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Mezzi vs Empower for investment advice and net worth tracking in 2026

Nicolas StrautBy Nicolas StrautPublished 7 min read

Key takeaways

  • Mezzi's Advisory plan costs $399 a year at any balance, and Empower's Personal Strategy charges 0.89% a year from $100,000, which is $890 on $100,000 and $4,450 on $500,000.1
  • When choosing between Mezzi and Empower, start with whether you want someone else to place your trades, because Empower's paid tiers manage the money and Mezzi only advises.
  • Mezzi is the stronger fit for a self-directed investor with $100,000 or more who'll act on its advice, and Empower for an investor who wants two dedicated advisors managing the account from $250,000.
In this article

Mezzi and Empower both offer a free dashboard that links all your accounts, but their paid services differ: Mezzi sells flat-fee advice you act on yourself, and Empower manages your money for a percentage of assets.2 This guide compares Mezzi and Empower on free features, advice, tax help, human access, and cost at three balances.

Mezzi vs Empower at a glance

At a glance, Mezzi vs Empower comes down to what each free dashboard does, who places your trades, and how each charges for paid help.

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MezziEmpower
Best forSelf-directed investors with accounts at several firms who want advice at a fixed priceInvestors who want their money managed, with advisors from $100,000
Main focusTax and portfolio analysis across your accounts, including fund overlapNet worth, cash flow, and retirement tracking, plus managed accounts
Free planLinks every account, X-ray of what your funds hold, one family member, limited AI questionsPersonal Dashboard links every account, with budgeting, cash flow, and a retirement planner
Paid plansAdvisory $399 a year or $39 a month; Concierge $999 a year or $99 a monthPremier Managed Account with fees starting at 0.5% of assets; Personal Strategy 0.89% from $100,000, 0.79% and lower from $1 million
MinimumNoneNone for the dashboard or Premier; $100,000 for Personal Strategy
Who places tradesYou do; Mezzi has read-only accessEmpower, in the accounts it manages
Human helpVideo, phone, and email support; quarterly coaching on ConciergeAdvisor team from $100,000; two dedicated advisors from $250,000
SEC-registered adviserYes, MezziYes, Empower Advisory Group, LLC

Mezzi's figures come from Mezzi's own pages and Empower's from Empower's, both read on October 13, 2026.

What is Mezzi?

Mezzi is an SEC-registered investment adviser that runs as an app, connecting your accounts read-only and giving advice you act on yourself.3 The free plan links every account and shows the same net worth, allocation, performance, and X-ray data as the paid plans.

The paid plans add unlimited tax, retirement, and investment advice, plus standing monitoring tasks Mezzi calls Delegations. Advisory costs $399 a year and Concierge $999 a year. The Mezzi review covers each tier in full and works through the flat fee vs a 1% advisor.

What is Empower?

Empower is a financial company whose free Personal Dashboard links and tracks your accounts, and whose advisory arm, Empower Advisory Group, manages money for a percentage of assets. The managed side comes in two forms: a Premier Managed Account of mutual funds with fees starting at 0.5% and no minimum, and Personal Strategy, which adds advisors from $100,000.

Empower was called Personal Capital before, and its 401(k) recordkeeping business is a separate part of the company. The Empower review covers its safety, the name change, and the sales calls that can follow when you link accounts.

Mezzi vs Empower features compared

Mezzi vs Empower features split on six things: the free dashboards, who places trades, tax help, budgeting and retirement planning, human help, and minimums. Each section below opens with the one that comes out ahead, and ties are called ties.

Free dashboards

On free dashboards, it's close to a tie, because both link every account at no cost, and Empower's goes further on cash flow and retirement and Mezzi's goes further inside your funds. Mezzi's free X-ray looks through ETFs and mutual funds to show how much of one company you own across accounts, and its free AI questions are capped over a rolling 30 days.4 Empower's Personal Dashboard adds budgeting, cash flow tracking, and a retirement planner, and it runs on the web and on iPhone and Android apps.

Advice and who places your trades

On who does the work, Empower comes out ahead for an investor who wants to hand it off, because its paid tiers manage the money and Mezzi never places a trade. Mezzi's paid plans give unlimited advice and you place each trade at your own broker, and Empower monitors a Premier account monthly and rebalances it automatically as needed. If you're unlikely to act on the advice, a fixed fee buys you little, so count how often you'd make the trades before you pay for a year.

Tax help

On tax help across accounts, Mezzi wins, because it checks for wash sales and loss-harvesting chances at every institution you link. Empower handles tax inside the accounts it manages, and its Wealth Management tier from $250,000 lists "tax optimization thanks to individual stock investments." Mezzi's results depend on cost-basis data arriving correctly from each institution, so check the basis on any lot before you sell it for a loss.

Budgeting and retirement planning

On budgeting and retirement planning, Empower wins on the free plan, because its dashboard tracks cash flow and runs a retirement planner at no cost. Mezzi's free plan now tracks expenses and income too. Its retirement advice sits in the paid plans.

Talking to a person

On human help, Empower wins, with an advisor team from $100,000 and two dedicated financial advisors from $250,000. Mezzi offers video, phone, and email support on Advisory, and quarterly coaching check-ins and setup help on Concierge, not an assigned advisor. Empower lists advisor access only for Personal Strategy, not for the Premier Managed Account, and it includes financial planning for Premier clients with $100,000 or more.

Minimum to start

On minimums, it's a tie for the free dashboards and Mezzi's paid plans, and Empower needs $100,000 only for Personal Strategy. Empower's Premier Managed Account has no minimum, so managed money at Empower doesn't need $100,000. Only the advisors do.

Mezzi vs Empower cost

Mezzi vs Empower cost depends on your balance, because Mezzi charges a flat yearly fee and Empower charges a percentage of the money it manages, so the tables below price three balances. They use list prices read on October 13, 2026, billed annually, with no fund expenses, trading costs, or taxes. Mezzi's fee pays for advice you carry out, and Empower's pays for managing the account.

With $100,000 to invest

With $100,000 to invest, Mezzi Advisory costs $399 a year, vs $890 for Empower Personal Strategy and $500 for an Empower Premier account.

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$100,000, one yearMezzi AdvisoryMezzi ConciergeEmpower PremierEmpower Personal Strategy
Annual fee$399$999$500$890
Share of balance0.40%1.00%0.50%0.89%
Paying monthly instead$468$1,188Not applicableNot applicable
Who places tradesYouYouEmpowerEmpower, with an advisor team

At Premier's 0.5% rate, Mezzi Advisory costs less once your balance passes $79,800.

With $500,000 to invest

With $500,000 to invest, Empower Personal Strategy costs $4,450 a year at 0.89%, about 11 times Mezzi Advisory's $399.

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$500,000, one yearMezzi AdvisoryMezzi ConciergeEmpower Personal Strategy
Annual fee$399$999$4,450
Share of balance0.08%0.20%0.89%
Human helpSupport by video, phone, and emailPlus quarterly coachingTwo dedicated advisors

Empower Premier isn't priced here, because its investment-account page gives only the 0.5% starting rate and its Premier IRA page lists lower rates above $100,000. Ask Empower for the Premier fee on your balance before you compare it.

With $1 million or more

With $1 million or more, Empower's Private Client rate drops to 0.79% on the first $3 million, which is $7,900 on $1 million and $15,800 on $2 million.

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One yearMezzi AdvisoryMezzi ConciergeEmpower Private Client
$1,000,000$399$999$7,900
$2,000,000$399$999$15,800

Empower's rate keeps stepping down, to 0.69% on the next $2 million, 0.59% on the next $5 million, and 0.49% above $10 million.5 At these balances the gap pays for Private Client's specialists and investment committee access, so set it against what you'd use.

Should you choose Mezzi or Empower?

Whether you should choose Mezzi or Empower depends on who you want placing trades, how much you'll pay as your balance grows, and whether you want an advisor you can call. If you're weighing another AI app, read Mezzi vs CFO Silvia, and if you want management at a lower percentage, see the best robo-advisors and Betterment vs Wealthfront.

Choose Mezzi if

  • You'll place your own trades and want advice on what to change
  • You have $100,000 or more, where a $399 fee costs less than any Empower managed rate
  • You hold accounts at several firms and want wash sales checked across all of them
  • You already use Empower's free dashboard and want advice without moving your money

Choose Empower if

  • You want someone else to manage and rebalance the account
  • You have $250,000 or more and want two dedicated advisors
  • You want a managed account with no minimum and can accept no advisor access, through Premier
  • You want cash flow tracking and a retirement planner for free

Divide the yearly fee you'd pay at either company by your balance to get it as a percentage. Then run the Tweed Retirement Calculator with your expected return lowered by that percentage to see the difference by retirement. If you want lower-cost management instead, compare robo-advisor fees in the best robo-advisors guide.

Frequently asked questions about Mezzi vs Empower

What are some good alternatives to Empower?

Good alternatives to Empower depend on which part you'd replace: Mezzi and CFO Silvia for flat-fee tracking and advice, and Boldin or ProjectionLab for retirement planning. For managed money at a lower percentage, Wealthfront charges 0.25% a year, and so does Betterment above $24,000. Our CFO Silvia alternatives guide covers more apps.

Can Mezzi read an Empower 401(k)?

Mezzi can read an Empower 401(k) in most cases, because its help center names Empower among the retirement recordkeepers you can connect. Search under Empower as the plan's administrator, and if the first Empower entry fails, pick Mezzi's other Empower entry. Check the connection on the free plan before paying for advice on it.

Can you use Mezzi and Empower at the same time?

You can use Mezzi and Empower at the same time, because Mezzi never holds your money. Some investors keep Empower managing one account and link it to Mezzi to see it next to everything else. You'd pay both fees, so check that Mezzi's advice doesn't conflict with what Empower's advisors are doing.

Can you move from Empower to Mezzi without selling your investments?

You can't move money to Mezzi, because Mezzi doesn't hold accounts. Leaving Empower's managed service means moving the account to a brokerage you choose, then linking that brokerage to Mezzi. Empower's product pages don't publish transfer-out terms, so ask Empower whether your funds can move without being sold and what it charges first.

Do Mezzi and Empower work on Android?

Empower works on Android, with Personal Dashboard apps for iPhone and Android and a web version. Mezzi's help center describes a native iOS app and a web app, and names no Android app. If you use an Android phone, plan to use Mezzi in a browser, and check Google Play before you pay for a plan.

Does Empower's advisory fee include fund expenses?

Empower's advisory fee doesn't include fund expenses, brokerage fees, or other costs, according to its fee table. The funds inside your portfolio charge their own expense ratios on top. Empower's pages put its average ETF expense ratio at 0.06% or 0.08%, depending on the page, so check the funds in your proposal before you sign.

How do Mezzi and Empower bill you?

Mezzi bills its paid plans as a subscription, paid monthly or yearly, and yearly billing saves up to $189. Empower bills its advisory fee as a percentage of the money it manages, taken monthly after each month ends, so the dollar amount rises and falls with your balance.

Sources

  1. https://www.mezzi.com/pricing
  2. https://www.empower.com/individuals/empower-investment-account
  3. https://www.mezzi.com/
  4. https://support.mezzi.com/articles/7882740154-mezzi-membership-plans-free-core-plus-and-white-glove
  5. https://www.empower.com/products-solutions/personal-strategy
Nicolas Straut
Nicolas Straut

Personal finance writer, former Forbes contributor and This Week in Fintech writer. He isn't a financial advisor or a CPA.

nicstraut.com

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