on the phone for 30m with an agent who was unable to help verify my security question information to create a new online account, they transferred me to someone else. On hold for ~5m for a new agent, only for them to then state that the call never should have been transferred and they are unable to help me. The member/employee # they are asking for is not clearly labelled on my paperwork, and the plan ID was on a totally separate piece of paperwork that came in a separate lot of mail. Insane. read more

These people are some of the worst to deal with. They will not answer your questions and they will continue to deflect and give misinformation. They will selectively ignore your questions, if they can vaguely point to something else you said. They will not cite or point you to their actual written policy. They seem to have processed things incorrectly and they cannot explain why they did it. They don't mind putting participants in awful situations, because they can just ignore you. Instead of trying to answer my questions, one of the people I spoke to kept deflecting and was even caught up with her own idea and said "you're just trying to find a loop hole". I don't get how trying to understand why principal processed something the way they did was trying to find a loop hole. If you have issues with them and they cannot point to a policy and they refuse to answer your questions, report it to an external regulatory body. Document everything. Report them to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) , IRS, consult with an ERISA attorney, or something. read more

A few months ago, I was so excited not to work with this company anymore, which does not have the tools, the envy, or the motivation to manage a 401 (k), only issues during the 3 years of "collaboration" with them. Today (End November 2025), I got a letter that I contributed over the maximum allowed for 2024 (They do not even have a tool on their side to stop contributions)! I already did the rollover to my IRA in January 2025, so no need to explain the mess... Worst 401k company ever, so happy to not have to deal with them (hopefully after I fix THEIR mess)... Not sure why companies use them for their 401 (k) plan, cheap fees? For sure, cheap service... read more

Completely and utterly unusable website that takes you in circles to get to your main page to see balance, then automagically logs you out once you finally manage to jump through the hoops to even get there. I do not want to be asked every log in to check my contributions or roll over another 401k. Based on this and BBB reviews I'm wondering if I'll ever even see the money I am putting in here. I'd change to Fidelity but unfortunately it is employer driven. read more

We are legal guardians for our adult son, who is autistic and cannot manage accounts on his own. We had a complicated issue with our son's account, and the company representative was patient, knowledgeable, and effective. They got everything corrected and treated our family with care and respect. Thank you! read more

This company is a total joke. My company recently switched from Empower to Principal. Big Big mistake. Many of us have contributions missing or only half of your contribution. When you call they want on everyone but themselves. In one day I talked to 3 different people and every single one told me something different. I am totally fed up and would love to have Empowered back. read more

Terrible service, slow systems, long wait times, incompetent company that I can't wait to get away from.

I have been dealing with principal 2 1/2 months and getting nowhere with them. I have called and been transferred probably a dozen times to people who don't know what to do or what's going on so they keep transferring me so I have to tell my story over and over pretty simple. I'm transferring my money from into and nobody over there. Seems to know what's going on so today December 31, 202 I still have no money from them. It's just appalling how can in these I would not recommend to anybody ever. read more

It's no surprise Principal Financial has a 1.6-star rating. My experience with them as the record keeper for my former employer's retirement plan has been nothing short of disappointing. After leaving my company, I requested to roll over my retirement funds into another account--something that should be a simple and standard process. Instead, I was hit with a $100 distribution fee, just to have them cut a check. That's not a service fee--it's highway robbery. Even if I had chosen to keep my funds with them, they made it clear the fee would still apply. There was no willingness to waive it or offer any flexibility, which only reinforces how out of touch this company is with customer service and industry standards. With countless low-cost and customer-focused providers out there, I can't understand why any employer would choose to partner with Principal. I hope more HR departments do their due diligence before selecting them as a retirement plan provider. read more

I had the displeasure of speaking to an agent today to get my distribution from my previous company. I have never spoken to a CUSTOMER SERVICE agent who had such HORRENDOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE. If I could give negative starts I would. This lady was extremely rude the second she picked up the phone. Is that how people at your company speak to the customers when you're handling our money? Do you just hire anyone off the street to work as a phone agent at this company? Absolutely not. read more

Compared to Fidelity, Principal has the most primitive and rudimentary website I've ever used for investments. It's pretty much useless. Do better. read more

I am adding another ONE STAR review for Principal. They are positively AWFUL: poor customer support and inept back office. I used ditto their instructions to roll over an employer 403.b to Fidelity. After over one and a half week of wait, Principal goofed up and I had to pay ANOTHER $50 for a returned wire!! Wire is expeditious, right? Not at Principal. $25 wire fee PLUS $50 handling fee (it is a retirement plan PLUS $50 returned wire fee for THEIR MISTAKE (no, it is NOT $25 but twice the amount). Also: this fee was undisclosed. VERY POOR customer service, inflexible, slow, apparently poorly trained staff and ... deeply incompetent. NOT RECOMMENDED. read more

The company needs to invest in some serious training for their customer service representatives. My agent represented himself so well that I will no longer contribute. If you are trusting a company with your hard earned money, they need to have quality workers answering their phones. I have been making automatic contributions since 2021 and after taking a deeper look into my account, noticed they just randomly stopped in March 2023. When I called to speak with someone his response was just simply you have not made contributions. I asked him to help me understand how this could have happened and he just rudely kept repeating himself. I highly do not recommend this company! read more

I can't believe what I'm experiencing. Different answers every time I call. My 40lK account is stuck in a 1% Vanguard and neither Principal nor Morningstar can figure out why or how to fix it. All i keep hearing is that they cannot make changes on their end. i have to make it on my end. Well, no matter how Principal or Morningstar tries to lead me on the website, it's always a dead end. It's been a week and still no answers. Horrible, incompetent, untrained people. read more

I have spend over 48 months to resolve the transfer of my 401k to another provider. The fee's and customer service from Principal is significantly lagging their industry peers. First, the fee's are approximately 300% greater than their peers. Second, the customer service is beyond bad and borders on unethical. They are effectively refuse to transfer my money out of their system. I continuously call and I receive one excuse after another. It feels like an ancient jobs program for people that are otherwise unemployable. I urge people to seek alternative providers. UPDATED - PFG - I have already used the "contact us" link that you provided. I was treated unprofessionally and rudely. Honestly, I was shocked at your conduct. The only recourse I have at this point to contact the relevant regulatory agencies and file a complaint. Thank you. read more

Horrible, horrible company!! I have been trying to set up my 401K with my new employer for the past 2 weeks. I spoke with 2 customer representatives and have been emailing back and forth with Principal. How hard is it to set up a account for new customers. What a bunch of idiots !! read more

Terrible! I called today because I have a distribution from my 401K and they always send them to the wrong place, once they even completely lost my money! This time I was transferred to SIX different people before I got the right place and again they were transferring the money to the wrong place!!! They always say its fixed, and it never is. Now they are saying I have to wait for the check to be rejected and then call again to get it to go to the right place. Why can't they just do that now?! I will have to call again I and will get transferred to SIX different people again, and I can guarantee it will be messed up again. Horrid horrid horrid! read more

Our 401k rollover from Principal to another provider was a nightmare. From June to Aug , we made about 20 phone calls, sometime together with our new financial manager. We had to repeat our new account# and new provider's address again and again, letter by letter, number by number. The English level of their CSR team was quite low and sometime we spent 2 hours to talk with them. We thought it was just a simple and easy process and to our surprised, we got nothing after one week. We were told they did wire transfer but it was rejected. They sent a check by mail a week later and our new financial manager told us the check was bounced. They promised to send another check and after 10 day we got nothing. We kept asking WHY. They said the mail may be lost, or they made mistake , or we would do investigation. They would send another one. Then we realized their problem was not poor English level, just lying。 we had to follow up everyday and made all of record. The last CSR we met was a good one named Venus. With his help, we finally got our fund back. Our experience told us all of mistakes they made was just for the delay. We did not even count how much fee they deducted. Be very careful with them, and all of their promises are empty. For sure Never use them again. They don't deserve any star. read more

I contact Principal as was requested on their Yelp response. They first failed to answer why Principal would not do an indirect rollover with 0% withholding, and then they quit responding when I asked again as clear as possible. Below was the response to asking "Why does principal refuse to do indirect rollover's with 0% withholding". It was basically a canned response that shows they did not even care to understand my question or concerns. Hello, Devon, and thanks for contacting us about your account. An indirect rollover occurs when a participant takes advantage of the Sixty-Day Rollover Option. This option states that the participant can roll over into a qualified plan any disbursement received from a qualified plan. The rollover must occur within 60 days from receipt of the payment. After the participant receives a rollover-eligible distribution, the participant can still decide to roll over all or part of it to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) or another employer plan. To avoid any of the distribution from being taxable, they would need to make up the taxes that were withheld from other sources (Example: Savings account). We received your cash distribution forms. If you would like to do an indirect rollover to another retirement account, you will need to make up the taxes within 60 days from receipt of the payment. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have further questions, just email us through the secure participant website at principal.com or give us a call at 800-547-7754 and we'll be happy to help. We are available Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Central Time. Thank you, Principal® Insurance products and plan administrative services provided through Principal Life Insurance Co., a member of Principal Financial Group®, Des Moines, IA 50392. read more

6 months to roll over an inherited 401K. And still they have my money. Now they claim they need a third party to determine how much they are paying out. Excuse me but you know exactly how much the account is worth and when rolling into another pretax account there should be no need to calculate. The whole nthoing gets rolled over. Fraud and BS is their specialty. And multiple times they say oh you need a form signed by your spouse, who has been dead for years. Then they research the account and say I'm right they don't need that form and they will make a note but still leave it there so the next time I call they give me the same line again. read more

Principal is by far the worse company to deal with in regards to 401K. We have tried to get money withdrawal for a hardship for the past 4 months and have not been able to. They keep closing the claims and are not communicating with us in regards to the claim. When we are finally able to speak to someone they give us the run around stating we are calling the wrong department and "transfer" us and the call drops. Its May and have yet to receive anything. I wish we can give a negative star on this review. read more

Do not conduct business with Principal. We have a 401k account that we are moving away from them because they were charging us 5% fee, but now they want to charge a surrender fee. When the money was moved into the investment account, there were no restrictions listed. Not even an asterisk. All other accounts had notifications of early withdrawal penalty. When a consumer tries to transfer money between different investments, some of the investment types have a message stating "Transfer restrictions apply". No such message appears next to the Principal Fixed Income Guaranteed Option. At a minimum this is misrepresentation and deceptive advertising practices. By the way, the new company is only charging us half a percent! Yup, one tenth of the cost that Principal was charging! read more

Been trying to get enrolled in the Company sponsored 401k for 4 days. "Sorry we can't find your records". Called and got a hold of a offshored rep who could barely speak a word of English and after an hour got to the 2-fact authentication and wham "An error has occurred" Sorriest 401 k management company I have ever dealt with in 40 years! Please look at the attachments I uploaded. This is as far as you get trying to login! I have yet to find a review over 2 stars with these scammers. read more

Principal Financial Group - Financial Advising Near Me - Des Moines, Iowa

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THE ABSOLUTE WORST COMPANY EVER 0/10 - wouldn't recommend it even to my worst enemies. This 1-star review after 154 reviews should say it all, stay far away. If for some ungodly reason your employer uses Principal petition them to use another company, any company, even under someone's mattress. Charged me out of the wazoo for a simple rollover. I received no notification that my previous employer 401k account was being automatically rolled over into a Principal IRA until it was actually done. I had tried to roll it over when I ended employment with my previous employer but information on rollovers was scarce until after it rolled over. This makes me think it's a scheme to charge people who leave Principal additional fees. It feels slimy to be manipulated in this funnel and I can't wait to be done with this disgusting company. Good Ridance! I hate writing reviews, but I had to write this one. ;tldr - Avoid this company at all costs. read more

They have 154 reviews and still average 1 star. This should tell you everything you need to know about this company. I see response after response from the Customer Service department but struggle to find something they must be doing good. If your employer chooses this company as it's 401k solution, then you should quit your job because they clearly didn't do any research as to customer satisfaction. This is the first company I've seen average 1 star with 150 reviews. That's not easy to accomplish. Where do I start with this joke. Who ever is in charge of developing customer service reps and putting policies in place should be fired immediately. Then the Board should fire the CEO for leading such a horrible excuse of a company. I submitted a hardship withdraw for my daughters college tuition. A couple of major problems. 1. They won't let you even apply for it until you have confirmation/invoice from the school that details exactly the cost. So if you're also applying for grants, student aid, etc then you know they don't give you a decision on whether you receive those things until about 14 days before their tuition is due. 2. Once you apply the paperwork clearly says that it will take up to 14 days to be reviewed. Big problem if you're not allowed to apply until you have that invoice and you need to pay it by the due date. 14 days before it's due and 14 days before your hardship is reviewed. 3. Our hardship was submitted literally the day we got the decision about her grants and student aid. We heard literally nothing at all for 20 days and the only reason we heard something then was because I called in and complained. That's when I was told my hardship request had not even been assigned to a processor. Surprisingly it was assigned a processor that evening. 4. Don't expect a call back, ever! I called my processor twice and left her a voice message. She never called me back a single time. Plus her voicemail says she will get back to you in 48 business hours. So if you call on a Thursday at the end of the day you can expect a call on TUESDAY! Are you kidding me right now? 5. On day 25 I received an approved email saying my withdraw would be deposited into my account via direct deposit. Wait! What? I've never given you any bank information, so how are you going to do that? I immediately called Stephanie Sanchez, my so called processor and left her an urgent message (2nd voice mail I've left her) explaining my concern that they had no bank info. I never got a call back. Never! There is zero point of them offering a hardship withdraw because you will not get your funds before they are due. My daughters tuition was due 11 days ago. What a joke. They don't care about you at all! You're another number in their books, that's it. Want to see a good sign of a company cares about you? When you see them improving on the areas others constantly complain about, that's how. The fact that people are still complaining this much about their service is your proof to how much they care about you. Stephanie Sanchez and everyone in charge of that department should be fired. Killing a kid's dream of college. Why on earth would I ever give this company another penny of mine? ***Their customer service just responded to this review saying "I understand you spoke to your specialist." This is not true. I never said anything of the sort in my review and this is likely their response to make it seem like they are on top of this. Even now, to this day my specialist has NEVER called me back. Not once. read more

I am appalled at the level of unprofessional behavior from customer service when I tried to roll over my 401k to a different provider. My hard-earned savings could not be accessed for many months due to the total incompetance at the principal. To make matters worse they kept misgendering me on the phone. Not that I am not used to that, but I expected principal to be better than that. This makese me want to move my 401k to a more reliable and ethical provider but unfortunately principal makes that basically impossible. I can only wonder why they make it so hard to move the money... is there something bad going on at this company? read more

I submitted a 401k Loan request for new home purchase. I am a veteran attempting to use my VA loan and indicated as such in my request. I submitted all requested documentation, but had my request updated with "need additional documentation". Four times! Through my own effort, I spent several hours with them trying to understand what additional documentation was needed. There wasn't any. My requests for additional communication were denied and I was never given a call back until the day they discovered they made a mistake. All of my documentation was submitted in the initial request. Once their error was made apparent, the request was processed and approved. Their delay caused me to miss a deposit deadline, however, and forfeit several thousand dollars I had already paid. When I requested they make things right, they could only apologize. They wouldn't even overnight the check. As a veteran, I am used to fighting for things but not fighting for my own money to purchase my home. This company, like most, DOES NOT CARE about their customers nor do they care about veterans. I would recommend you take your business LITERALLY ANYWHERE ELSE! read more

If I could give zero or negative stars, I would. Even though the punches seem to keep coming, I feel like I've handled keeping negativity out of my head pretty well, at least full time. But here is an example of something that makes me somewhat negative.. A police officer puts 30+ years into his duty. He pays monthly for a life insurance plan over all those years. That police officer became very ill and passed away quickly. That police officer had at least expected to have some kind of coverage at the end. Well, as most may feel that would be the only way it would turn out, it doesn't. As it actually turns out, there was a gray area in this policy, a policy that also affects about 10 other retirees not including my father. He paid into this for so many years, even after he retired from the sheriff's department and worked in another city. He retired from the sheriff's department in 2005. The insurance company accepted his payments over all of these years. Not a single person in the department knew of this issue. The department tried to appeal, and explained the situation, but that appeal was denied. But now that he's passed, and the little bit of money he had set aside, just enough to pay for a funeral, is now no more. Thankfully, I have received help from so many people, and I can't thank everyone enough. The funeral home has been incredibly understanding and helpful. Amedysis hospice supplied a $1500.00 grant toward the total of both of my parents' funerals.. it's all been so wonderful, but this is all so insane to me. It's sad that having sick parents can put a person in debt when they hadn't been able to work. It's sad that coping with losing those parents in very traumatic ways has made it hard for me to return thus far, but I am looking.. My parents were wonderful people who would do anything for anyone if they could. My dad worked over half of his life in Monongalia county, often with two departments. He was a veteran. To Principal Life, he's not even worth $9,500.00. read more

I give it a 1 star only because there is no 0 stars. This has been the worst experience ever with a business! My husband has his 401k through this company and it has been the most difficult thing out of our experience trying to buy a home. Every person we've spoken to has either given us the run around or not returned our calls. We have provided every document they have asked for but somehow they end up needing something else. To top it off, we always end up being transferred to Philippines and get absolutely no answers. As soon as this nightmare is over with, we are pulling out of this 401K!! I'd suggest you do the same! And I see I get the generic answer from Jairo G. What a joke this company is! read more

Is this company stuck in the 1900s? Why does everything have to be completed via mail? Need to change your name..mail us a form! Need to update your contribution...mail us a form! This is ridiculous! Time to update your system and get with the times! Some people are not comfortable sending PII via mail! read more

This institution is shady. I requested a 401K rollover distribution check and they never sent it. I requested a replacement check, and they failed to send it again. My funds were missing for months. Finally, I requested that they overnight the check to me via UPS. I had to provide my own UPS account number so they could bill the overnight delivery fee to it. I finally received the check. If you are trying to get them to send you funds, I recommend that you skip the step of having it sent through regular mail. They will not send it. Just call them and have them overnight it to you. That way you'll get a tracking number too. It's free to set up a UPS account. read more

Applied for a new home and was expecting to use my 401K. Sent in all paperwork. I have fax and email confirmation that they received 80+ pages. They stated they needed more information. Fair - sent in more. Then claimed yet again it maybe in an email they cannot see - try back in 3 days. Called back. Received. 2 days later, needed more documentation. Closing date approaching. Called again. They have everything. Unable to get everything done before closing. Tried to move closing date and would have lost the house. Used every penny to put towards closing. Made us lose the house. Today, another email they are missing more information that had already been sent. Worst customer service, no follow though and they never paid out requested funds. Need to move out of Principal Financial as I do not believe they have the funding to accommodate a withdrawal. read more

If there were a 0 star option, I would have chose that. Worst financial group I have ever dealt with. We are taking out money towards our down payment on a house. We are about to lose this house because its been 2 months and we still haven't gotten our money. We asked for a terms of our 401k loan documentation, apparently we have to wait until next week for them to get us this information. They said that they cannot obtain it right away because they are not qualified to get that information. That's what I keep hearing, that they aren't qualified to give us the information we need. Every time we ask for a simple document it takes up to a week or month to obtain it. None of their staff is competent and they frankly don't care. We are about to lose this house due to their incompetence. I would not recommend! read more

I am going to be short. STAY AWAY ...if you need an amount for a hardship ; you will not get it. They are going to do all that they can to hold it and delay the process. Save yourself from the agony , the stress and the pain of being treated like a thing in your golden years. The frustration , the agony, the misery.. is a black hole of empathy ..a vortex of heartlessness, read more

Sad slow process to simply cashout my 401k , been working on this process for a month now and still more Unreasonable delays, put in a cashout with Voya a week after principal and it's wrapping up at warp speed , check should be here in a few days...I expect more issues will suddenly pop up as I continue this simple quest with principal, never put any serious money here, go with ethical professionals instead. Disappointing Experience read more

My 86 year old Mother did an annuity with them for years and when time came to liquidate the annuity, they stall and stall to facilitate monthly check payment. They keep saying, "Check will be sent out end of day but never send it" this is not a reputable or ethical company, strongly suggest to not use them, use another financial institution. They prey on elderly and are sharks of the financial world. read more

Unfortunately had to mark at least 1 star. Given the experience I've just had, no or negative stars should be an option. I am a financial professional. I assisted a client in rolling over his retirement assets recently into an IRA held at another firm from Principal. Everything progressed smoothly as the rollover check came over in its entirety. The receiving firm coded the check as a rollover. Principal coded it as Partially rolled over and partially distributed. When I called to see why this happened was informed that he should have taken his RMD prior to rolling his assets. They admitted this was an error on their part but would do nothing to correct the 1099. When the assets hit the new IRA, our office did a year end rmd calculation for this asset along with an existing IRA he had elsewhere. We took the full RMD from the outside firm. So as it stands, the client has 2 distributions (1099's) for one actual distribution. Principal had the nerve to ask the receiving firm to correct their problem, having no information on how we had already handled the distribution. Not only that, they included no account numbers or other identifying markers on their letter to the receiving firm which made their request useless. In summation Principal issued a distribution 1099 they never made nor a check they ever issued, leaving the client with having to prove that they only made 1 distribution. They have clearly committed a fraudulent act and have no intentions of correcting it. You are a disgrace to your profession. read more

Any other institution is better than this one. They are not for the people, they are for the people's money. They will hold on to your money like there company depends on it. Forget withdraws or roll overs they are a joke of an institution. Don't waste your time or money with this place and strongly confess to your companies / employers to not utilize this 401K services for your employees. read more

The organization holds a deferred comp from a previous employer. It is a complete mystery as to when this gets paid out from year to year. Customer service is completely incompetent. At some point you wonder about the Venn diagram overlap between incompetence and completely unethical behavior. At this point, I can only conclude that the organization is corrupt to the core. WORST COMPANY EVER UPDATE: Just spent approx. 2hrs on the phone. Customer service was both incompetent and rude. Could not and would not answer my questions. The overwhelming 1 star rating on this site are absolutely correct. I would give 0 stars if possible Hopefully the free market does it magic with this company. read more

This has to be the WORST company of all time. Not just with financials but out of all companies that exist on the planet, this might be the worst of them all. Customer service is a joke, nobody knows what they're talking about, wait times are ridiculous, tasks get completed weeks, sometimes months later than what I'm promised. I've been mislead several times during my short stint trying to work with this company and has left me nothing but stress and time wasted. STAY AWAY at all costs, otherwise you will regret it. read more