an auditable rule trace.
The real distinctions are the fee model, the minimums, and custody. Empower Personal Strategy takes custody and manages your money for an assets-based fee, above an account minimum, with tax and estate help reserved for larger balances. Velira gives you the dedicated CFP, CPA, and Estate Planner at a flat fee, no AUM, no minimum — but stays read-only: your advisor monitors and recommends, and you keep custody and place the trades.
| Capability | Velira | Empower Personal Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | A flat-fee daily balance-sheet engine with an optional dedicated human advisory layer on the higher tiers. | A managed wealth-management service: fiduciary advisors run your portfolio with a digital dashboard. |
| Dedicated human advisor | Yes — a dedicated fiduciary CFP on Velira Wealth and up (plus a CPA and Estate Planner on higher tiers). | Yes — fiduciary advisors, with a dedicated advisor or advisor team depending on your balance. |
| Pricing model | Flat tier pricing with no percentage-of-assets fee at any tier. | A percentage-of-assets (AUM) advisory fee that steps down at higher balances. |
| Account minimum | No minimum — Velira OS is instant self-serve, and the human tiers add advisors without an asset threshold. | Requires an account minimum to enroll in the managed service. |
| Money management & custody | Read-only by architecture — your advisor monitors and recommends; you keep custody and place the trades. | Discretionary management — the service takes custody and manages the portfolio on your behalf. |
| Tax planning & filing | Yes — Velira Tax adds a dedicated CPA for personal tax planning and 1040 prep & filing, at a flat fee. | Tax strategy is offered, with dedicated tax planning available to higher-balance clients. |
| Estate planning | Yes — Velira Estate adds a dedicated Estate Planner for legacy structuring, trust funding, and titling. | Estate guidance is offered, with fuller estate planning available to higher-balance clients. |
| Net worth incl. complex & illiquid assets | First-class: business equity, private stakes, earnouts, real estate, and private notes are modeled directly. | Aggregation and planning across connected accounts, centered on managed and tracked investments. |
| Confirmed vs. contingent money | Two-ledger discipline: a confirmed 'honest floor' kept strictly separate from probability-weighted upside. | A dedicated advisor builds a strategy around your goals, horizon, and risk tolerance. |
| Auditability & cadence | A daily verdict plus a 'Why' view on every recommendation — inputs, engine version, and the rules that fired. | Ongoing advisor access, periodic reviews, and a digital dashboard. |
Who Velira is for
Velira is for people with complex, affluent balance sheets who want a daily engine that watches their real, connected accounts and tells them the move their plan calls for — with the reasoning shown — while keeping custody and control, and who want a flat fee with no AUM charge and no minimum, whether or not they add the human advisory layer.
It is especially suited to founders and operators who want a dedicated CFP, CPA, or Estate Planner on call without an assets-based fee or an account minimum, and for whom keeping confirmed money separate from contingent upside — earnouts, escrow, illiquid stakes — is central.
Where Empower Personal Strategy may fit better
If you want fiduciary advisors to take custody and actively manage your portfolio for you, and you meet the account minimum, Empower Personal Strategy is built for that. Velira offers the same dedicated CFP, CPA, and Estate Planner at a flat, no-AUM, no-minimum fee, but by design stays read-only and leaves execution to you — so if you'd rather fully delegate the investing, a managed service like Empower Personal Strategy may fit better.
It may also suit someone who prefers an assets-based relationship and doesn't need the deep daily balance-sheet engine underneath. The deciding questions are usually cost and control: Velira is flat-fee with no AUM and no minimum and keeps you in the driver's seat; Empower Personal Strategy runs the portfolio for you on an assets-based fee above a minimum.
See Velira on your own numbers
Velira is read-only by architecture and never executes a trade — it tells you the move your plan calls for, and you place it. It is decision-support, not financial advice.