Principal Fax Numbers by Product Line

Which Principal line you need

Principal’s help pages for retirement plans list phone numbers and no fax, so the retirement number lives at form level: (866) 704-3481 is printed on the participant withdrawal forms, next to the Des Moines mailing address.

Group benefits is a different operation. Life, disability and accident claims go to (800) 255-6609, published on Principal’s forms page for businesses. It is listed here so a claim does not end up in a retirement processing queue.

Principal runs several other product lines with their own destinations, including individual annuities and IRAs. One rule is worth carrying: the IRA distribution form cannot be faxed at all. It requires an original medallion signature guarantee, and the form says so directly.

What people fax to Principal

The retirement forms that name a fax destination are the participant-level ones:

• In-service and hardship withdrawal forms in the PG1172 family
• Distribution and rollover request forms
• Beneficiary designation changes
• Loan requests, where the plan permits them

Many of these need a plan sponsor signature before they are complete, so the packet often includes a page that has been to your employer and back. A withdrawal form with sponsor approval and identification usually runs five to nine pages, which is past the free monthly allowance and inside one credit pack.

These lines take documents in, they do not answer

Principal’s fax destinations are processing intakes. Forms arrive, a processor works the queue, and Principal responds by mail, by phone, or in your plan account. Nothing comes back by fax and there is no fax acknowledgment.

The delivery receipt is what closes that loop. FaxTerra records the moment the receiving machine accepted your pages, with the time and page count, which is the evidence that a hardship or in-service withdrawal request left on the day you say it did.

Verify the number before you send

• Read the fax number off the Principal form you downloaded. Principal prints it in the return-instructions block, and the form is more specific than any general page.
• Check whether your form can be faxed. The IRA distribution form requires an original medallion signature guarantee and states that it cannot be faxed.
• Match the line to the product: a retirement withdrawal and a disability claim do not share a queue.
• Never fax wire instructions, a full bank routing and account pair, or login credentials. A sent fax cannot be recalled.

How to fax Principal without a fax machine

Create a free FaxTerra account with an email address, upload the signed form as a PDF or as photos from your phone, enter the number printed on the form, and send. A delivery confirmation arrives by email.

A short form sends free within your monthly free pages, and a withdrawal packet is covered by a one-time credit pack from about 10¢ a page. See how to send a fax for accepted files and page limits, faxing financial documents for the wider process, and the Empower guide if part of your retirement money moved there.