GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colorado–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Empower today announced that Carol Waddell is taking on broader responsibilities as Chair of a newly created organization within Empower that will provide wealth management services to individual investors.
Waddell will provide business leadership for all phases of the unit’s outreach and engagement with individuals and their advisors who wish to work with Empower on any aspect of their financial situation, including planning, strategies investing, saving, goal setting and liability management.
In this new role, Waddell will continue to be responsible for the existing consumer Empower division as well as Personal Capital, a leading wealth manager and Empower Registered Investment Advisor. acquired in 2020. The new combined division will be called “Empower Personal Wealth”.
Waddell takes the reins of the combined unit from her role as Executive Vice President of the company’s Retirement Solutions Group (RSG), a division created when Empower was formed in 2014. Originally conceived as a way to providing IRA rollovers to retirement plan participants, over the next eight years RSG grew into a full-service retail investment offering including brokerage, advisory, managed accounts and other services to investors.
Waddell will manage a dedicated unit of some 1,500 associates serving more than 260,000 investors. Waddell will continue to report to Empower President and CEO, Edmund F. Murphy III. The appointment took effect on January 1, 2023.
“Our vision is to transform the financial lives of those we serve through the provision of world-class personal wealth management products and services, advice and education,” Murphy said. “Under Carol’s leadership, Empower will continue its legacy as a respected and valued service provider to people who need financial advice, education and investment expertise at all income levels.”
Waddell said the key elements of the new division are in place and staffed with industry-leading talent.
“Our new organization is built on two incredibly successful teams, backed by well-established capabilities that can help more people on the path to building financial freedom,” she said. “Everyone has questions about their money, and we’re ready to help them get the answers they need.”
Waddell was previously managing director and head of marketing and product at JP Morgan Retirement Plan Services, which Empower acquired in 2014. Waddell joined JP Morgan after 18 years with T. Rowe Price in product management and development. Previously, she worked at Citibank.
A seasoned leader with years of experience in the benefits, retirement and investment industries, Waddell is based at Empower’s corporate headquarters in Greenwood Village, Colorado. She is an active community and organizational leader Empower who co-chairs the Empower Diversity, Belonging, & Equity Council and serves on the boards of Mile High United Way and the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce.
Jay Shah, chairman of Personal Capital, who has led the company since 2017, left Empower on December 31.
“Jay has been an incredible thought leader, the architect of the industry’s leading digital wealth management and investment advisory firm, and a formidable consumer advocate,” Murphy said.
On August 1, 2022, Empower announced that it was changing the names of various companies within its group of companies to align the names with the Empower brand. For more information regarding name changes, please visit empower.com/name-change.
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