image
Empower Dashboard Lost My Financial History — And Told Me to “Just Start Over” After 4 Months
📌 Summary
I used Empower Dashboard (formerly Personal Capital) to track my net worth, investment performance, and linked accounts for years. But in early 2025, everything vanished — and after months of waiting for support, I was told my data was unrecoverable. This is my experience.
📅 February: A Glitch, Then a Warning Sign
On February 28, 2025, I noticed an unusual spike in my net worth graph. The data didn’t make sense — a one-day drop that wasn’t reflected in my actual account activity.
I contacted Empower support. The issue was resolved quickly. But I took a screenshot of the dashboard at the time, just in case.
❌ March: All My Data Disappeared
About a month later, I logged in and found that all of my historical data was gone. All my linked accounts had disappeared. The dashboard showed only a single recently reconnected account — no charts, no history, no trends.
I opened a support ticket on March 25. For the next four months, I followed up regularly. Each response I received was essentially the same:
“Our engineering team is investigating. Thank you for your patience.”
There were no updates, no timelines, no indication of real progress.
📸 Screenshot as Proof
Eventually, Empower support claimed they couldn’t see any historical data on their end and asked me to prove that I had any.
Thankfully, I still had the screenshot I had taken in February:
It clearly shows a healthy portfolio, with multiple accounts connected — including brokerage, retirement, and bank accounts.
📬 July 30: The Final Answer
After four months, this is what Empower support finally said:
“Regrettably, the data cannot be recovered or backfilled due to a technical issue with our aggregator. Please re-add the account to start tracking again.”
No recovery. No rollback. No real explanation.
Just: “Start over.”
⚠️ Lessons Learned
- They don’t offer reliable backups or export options.
- Support may leave you waiting for months with no solution.
- Your years of data could disappear — permanently.
I’ve since moved to a more controllable setup using Google Sheets and a data aggregation tool, with regular offline backups.
💬 Final Thoughts
I didn’t expect a product like Empower — widely used and respected — to lose my entire financial history.
This experience was frustrating, disappointing, and honestly a little surreal.
If you’re using Empower or any other financial tool, make sure you own your data.
Don’t wait until it’s too late.
About the Author
