Fund Evaluator:

Empower Small Cap Value Inv Overview

Empower Small Cap Value Inv (MXLSX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Small Value fund. Empower Funds launched the fund in 1994.

The investment seeks long-term capital growth. The fund will, under normal circumstances, invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of small capitalization (“small cap”) companies. For purposes of the 80% policy, the manager considers small cap companies to be those whose market capitalization falls within the range of the Russell 2000 ® Value Index at the time of initial purchase.

About Empower Small Cap Value Inv (MXLSX)

There are 4 members of the management team with an average tenure of 12.94 years: Judd Peters (2020), Jeffrey Schwartz (2012), Ryan Thomes (2020), Joseph Gatz (2000). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Russell 3000 TR USD index with a weighting of 100% and Russell 2000 Value TR USD index with a weighting of 100%. Empower Small Cap Value Inv has 428 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 11.8% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Empower Small Cap Value Inv is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Empower Small Cap Value Inv has 5.1% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 94.9%. There is 5.1% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Empower Small Cap Value Inv has 0.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $89 million in total assets, which is below the $415 million average for the Small Value category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

MXLSX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Empower Small Cap Value Inv expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Small Value category. Empower Small Cap Value Inv has an expense ratio of 1.09%, which is 6% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a C. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. Empower Small Cap Value Inv has a portfolio turnover rate of 46%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 129% for the Small Value category.

Recently, in the month of August 2026, Empower Small Cap Value Inv returned -0.8%, which earned it a grade of D, as the Small Value category had an average return of -0.4%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Empower Small Cap Value Inv has a trailing yield of 0.00%, which is below the 0.77% category average.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Empower Small Cap Value Inv Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 20.4%, 0.8 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 19.6% over the past year (grade of D), 13.2% over the past three years (grade of C) and 8.5% per year over the past five years (grade of C) and 9.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of C).

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