Principal Bank, a subsidiary of Principal Financial Group^®, is an FDIC-insured bank offering customers traditional and innovative qualified banking products and services online and by telephone with personal bankers. For individuals, Principal Bank has a variety of products such as CDs and money market and savings accounts held within traditional or Roth IRAs.

Founded in 1998 as one of the first online-only banks, Principal Bank originally offered traditional banking products including checking accounts, loans, and business accounts. Today, Principal Bank focuses solely on retirement, helping customers have enough and save enough in retirement. Customers of Principal Bank have access to a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management, and insurance.

Principal Bank has two investing options, both for IRA savings:

• Qualified certificates of deposit (CDs) for stable, long-term savings. These have a minimum deposit of $1,000 and terms available from 12-60 months.
• Money market IRAs, with higher yields on higher balances. These have a minimum deposit of $1,000, with additional contributions allowed. Tiered interest rates are compounded and credited quarterly, and checks are available for customers over age 59½ (traditional IRAs only). Six withdrawals are allowed per month.

See our interest rates on IRAs.

An automatic rollover IRA is designed to minimize investment risk. It’s meant to be a temporary parking spot until you decide what you want to do with your retirement savings.

An automatic rollover IRA at Principal Bank is a retirement savings account that was opened on your behalf by a retirement plan sponsor with funds you had in the retirement plan. This automatic rollover occurs when your former employer’s retirement plan doesn’t allow former employees with less than a specific amount (usually $7,000) saved to stay in the plan. Rather than paying you the balance in cash, regulations allow the plan sponsor to automatically roll over any savings under that amount to an IRA. Or, an automatic rollover can happen if an employer’s retirement plan closes. 

This is where Principal Bank comes in. If you have an automatic rollover IRA with Principal Bank, it’s because your former employer has an agreement with us to open it on your behalf. Your funds earn interest and are protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) up to $250,000 per depositor.

By rolling over your retirement funds into an IRA, you maintain the tax-deferred status of your pre-tax retirement savings when you follow the IRA rules. In addition, if you choose to consolidate other accounts into the rollover IRA, you can streamline your retirement savings account management. And, because the IRA is yours and is not connected to any employer, it travels with you and you can add to it as you see fit, up to annual contribution limits.

Two types of IRAs are available: Roth and traditional. Roth IRAs must be held for five years before tax-free withdrawals can be made. Limits for new contributions, set by the IRS, are allowed as long as your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) does not exceed certain limits in the year the contribution is made. There are no limits to or deductions for transferred funds for Roth IRAs.

With traditional IRAs, earnings grow tax-deferred until withdrawal and certain contributions may be tax-deductible. To contribute to a traditional IRA, you or your spouse must earn income in the year the contribution is made. Check with the IRS for current year contribution limits for traditional IRAs. There are no limits to or deductions for transferred funds for traditional IRAs.

Regulations allow retirement plan mandatory distributions to be automatically rolled into an IRA instead of being paid out in cash, unless you decide otherwise. So, if you recently left an employer and didn’t decide what to do with the funds in your employer-sponsored retirement plan, those savings could have been moved into a Principal Bank^® Automatic Rollover IRA on your behalf. Or, this can happen if retirement plan closes and a decision hasn’t been made about what to do with the retirement funds as of the date the plan closes.

Yes. A welcome letter was sent to the address we received from the retirement plan sponsor when the account was opened. This welcome letter contains account information as well as instructions for taking ownership of your account. (It’s possible that if the retirement plan sponsor didn’t have your most recent address, an old address may have been provided to Principal Bank.)

Even if you haven’t received your welcome letter from Principal Bank yet, you can still take ownership of your automatic rollover IRA at Principal Bank. To do this, log in to your account at principal.com, using the same account login information you used when you were with the retirement plan. Select your Principal Bank^® Automatic Rollover account and follow the online process.

You can start the process two ways: online, or by calling us.

• Online: Log in to open your IRA online in just a few steps and choose from a set of investment options.
• Call us: Convert your current account to a CD or money market IRA by calling us toll-free at 800-672-3343, Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m. CT.

You should receive information from us within 10 business days after your automatic rollover IRA is opened. Your first step is to take ownership of your account. Then, you have several options.

• Convert your Principal Bank automatic rollover IRA to a Principal Bank CD or money market IRA, or another Principal product such as an annuity or mutual fund.
• Make additional deposits to your IRA.
• Roll over your funds to an IRA at another financial institution or another employer-sponsored retirement savings plan.
• Withdraw your funds. You may face penalties if you're under age 59½.

You can start the process online, or by calling us.

• Open your IRA online in just a few steps and choose from a set of investment options.
• Call us 800-672-3343, Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m. CT, to discuss converting your current account to a CD or money market IRA.

Principal Bank traditional and Roth IRAs come with FDIC insurance up to $250,000 per depositor.

If you already have log in credentials on principal.com, you can log into your account to access your Principal Bank account. If you don’t have log in credentials, you must set up a username and password. Find step-by-step help to create your online account access.

Your IRA was originally established for you by your previous employer because you didn’t make an election for your retirement assets at the time when you either experienced a job change or were part of a plan termination.

To open this account, we relied upon information about you that was provided by your previous plan sponsor. For us to accept any direction from you now, we must first confirm your identity and complete the process of opening the account. This process satisfies our legal requirement under the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bank Secrecy Act, which mandates that we confirm the identity of our customers.

By doing this you are confirming your identity and simply acknowledging the terms of the IRA and recognizing Principal Bank as the custodian of the account.

Yes. Find help to sign up for online statements. (Online statements disclosures (PDF))

You may contact us via mail or call customer service.

• Mailing address, general correspondence: Principal Bank, PO Box 9351, Des Moines, Iowa 50306-9351
• Overnight delivery: Principal Bank, 711 High Street, Des Moines, IA 50392
• Customer service: 800-672-3343, Monday–Friday (excluding holidays), 7 a.m.–7 p.m. CT