Empower to Buy Milliman’s Retirement and Health Plan Administration Businesses

Empower Retirement LLC and Milliman Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement for Empower to acquire Milliman’s retirement administration business.

Empower will acquire the business for a total consideration of $340 million. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.

More than 800 Milliman employees in retirement and administration services will move to Empower as part of the deal. Upon closing, the transaction will include the addition to Empower of 400 defined benefit plans with 790,000 plan participants and $80 billion in assets under administration. Empower also expects to acquire more than 1,100 defined contribution plans representing 750,000 participants and more than $50 billion in client assets.

Approximately 100 health and welfare administration clients with about 100,000 plan participants will also join Empower.

Milliman will retain its retirement and healthcare actuarial consulting business.

“The addition of Milliman’s defined benefit capabilities strengthens our ability to serve the evolving needs of the 20 million investors we support, the 93,000 retirement plan sponsors we serve and the financial advisers who help clients navigate increasingly complex financial decisions,” said Edmund Murphy, Empower’s president and CEO, in a statement.

In 2024, Empower completed the integration of Prudential’s retirement business, which added more than 2,500 Prudential clients and 3.6 million participants.

According to PLANSPONSOR’s 2025 Recordkeeping Survey, Empower ranked third among U.S. recordkeepers of employer-sponsored defined contribution plans with 86,000 plans. Additionally, it ranked second in employer-sponsored DC assets, with $1.5 million in assets.

“We chose Empower because of its leadership position in retirement services and its ability to offer an enhanced range of services to our customers while providing excellent career opportunities for our employees,” said Dermot Corry, Milliman’s president and CEO, in a statement. “This transaction allows Milliman to sharpen our focus on our consulting, data analytics and AI businesses.”

Following the closure of the transaction, Milliman and Empower also expect to form a strategic partnership for actuarial services and defined benefit plan administration. Under this arrangement, Milliman and Empower would become preferred service providers in certain actuarial services and defined benefit administrative opportunities generated by each firm’s respective business activities.

As of March 31, Empower administered more than $2 trillion in assets for more than 20 million plan participants through the provision of workplace and individual retirement plans, advice, financial planning and investments.

Milliman in April launched two active health care inflation exchange-traded funds designed to help retirement savers hedge against rising health care costs.