Aurum vs Empower (Personal Capital)

Empower tracks your wealth. Then tries to manage it.

Personal Capital rebranded to Empower and the consumer model stayed the same. The free dashboard exists to surface you as a lead for Empower's paid advisory service. Aurum is a product built for you, not for advisors trying to reach you.

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Aurum vs Empower (Personal Capital) — the detail

What is Empower, and what happened to Personal Capital?

Empower is a US retirement and wealth-management firm that acquired Personal Capital in 2020 and consolidated the consumer-facing product under the Empower brand. The free personal-finance dashboard you sign up for is, in effect, a lead-generation funnel for Empower's paid advisory service — once your tracked assets cross internal thresholds, you can expect outreach from an Empower advisor offering portfolio management. The free tier is a real product, but it exists in service of the paid one. Aurum has no second tier and no advisory service: the subscription is the whole product.

Does Empower work for Canadians?

No. Empower connects to US financial institutions only, and the platform has no understanding of Canadian registered accounts. TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP — none of these are recognized. For a Canadian household, Empower returns roughly zero useful information, regardless of which tier you sign up for. The closest Canadian equivalent in dashboard-style account aggregation, with full registered-account support, is Aurum.

Is Empower a good budgeting app for daily spending?

Empower's strength is investment tracking and retirement-projection modelling. Day-to-day budgeting — monthly category limits, subscription detection, cash-flow management — is genuinely an afterthought in the product. If you're already invested and want a dashboard to track portfolio performance, Empower does the job. If you want to manage spending, track recurring subscriptions across institutions, and stay on top of contribution room, you'll outgrow it quickly. Aurum is built the other way around: budgeting and contribution tracking are the product, with net-worth aggregation on the roadmap.

What's a Canadian alternative to Empower or Personal Capital?

For Canadians who want the dashboard-style overview Empower offers, but with Canadian bank support and real-time TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA contribution-room tracking, Aurum is built for exactly that. There's no advisor who will call you, no upsell to wealth management, and no second-tier paid service buried inside the free one. The subscription pays for the product, and the product is what you signed up for.

Side by side

Empower (Personal Capital) vs Aurum

FeatureEmpower (Personal Capital)aurum

PriceFree (dashboard)$8/mo · $69/yr

Business modelFree — funnel to paid wealth managementSubscription — no ads, no upsells

Canadian bank supportNoComing soon

TFSA room trackingNoYes

RRSP room trackingNoYes

FHSA room trackingNoYes

Over-contribution warningsNoYes

Contribution deadline remindersNoYes

Budget trackingBasicYes

Subscription trackingNoYes

Net worth trackingYesComing soon

Investment analysisYes (deep)No

DesignClutteredModern, editorial

Frequently asked

Aurum vs Empower (Personal Capital) — common questions

Is Empower free?

The Empower personal-finance dashboard is free to use. Empower's business model is the paid wealth-management service the free dashboard surfaces qualified leads for.

Does Empower support Canadian banks?

No. Empower connects to US financial institutions only and has no support for Canadian banks or Canadian registered accounts.

What's the Canadian equivalent of Personal Capital?

Aurum is the closest Canadian-built equivalent: account-aggregation-style overview, full Canadian registered-account support (TFSA, RRSP, FHSA), subscription pricing, and no advisory upsell.

Early access

Ready for something better?

Aurum is currently in early access. Join the waitlist and be the first to know when we open the doors.

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