I never heard of Empower so I checked them out and this is what I found: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.empower-retirement.com
“We are confident Empower is a better long-term fit for CareFirst’s 401(k) plan and will provide an improved experience for all part participants”.
@a2 No we use Fidelity
I would like to know when plan participants were notified. If I hadn’t gotten a call from Fidelity yesterday informing me of this change and went to look at my account to see $0 in it I would not have known what to do! CareFirst never sent anything to me. I am no longer employed by them but I do still have my old 401k with Fidelity and check the balance monthly. And Empower also shows a $0 balance. My money is in limbo for 3 weeks? Unacceptable!
@gd You are right on all points. The best thing anyone can do is have a financial planner and work with them to move your money. I rolled over a large chunk of my 401K when I was 60. When I retired, I also took my pension lump sum and my financial team handle rolling it over. There was no way I was leaving a penny under CareFirst especially after they stopped funding the pension plan. Truly sad that the organization which I worked for from the late 70's is going down the drain. I saw plenty of ridiculous changes over those years, but nothing like when BP took over. His vision was everywhere outside the organization while internally it rotted away.
@a1 I'm sure Empower is cheaper for CF than Fidelity. I've never heard of them and that Trustpilot link the OP posted is rather ominous. I wonder what other negative surprises Celestin and Friends will spring on us in 2026. I can only hope the new CEO shows her the door before long.
@g2 if you are at least 59 1/2 years old you can do an in service (meaning you are still employed) withdrawal from our 401k into a rollover IRA without any immediate tax impact. If you are younger I believe you are stuck until your employment with the company providing the 401k ends.
There can be downsides to moving money out of your 401k to an IRA, mainly getting in the way of future Roth conversions (affects all ages). This is also a consideration in you are in the pension and are considering a lump sum payment, to be rolled into an IRA. If this is like reading Latin to you please run it by a tax or financial advisor beforehand.
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@e6 Those dates seem close to 1/9. Will we be able to move out of Fidelity before the transition? That is my plan as well.
@OP No way I'm keeping my 401k with CF (I'm doing VSP on 1/9). Money is getting moved BEFORE transition.
Funny how the state of MD also moved their employees to Empower this year. A friend working for the state said Empower is a horrible company to work with. BP and AC have done everything they can to sc--w over employees. Can someone say kickbacks??? This was definitely initiated when he was here. What more can they take from employees at this point? Morale is at an all time low and employees are burnt out.
I wonder if Florida Blue or GiudeWell uses them. First thing that came to mind.
sure thing. Just like every other benefit or policy change she has led, yielding nothing but positive results for CareFirst associates. Am I right?