Reviews

This profile includes reviews for Principal Financial Group's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see Find Local Branches.

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Principal Financial Group has 46 locations, listed below.

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  Principal Financial Group

  711 High Street Des Moines, IA 50392-0001

  
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  Principal Financial Group

  575 7th St Des Moines, IA 50392-0002

  
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  Principal Financial Group

  4555 Lake Forest Drive Suite 230 Blue Ash, OH 45242

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  Principal Financial Group

  2851 Charlevoix Dr SE Ste 110 Grand Rapids, MI 49546

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  Principal

  Indianapolis, IN 46268

Review Details

• Review fromAnna U

  Date: 07/02/2025

  1 star
  Employers, please do yourself and your employees a favor, do not start your 401K plan with Principal Financial. This is a horrible and unethical company. I had a bad experience with them 19 years with a previous employer 401K and having another horrible experience with them again with my last employer 401K. It appears that the company culture did not improve over the years, their processes and procedures are terrible, it takes days to answer any questions, left hand does not know what right hand is doing. I tried to roll out my previous employers 401K, the customer rep ***** incorrect bank account info, they refuse to take responsibility and I, the customer, has to eat the cost of their mistake. Please stay away. Employers, please do not start your 401K plan with this company, there are plenty of better options out there. As big as this company is, they are probably one of the worst, if not the worst, financial institutions out there.Employers - Please do not start your 401K plan with this company. Your employees will appreciate that. There are plenty of options out there. My guess is that they are cheap for a reason.Employees - if you have a previous employer 401K with this company, you may want to move your funds out immediately. You dont want to risk your retirement funds with an unethical company as you will be paying much higher fees than if you were to roll it out.

• Review fromJonathan S

  Date: 06/10/2025

  1 star
  Absolutely horrible, this is a joke of a company. Going through a divorce and QDRO process... dealing with Principal through my divorce has been unacceptable to say the least. Its important for you to know 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. Im going to list the issues that I or my ex-wife have personally encountered when dealing with Principal:1.**** appear to be working from home. Calls get disconnected in mid-sentence and then when calling back, you get a totally different **** and you must start the conversation all over again. 2.Some of the **** do not have enough command of the English language to be speaking with people about their life savings and or Divorce QDRO processes. 3.**** have noisy backgrounds including crying babies!4.**** notes are not up to date, giving out false or incorrect information. On one occasion a *** 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-wifes social security number. THE CORRECT NUMBER WAS GIVE AT LEAST 10 times to the **** in writing and in e-mail! Absolutely unacceptable.Stay clear of this company if you value your sanity.

• Review fromBen L

  Date: 05/20/2025

  1 star
  Run. Run. Run! My former employer recently converted 401k providers from another company to Principal and it has been the worst retirement plan on earth. They do not have many options to place your funds, and the "expense ratio" fees on the funds are absolutely outrageous. For example, my target date fund at Principal had an expense ratio of 29 basis points (0.29%) and the same target date fund at the prior employer had an expense ratio of 5 basis points (0.05%). In other words, I was being charged nearly 6x to have my money at principal for the same service. As a result of this, I tried to convert my plan to my new employer, and Principal charged me $100 to mail the check and refused to waive it. Keep in mind I never signed up for principal, my former employer did this without my consent. To top it all off, their website is horrendous and does not let you create an account - I had to call them to create the account like it was the year 1995.If you're an employer thinking about using Principal, PLEASE do not subject your employees to this garbage. If you're an employee, get your money out of there as soon as you can.Believe these BBB reviews. This is the worst company of all time in its industry.

• Review fromGabriel B

  Date: 05/18/2025

  1 star
  ************************************************************************************************************************************************** I was on Family Medical Leave since 11/15/17, Principal never deposited any Benefits even with a ** of Chiropractor review. They state they never receive faxes and say they never received a doctor's note. Principal sends letters stating they approved benefits without depositing the money. NJS 2C:21-13; NJS 2C:21-19, NJS 2C:20-2.

• Review fromLee H

  Date: 05/13/2025

  1 star
  My employer was bought out by ********************* recently and their first act was to ****** up every employees 401k funds and transfer it without notice to principal investments. Great.They have a higher overhead charge for services the funds, and again no employee was consulted before the change.I recently submitted for hardship withdrawal and was told to submit paperwork, I submitted all the paperwork requested for the hardship. This one was in response to finding out my homes foundation was giving way due to excess ******* insurance does not cover structural integrity so I applied for the hardship referral and was assured that I would be able to get the funds if I submitted a claim through insurance and sent a denial letter to them after it was kicked down the line by the insurance *********** I've submitted the papers and am told that they will not be allowing the withdrawal because the damages aren't cataclysmic and were over time or not unexpected.All of this done and now I cannot access the funds, nor can I repair my home. Topping all of that, as I made the claim after they told me to do so my insurance rates have now gone up.

• Review fromAndrea E

  Date: 05/05/2025

  1 star
  Very dissatisfying company. **************** is rude and unprofessional, language barrier. Unsettling that this company is in charge of mine as well as the future of others. Please, if you have any choice in this matter go elsewhere where!

• Review fromMario D

  Date: 04/28/2025

  1 star
  My experience with ********* was abysmal. She delayed communications by requesting additional documents at the end of the day and never asking for things in advance when we spoke. What turned out to be a simple cash sale and needing to send a purchase agreement turned into more and more documents every time I emailed something. Not clear at all in what was needed and the time in responding was always after an entire day had past. We would send a document, hear nothing and then receive an email the following day at 4pm after she was gone for the day that new documents were needed. I never had more trouble with a cash purchase real estate deal than working with Principal

• Review fromWendy C

  Date: 04/22/2025

  1 star
  My employer required that I create an account with ******************** and mandated that a certain amount of my paycheck go in it. I complied. After two years and putting thousands of dollars with Principal, I was sent a letter requiring me to set up an online account. To do so I had to send a picture of my passport, my drivers license, and a selfie all uploaded over the Internet. This seems like a great way to get my identity stolen, so I called the company to find out other more secure ways to set up the account. Everyone I spoke with barely had a command of English. Im not sure what country their customer service is located in, but it is not *****************. Apparently they do not have ANY secure ways to create an account. Also how does a selfie prove Im me - couldnt someone just lift stuff like that off social media anyway? The letter I received from *** ******** - VP - says my account is a target for identify theft but I think their online process and third world customer service set up is a guarantee for woes. Not sure why my employer would opt to work with such a shady organization. Perhaps some state senator could take on this mess as a pet project and get all of us our money back / put these guys out of business. This place is the metaphorical equivalent of putting money in a jar then burying it in a hole in the ground in your backyard. If you do not need to do business with these clowns, dont.

• Review fromLOU A

  Date: 04/16/2025

  1 star
  My former company uses Principal for their 401 ********* this company. They push their annuities endlessly. There website is horrible. They made an error when I tried to make a RMD withdrawal and moved ALL the funds I had in the 401 K out! Huge tax consequences. Impossible to get anyone to fix this at Principal. I had to get my former company involved to make this work.

• Review fromRandy H

  Date: 04/07/2025

  1 star
  This is the worst company ever don't waste your time, just get your money and run.