Principal Financial Group
reviews and complaints

I have 401k investments along with a CD with principal financial.

The CD was up for renewal 9/1. I read principles protocol on CD renewals, which is to contact the investor and disclose the new CD renewal term with new rate and offer 10 days for the client to decide to take the offer or move the money. I DID NOT RECEIVE ANY NOTICE. Principal rolled the CD over all on their own for. 4 yr term at a lousy 1.7%. Anyone can get over 5% anywhere. I’m so disappointed and feel so betrayed

I requested an emergency hardship to avoid an eviction, submitted the documents in a timely manner, and it takes this company 15 DAYS just to process your request. I've NEVER had to do business with a company that makes you wait so long in a case of an EMERGENCY! Then because it took so long for them to process, my document was past the due date. Then they wanted me to provide another eviction notice (which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard) The previous investment company my employer had would send you a check within 48 hrs because they UNDERSTOOD what the definition of EMERGENCY! This company is a joke! I had to borrow from a relative just to meet my deadline. Now I have to pay them back and I'm still getting NOWHERE with PRINCIPAL and they're still holding MY money. I don't owe this company anything, that's my money, and if I need it in a case of an emergency who are you to make that process difficult for me with a ridiculous time frame for processing?

My 401K was transferred to you from Empower as Oxford Bank, where I worked was purchased by Greenstate Credit Union. My problem is that Empower sent me 3 checks, 2 were made payable to me. Turns out that this was RMD's money which I did not no or authorize, since I already had taken my RMD from Principle, I endorsed these checks over to Principle to be deposited to my existing 401K with you. Here is my problem that's wrecking my life.

I received a 1099R from Empower for the 2 checks that I sent to Principle. Now I am faced with a $14,000 tax bill on money I didn't receive. I was instructed by my CPA to call you and let you know this was an error and have you send me the money so I would be able to pay the taxes on it. Also, a 1099R should not be issued since this is a transaction reversal. I talked to several employees at Principle and they said this could not be done. The dollar amount of these 2 checks was $71,815.27.

Please, Please help me I am retired and paying taxes on funds I never received just isn't right and I cannot afford it. There has to be a solution to fix this.

My company keeps my 401K with Principal. I cannot transfer funds between accounts. I have called for 8 months and no one will transfer my funds between accounts.

I have not been able to move funds around. Nor have I gotten call back about the problem.

I call every week and ask for help. All they will tell me is that it is escalated.

My name is ronald wallace. [protected] everett wa.

Help! Help

https://secure05.principal.com/allweb/docs/corporate/help.htm

I had a 401k account through employer with Principal. My employment ended and I decided to roll it over into an IRA account with Principal.

My 401k savings were disbursed and there is no news on the IRA account.

They did not create an IRA account. I am on a call with the customer service and spoke to 4 different people and they do not know where my account is.

I have been on a call with them for an hour now and they just keep me on hold all the while.

My house was damaged in a recent hailstorm that caused over 20k in damages. I submitted all the required documents only to receive an email stating:

email from Principal:

We do not pay back funds that have already been paid by the customer per the invoice shows you have paid funds. Please let us know if you have further questions.

Thank you

No contact person or number to call, just thank you. What kind of service are you providing?! #1 nothing has been paid. That is why i am asking for the hardship withdrawal. #2 the document they are referring to is not an invoice. It clearly states estimate.

I have reached out to my contractor to send an updated estimate stating the amounts due before work can begin. If this legitimate request gets rejected again I will be reaching out tom Nicholas Kaster Attorneys At Law 401k retirement plan actions.

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!

My wife Ranjana Shah has a Griffon company plan managed by Principal Financials and we wanted to roll it over to Vanguard Rollover IRA.

She has been trying this since 7/28/22. We gave them all the info a week ago.

No luck yet.

They are hard to get on the phone but she did finally talk to two people to do this wire transfer.

Each time they made some mistake and the Wire does not go through they keep charging $25 fee without explaining, why the Wire was not successful.

So far we have tried this process the wire 2 times and paid $50 fees already ! and still do not know if they wired our funds. and no feedback no status

- nothing !

We have to keep going thru the long voice interactive phone system every time to get any kind of status info.

Can anyone at Principal help us please ?

Utterly unprofessional !

We are remain frustrated.

Pradip Shah

61 Starlight drive, Monroe, NJ 08831

Call [protected] (Ranjana0 or [protected] (Pradip)

In July 2021, I was required to do a rollover as the company Enercon Services was sold. I was advised that I needed to roll the funds from the ESOP program that Principle managed into a qualifying IRA. I did the rollover to an Ameriprise Financial IRA and the check was received by my Advisor and deposited. The amount of the check received was $57,428.53, which represented a portion of the total amount held at The Principal. The remaining amount was around $12,000 which would be available to rollover in 18 mos as a followup due to Principals in house rules.

In May 2022, almost a year later, I received a letter from Principal stating that Principal made an error in how they reported the vesting of the account and advised that the check received in July 2021 was $14,341.29 more than what should have been sent and to have our advisor at Ameriprise Financial send those funds back. Our Advisor also received a letter.

I have no issue returning an amount payed in error, however, with the way the entire market has gone, downward, the $14,341.29 is no longer worth that much and if I return that full amount, I am overpaying and and taking a loss to pay for Principal's error to make them whole. How is that a fair practice?

A recent statement shows that the remaining balance is now around $10,000.00

and I am preparing to roll that over to the IRA, however, I am concerned that it is a correct amount.

I also wonder how many other clients have experienced this highly unusual error and practice of paying for The Principal's error. My Ameriprise advisor who has been in the industry for many years has never heard of anything like this.

My gut tells me this is pretty shady on The Principal's part and I would like to come to an agreeable amount to return based on the general performance of the market which would be the right thing to do on Principal's part. This is bad business to have the client pay for The Principal's error.

Thank you,

Paul Martinchich

[protected]

3330 Beechwood Blvd, Pittsburgh PA 15217

Contract # 7-09043

I elected to withdraw from my 401k on a Friday. Your webpage says 7 days. You will not give me my money until Monday. This is a problem. I called to find out what is happening. I was provided excuses by first person I spoke with. Also placed on hold for more than advertised 3 minutes twice. Spoke with Supervisor Ryan S. He is very rude. This is a problem.

I first called 2.23.22 to get a 1099 corrected. I was told it would take 1-1/2 weeks and they would email me the corrected 1099. I called again 3.11.22 and was told it would take another 3 days. I called again today and was told a work order was just issued and I should hear by Wednesday 3.23.22.

I need to file my taxes and need the corrected form or at least an email saying they will correct it.

I resigned from Lowes in 8/31/21. For some reason, they didn’t end my employment until 2/11/22 after I filed for my 401k with principal. I’ve called Lowes twice and had the correct date ‘fixed’. I received the confirmation from lowes that my resignation date is 8/31/21, yet principal says it’s 2/11/22 and I have to wait 30 days. I even had someone at principal tell me they found the corrected date, but now they say it isn’t. In the meantime, my 401k has lost $4500 in value and is going down daily. I’m not sure if it’s Lowes or principal who is committing fraud, or both.

My husband died July 8th 2021, I have called many times, they gave me a email address to send his death certificate, and each time I called they said sorry haven't received it, then I was told to mail it in, I did, certified thru the post office, no response. I called back again, yes we received it but we still need to talk to my husband's employer (Red Lobster).. Still no feed back. Its not much, but its money my husband worked hard for. What can I do? Why is this company so heartless

I am a former employee of Raley's Super Store. I ended employment in 2007. After working for almost 25 years for Raleys contributing to my pension plan then waiting many years after that, I decided to cash out one of my pension plans, In order to make ends meet and stay above water. I began the cash out process in the second and third weeks of September 2021. From the start, the process was more work than it should have been. Like many others before me on this site, after receiving my request to cash out, Principal financial told me that they were waiting for some sort of information from my old employer. That simply was not true. It took them weeks to mail me my forms and paperwork and there always seemed to be some excuse for why I may not have received it already. They also said that there was no way for completing this process or step online. After finally receiving my paperwork, filling it out and returning, I received a confirmation a couple days later via email. I thought this process was moving along smoothly so i remained patient. I was told that I should receive payment within the first of the following month so I waited. I remained diligent by calling periodically over the course of the first week, so every other couple of days. I needed to know that my money was on its way and that I would be paid. From the beginning of this last step of the process, I felt uncomfortable and not reassured, as the representative told me that she didn't know where my money was but that it had been paid out. From there I was told my problem would be sent to a specialist and that I should expect a call the following day. (How does a company not know where your money is if they are holding it for you?) During this call is when I learned that my payment was completed on October 8, 2021. The date of my call was A few days later around October 12, 13th. I have since called on October 14, and on October 15, which is when they said my money should be into my account the following Monday, October 18 and that My funds should be available by following day, Tuesday, October 19. Even then I was not confident as they could not tell me what account they deposited the funds into. I asked in order to verify they had the correct account number. They could not tell me and were only able to verify the correct bank. When I saw that no money was deposited into my account on the 19th I called them and they told me it would be ANOTHER two weeks before I would receive money. I called again on the 22nd and while the representative was helpful and seemed to genuinely want to correct the problem, he ultimately informed me that The department that handled this particular issue was closed. I'm not sure if it's closed every Friday but it was closed on this one, which is absurd. I am not happy and very dissatisfied with the way in which my claim was handled by principal financial, so much so that I am seriously considering closing my other account. I have waited weeks to receive a payment that should have arrived weeks ago and now I'm waiting to get a response on this platform from one of the customer service reps at principal financial. They have the responsibility of handling our money and should be more respectful of that. If it takes coming on to a public forum and airing our personal and private grievances to get a reaction that is fair and just, then so be it.

I requested a distribution check last week as I have separated from my former employer. I posted a message on Facebook Friday to this companies page and they said a representative would call me. No call, so I called them this morning. A very nonchalant arrogant rep by the name of Jeremy called back and told me that it can take up to 30 days for my former employer to provide separation information to them. I said no, that is your policy so that you can hold onto the funds. He said no we are just the administrator and to call my former employer. My former employer, said no it is Principles policy and that they provide separation information to them when the employee is separated. I knew this to be true. I want my money (IT IS MY MONEY - NOT PRINCIPLE FINANCIAL GROUPS MONEY) TODAY.

I call this company Principal to get my 41K money they just saying in two week I keep waiting and and I call again they said in two days their going to diposet to my account untill now I dont have it so, I call today the person
that I to they said the company Peterson where I work I have to call them to let them know that I want my money, they already know becouse I resign I quit thats why I want my money I wanna cash my money I need my money they give me hard time to get my own money I work hard for that money

3/22/2021 my client number is 716719 i have been paying my money for almost a year and was not informed that when i wanted to close the account i was told that i had to pay a 50$ fee and a 20% withholding for taxesin order to receive my money this is totally unacceptable considering covid and everything thats going on. im a hard working mom and will be filing a complaint with the attorney general tomorrow.

Matthew Voshell threatened me with violence after learning his daughter had anal sex. He also threatened my Asian secretary and called her a racial slur for not transferring a call over to me because he wouldn't identify as an employee at Principal Financial. He is a part of a few acts of fraud with the church at Bergen and should not be trusted. He is a shallow boy.