Why Do My Holdings Show as Cash Instead of Investments?

Last updated: September 30, 2026

Overview

When an invested account shows as cash in Mezzi, it's usually one of three things: your institution is sending us only the account balance and no holdings, it sent a holding without a usable price or ticker, or the connection is degraded and showing an old snapshot. In most cases your account total is still correct — it's the breakdown that's wrong. Report it from the app or email help@mezzi.com with the account name, and we'll work out which cause it is and fix it or take it up with our data provider.

⚠ What You May See

Match whichever of these is on your screen:

  • A large amount grouped under USD or cash in an account you know is fully invested.

  • An entire account — for example a robo-advisor, 529, HSA, or brokerage IRA — showing as a single USD line with no individual holdings listed at all.

  • A 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) balance described as cash when it holds funds. One customer put it plainly: "this is shown as old cash, which is not true. It's invest in various funds."

  • A bond fund inside an employer plan categorized as cash or uninvested.

  • An RSU or stock-plan account showing as cash rather than shares.

  • Fund names that do appear in your holdings list — for example SS S&P 500 Index X or SS US Bond Index X — but with 0% performance contribution next to them.

⚙ How to Fix It

  1. Confirm the account total first. If the balance matches your brokerage, only the classification is off, and nothing about your net worth is wrong. If the total is also wrong, start with Why Does My Account Balance in Mezzi Differ from What My Brokerage Shows?.

  2. Check whether the connection is healthy. A degraded connection can leave an old snapshot in place, and an account that was mostly cash months ago will still read that way. If the account is flagged as stale or asking to be repaired, work through Account Showing Stale or Incorrect Data first.

  3. If the account shows no holdings at all, report it. This usually means the connection is sharing only the balance. We check what your institution is sending and, where needed, raise it with our data provider. In some cases connecting through a different entry for the same institution brings the holdings in — but wait for us to confirm that before re-adding anything, so the account isn't counted twice.

  4. For employer retirement plans, send us the fund list. This is the step that resolves unpriced plan funds. Email help@mezzi.com with the account name as it appears in Mezzi, each fund name and internal code from your plan statement, and a screenshot of the holdings screen in Mezzi. We map those funds to comparable public securities so they classify correctly. Turnaround is usually within a business day.

  5. Don't delete the account on your own. Deleting removes the account's history in Mezzi, and for most causes reconnecting doesn't change how holdings are classified.

💡 Why This Happens

There are three separate causes, and they look similar on screen.

The connection is sharing only the balance. Some institutions, through some connections, send the account's total value without the list of investments inside it. With no holdings to classify, the whole amount appears as cash. This is the most common cause we're seeing right now, across robo-advisors, 529 plans, HSAs, and some brokerage and retirement accounts. The fix sits with the institution's data connection, so we take it up with our data provider directly. We'll update you when it changes, but we can't promise a date.

The fund had no usable price. Employer plan holdings often arrive with an internal code instead of a public ticker, and sometimes with a quantity of zero. When Mezzi couldn't price the position, its value was absorbed into a synthetic cash figure. We fixed that specific behavior in June 2026 — Mezzi now falls back to the provider's own valuation rather than inflating cash. If you connected before then and still see cash, the mapping request in step 4 is what completes it.

The connection is degraded. Some institutions return an error such as INSTITUTION_CURRENTLY_UNAVAILABLE and keep serving the last successful snapshot. We've seen this on Transamerica Retirement Solutions connections, where moving the connection to a different data provider resolved it. Tell us the institution name and we'll route it.

Important Notes

Once a fund is mapped or holdings start coming through, allocation, Exposure X-Ray, and dividend figures update on the next data refresh, generally within a day. Performance history isn't rewritten retroactively — past days keep the values that were recorded at the time.

🗨 Still Need Help?

Email help@mezzi.com or text/call (415) 763-6997 with:

  • the account name in Mezzi and the institution it's connected to

  • a screenshot of the Mezzi holdings screen showing the cash grouping

  • a screenshot or list of the same positions from your institution

  • the fund names and any internal codes for holdings without tickers

Common Questions

  • Is my net worth wrong if holdings show as cash? Usually not. The dollar value is generally correct; it's sitting in the wrong category. Allocation, Exposure X-Ray, and dividend estimates are affected, but the total is not.

  • Can I fix the classification myself? Not for a connected account. Fund mapping and provider issues are handled on Mezzi's side. Manually added accounts are different — you can edit holdings there directly.

  • How long does a fix take? A fund mapping is typically applied the same day or the next business day. When the cause is the institution's connection sharing only a balance, it depends on the data provider, and we'll keep you updated.

  • Why does my RSU or stock plan account show as cash? Stock-plan accounts sometimes arrive without share-level detail. Send us the account name and we'll look at what your provider is returning.