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Prudential to Empower

Scott11

Like thousands of other people, I am now on Empower. What should I do with the Prudential account in Quicken as well as with Empower, which does not exist presently? Should I create a new Empower account or can I change the existing Prudential one?

It sounds like with Empower you cannot have a direct connect and instead have to download a file (ugh)?

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kevjenross

I found in the Quicken add account feature GREAT-WEST FINANCIAL which seems to be the former name of Empower. Now I just need to figure out how to get my Prudential data transferred to the new account. It doesn't appear that I can point my existing Quicken Prudential account to the new link. That would be too easy.

Quicken Kristina

Hello @Scott11,

To answer your question, Empower allows you to download .QFX files from their website. You should be able to import those .QFX files into your Quicken to update your account(s). You should not need to create a new account in your Quicken. First backup your Quicken file. Then, if the account is still trying to connect to the old connection, you would need to deactivate it. Once that is done, you will need to download the .QFX file from Empower's website. Once you download the file, it will usually give you an option to open it; usually that will automatically cause Quicken to import the file. The first time you import the file, Quicken should give you the option to import into a new account or link it to an existing account. This article provides more information.

@kevjenross,

To better assist you, could you please provide more information? What is happening when you are trying to link the account? Are you getting errors when trying to log in, or is the problem happening on the Add/Link screen (for instance, does it show "Don't Add to Quicken" for the account you want to link it to)?

I hope this helps!

Drinkingbird

https://community.quicken.com/discussion/7941847/prudential-to-empower

So far I've learned that the empower QFX downloads do not break out the purchases by transaction type/cash source. They are combined into one "buy" (including Pre Tax, Company Match, Roth, etc) per fund, and just tagged as "unknown source". Prudential broke them out and and the full detail would download including cash source for most transactions. However on the Empower website if you click the transaction number, it does show you this detail, so they are breaking it out, just not putting it into the QFX. I'm not a fan of Quicken not technically being in synch with their website/system….

Technically this shouldn't cause any issues changing the current Pru account to Great West and using QFX with it, but I just figured with the fact that it is a totally different system, totally different way of tracking stuff, and the fact that Empower essentially treated it as a transfer (no history on their website other than a big "buy" on Oct 20th) I'd start over with a new account and just transfer shares over. I'm not transferring all of the lots as that is thousands of them, just creating remove transactions on the Pru acct and Add on the new Empower one. Of course I lose some performance data in the standard Portfolio view by doing this, but I have a different portfolio view that tracks investments ignoring account so it shows correctly there.

However before I set up the new account, I did just deactivate online services, download the QFX, and say to link it to the Pru account, and it worked fine (obviously those big "buy" transactions just had to be deleted in that case). The only side effect is you'll have some transactions broken with cash source and all ones since the transition will be different, but since quicken doesn't really make much use of cash source, it shouldn't matter (of course Quicken and "shouldn't" don't always go together). I figured play it safe and start fresh.

I'm pretty annoyed that they don't support direct downloads and the QFX doesn't export all the info from the transaction. Unfortunately unless we want to manually enter all transactions, not really any choice but to trust that they will keep proper track of Traditional vs Roth (the only one I'm really concerned about tracking). Maybe I'll create a second empower account for manually tracking Roth but I'd have to adjust their downloaded transactions to remove that amount, which is just as much of a pain as manually entering everything I guess.

Honestly I'm finding Empower (Great West Life) to be a bit sketchy so far. Lots of marketing and nagging to link your external accounts so they can gather your data and try to sell you stuff. They've already created some other post-tax account for me that I don't want and can't remove. To fully remove yourself from all marketing and data sharing you have to send them a registered mail letter. They have some black marks in their history which is why they rebranded from Great West to Empower.