Principal Financial Group Reviews 70

This is a garbage bank. They charged my a $15 fee for my account, which I didn't ask to be put in. When I went to close my account, they charged my an additional $30 for closing the account. This bank must be poorly run and broke to steal money for individuals.

All I needed was help rolling my retirement account with my previous employer to my roth IRA. Do not call 800-986-3343. The lady on the phone was curt, interrupted me two-three different times, and became aggressive with me when I told her I did not know my beneficiary because I was with the company for a very short period of time and knew I would be leaving that company in 5-6 months. I had to hang up on her before I said things I would have regretted. 855-739-2859 was the second number that I called. They were very kind and patient and able to assist me. I never leave reviews and have never hung up on a customer service representative till dealing with this company's customer service.

Worst company EVER! Do not invest with this COMPANY

This is the absolute worst company to do business with. Do not use them for any of your financial needs. Their fees are exorbitant, their returns poor, and their customer service truly the worst that I've ever experienced. 9 years as a customer, with multiple remarkably horrendous experiences, seriously, avoid this company at all costs!

I moved to a different company and decided to just cash out my 401K (it was less than $300). I decided to go with a direct deposit. Unfortunately, I was in a rush and I switched the last two numbers of my bank account. Honest mistake. I reached out to Principal to let them know what happened to get it fixed. At first they refused to help me. It was been seven business since my request. They have a 5 business day policy where after the 5th business day, they can’t reverse the deposit. I had the call EIGHT times to get a representative that would help me and I’m still not guaranteed to get my money. What they don’t know is that I was planning to open a Roth IRA with my nest egg that I have built and I’m researching companies. Principal will not have my business after this.

I needed to take a loan on my 401K to pay for my father's funeral. The first guy told me they couldn't transfer it to my account electronically so they sent me a paper check which no one would cash in Tn the bank had been black listed. So I called back an another guy tells me oh yeah we can transfer it electronically an he says it will be 10 business days so basically two weeks before the check can be canceled an a transfer done. I am still waiting I called yesterday they said it would be in my bank with in 2 day now today they call an say it may be a few more days I just need to pay for my father's funeral this has been a nightmare with this company

i will acknowledge that i mistakenly entered the wrong account. however trying to get them to resolve this mistake by either recalling or now disputing the funds has been a disaster. i and multiple people at chase have told them that they need to file a dispute or a claim, but they say there is nothing they can do. they've been told what they should do, they just don't know how to do it.

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

my experience is James Walton is a principal of a Financial Group for people to give out there out Business Card's for him to have customer's to pay for him.

I attempted to complete a wire transfer of funds, which took an astonishing 30 days; despite paying for a premium service. It would have been faster to send the payment via regular mail. I requested a refund, but no resolution or follow-up was ever communicated to me.

Principal handled the situation poorly, both in communicating with me and in coordinating with the receiving agency. I endured multiple three-way calls where Principal disconnected, was transferred repeatedly to different agents (each time starting from scratch to re-explain the issue), and spoke with several supervisors who showed little concern. The overall experience was unprofessional and extremely frustrating.

I’ve been with my new company for two weeks and recently discovered I was unable to log in to my Principal account. Several others on my team have experienced similar issues, most of which stem from incorrect personal information being entered into the system. In my case, my date of birth was recorded incorrectly by Principal.

I was told the matter would be expedited and resolved within 24 hours. However, when I called back the next day, I spoke with a second representative who was unable to assist and abruptly disconnected the call—clearly frustrated. I then spoke with a third representative who seemed disinterested, offered no clear resolution timeline, and lacked any sense of empathy or professionalism. He vaguely stated it could take a few days but provided no definitive guidance.

The level of customer service I received was extremely disappointing—zero out of ten. In my previous 25 years of work, I’ve used providers like ADP and Fidelity and never had to call them for issues of this nature. This experience has been both troubling and concerning.

Be wary with these guys, went to transfer my 401k out at the very end they read you a disclosure that if your check is fraudulently cashed they are not responsible? So I say never mind I will have it wired, they say too late? But we could have overnighted it? Even though they never gave me the option. Spoke to a supervisor completely useless...

Dealing with Principal through my divorce has been unacceptable to say the least. Its important for you to know and for me to document just how unprofessional and sloppy this has been from day one. This has caused great frustration and tremendous turmoil for me. Let me start off by saying they (Principal) absolutely do not communicate with the client in any respect. Yes, letters are sent but they are very late, and the letters are written in a way that does not give important details, which prompts a call to a CSR who has no idea. I’m going to list the issues that I or my ex-wife have personally encountered when dealing with Principal:

1. CSRs appear to be working from home. Calls get disconnected in mid-sentence and then when calling back, you get a totally different rep, and you must start the conversation all over again.
2. Some of the CSRs do not have enough command of the English language to be speaking with people about their life savings and or Divorce QDRO processes.
3. CSR’s have noisy backgrounds including crying babies!
4. CSR’s notes are not up to date, giving out false or incorrect information. On one occasion a CSR told my ex-wife that this process will take a year!! Can you image what kind of distress that put on her and me and the entire household!
5. Calls are met with; I must transfer you to someone who can help you with that.
6. Principal screwed up my ex-wife’s social security number. THE CORRECT NUMBER WAS GIVE AT LEAST 10 times to the CSRs in writing and in e-mail! Absolutely unacceptable.

Stay Clear!!

I’ve been attempting to withdraw my 401K. Since march. It’s now June. I’ve called numerous times. Told same old story. We’ll call you back in 24 hours. Not once returned a call. And promised email updates. Zero! This is by far the WORST investment company I’ve ever dealt with! I left my place of employment in February. So it’s not gaining. I wanted to cash it out and put in savings. Would make more. But, an extremely unreliable, dishonest, shitty customer service that wouldn’t tell the truth if their life depended on it. Don’t even consider this joke of a company! Read their reviews. It answers why they only have 1 star out of 5.

If you want grief and aggravation, this is the place to trust with your hard-earned life savings.
Mis managed and staff that really doesn't care about resolving your issues they just go through the motions and pass you on to the next agent.
I submitted the requested information 3 times, and they still can't process the transaction.

I submitted a request to rollover a 401k to IRA with another firm. After three days, I receive a notice the transfer is being processed and is $1100 short. The explanation is changes in the market. When I submit the request for $X I expect to receive $X, seems like the perfect scam to fleece the consumer.

Website, app and phone service are all unavailable Friday, April 4, 2025. Their customers are unable to make any changes to their accounts due to outage.

Anybody interested in a whooping class action lawsuit for whoever lost money?

My new employer utilizes Principal for 401k administration. Their website is the slowest I have ever experienced. It took me 20 minutes just to adjust my contribution amount. It clocks for over a
Minute on every screen. I mean it’s 2025, invest in some damn bandwidth!

What didn't go wrong would be the right question. This company says it never receives any documents for my claim. My Doctor office sends documents over and over.

Retired and logged in and filled form online requesting Principal to rollover my 401K to existing Fidelity IRA. I provided the destination IRA rollover account number in the form. Principal Financial did not put the IRA rollover account number on the check! Fidelity returned the check to Principal. Principlal sent me an email that there was an 'address' problem with the check. Called Principal and was put on hold for 15 minutes while rep 'pulled it up'. Finally, Principal said account number was not on the returned check. Gave them rollover acct number again. Principal said they would resend ck to Fidelity. Principal did not send confirmation email to me for resend ck activity.