Affidavit of Identity? Rollover IRA out of Principal Bank

[eostache]

I have some retirement accounts at Principal. It wasn't my idea, it was from a former employer.

I have a login to the Principal website and have had no problems with that.

A few months ago I had no problems rolling over my funds from a former employers ESOP out of Principal into another company (Vanguard).
I just called Principal and got a real person on the phone in a timely manner and set up the rollover request information, and it all went well.

I just got a statement from Principal Bank, perhaps not quite the same entity as Principal Financial Group, about an old tIRA I have there. It shows up on my Principal account page. I want to roll this over into my Vanguard account.

So I go to inquire about rollover and I am told I need to verify my identity. I can see that in these days of identity security. I take the multiple choice quiz and apparently I failed. There were a few questions that had answer choices that were close but not exact, so I did not choose them. Such as an answer choice of "2001 Subaru Legacy." I have a 2001 Subaru Outback. I know that in 2001 the Outback and the Legacy were two entirely different cars, so I did not choose that one. How was I supposed to know whether this was a trick question or not?

Now I have to find a printer to print out an Affadavit of Identity. Who prints out things these days? This isn't the 1990s any more. And find a notary, taking time out of my work day to do so. I didn't have to do all this to roll my ESOP funds out. Why is this process different?

Has anyone else had to do this at other companies to move funds?

I tried to call Principal Bank to ask about all this. I called the number 1-800-672-3343 and was on hold for-ever. I never did get to talk to a real person. I gave up.  I wasted two hours of my evening dealing with this crap and got nowhere. I checked the Facebook page. I guess I'm not the only one. Recently another person posted a screenshot of her phone being on hold for 40+ minutes waiting to talk to a real person there.

Apparently the main way Principal makes money is by stalling people from moving their money out.

[Frankies Girl]

Go through Vanguard and have them pull the funds over on their end. Contact them, get the correct account setup and fill out the forms as they advise and then send them to Vanguard. They'll oversee the move on their end and you can bug them as often as you'd like and stand a way better chance of getting a live person.

But if you are forced to get any forms printed out and notarized, ask around at your work. Most larger offices have someone in there that is a notary and they'll do it for free (at least that was my experience). I printed the forms out at work, had them notarized by the office manager.

[eostache]

Go through Vanguard and have them pull the funds over on their end. Contact them, get the correct account setup and fill out the forms as they advise and then send them to Vanguard. They'll oversee the move on their end and you can bug them as often as you'd like and stand a way better chance of getting a live person.

But if you are forced to get any forms printed out and notarized, ask around at your work. Most larger offices have someone in there that is a notary and they'll do it for free (at least that was my experience). I printed the forms out at work, had them notarized by the office manager.

Thanks! That's a great idea to see if Vanguard will pull the funds for me from their end.

I work at a very small company so there is probably not anyone at my office who can notarize it. I work downtown and can easily go to the bank or anywhere there is a notary. I'm just miffed that I'd have to do this, especially if it's not something that people usually have to do to roll over accounts.

[eostache]

Just to update: I got the form notarized at my bank (free) and sent it in. About 10 days later I got an email from Principal saying that my identity had now been verified.