Wells Fargo 401(k) Rollover: IRT → Principal Migration, WF Employee Plan (Empower) & WF Advisors IRA Guide (2026)

"Wells Fargo 401(k) rollover" means three different things depending on which Wells Fargo entity you are dealing with. Wells Fargo's Institutional Retirement & Trust (IRT) recordkeeping business — which administered 5,000+ employer plans and 3.9 million participant accounts — was sold to Principal Financial Group in 2019 and fully migrated by 2021. Wells Fargo employees' own 401(k) plan is administered by Empower. And Wells Fargo Advisors, the bank's brokerage and advisory arm, still accepts rollover IRAs from outside plan participants. Confusing these three leads to searching for an account in the wrong place — and thousands of former Wells Fargo IRT participants have never found their account because they don't know it moved to Principal. This guide identifies which situation you are in, how to locate your account, and how to execute a rollover correctly.

Which "Wells Fargo 401(k)" do you have?

Before doing anything else, identify which Wells Fargo entity is involved. The answer determines where your account is and how to initiate a rollover.

Wells Fargo IRT → Principal Financial Group (2019 acquisition)

Wells Fargo's Institutional Retirement & Trust business was one of the larger defined contribution plan recordkeepers in the United States. Serving thousands of corporate employers, IRT administered 401(k) plans, defined benefit plans, executive deferred compensation plans, and ESOP structures. The IRT division operated under the Wells Fargo brand, and plan participants accessed their accounts through a Wells Fargo retirement portal — most commonly at wfrs.wellsfargo.com or a Wells Fargo-branded participant login page.

On April 9, 2019, Principal Financial Group announced a definitive agreement to acquire Wells Fargo's IRT business for $1.2 billion. The transaction closed on July 1, 2019. At closing, Principal assumed administration of more than 5,000 employer plans representing 3.9 million participants and approximately $827 billion in assets under administration.¹ Principal migrated participants in structured waves through June 2021, when the integration was announced as complete and Principal crossed 10 million eligible participants across all its retirement plans.

For former Wells Fargo IRT participants: your account has not been lost or closed. It exists at principal.com under the same plan and with the same investment history. What changed is the portal, the brand on correspondence, and the login URL. Wells Fargo retirement portal URLs are no longer active for plan access.

How to locate your account at Principal

1. Go to principal.com and click "Log in" → "Participants."
2. If you established Principal credentials during the migration (Principal sent instructions by mail and email), enter your username and password. If your Wells Fargo-era credentials fail, use the Forgot Username/Password flow — you will need your Social Security Number and date of birth.
3. If you never received or set up Principal credentials, click "Register" on the Principal login page. You will need your SSN and date of birth to establish access. A temporary PIN is sent to your email or mailing address on file.
4. If self-service registration fails — for instance, if your contact information on file is outdated from the migration — call Principal participant services at 1-800-547-7754. A representative can verify your identity and send updated credentials by mail.

Step-by-step rollover from your Principal-administered plan

Once you have located your account on principal.com, the rollover process follows Principal's standard flow. Before initiating, confirm your vested balance (vested employer contributions may be less than total employer contributions if you are subject to a cliff or graded vesting schedule — see vesting schedule guide), check for any outstanding loan balance, and confirm whether your plan holds a stable value fund with an equity wash provision.

1. Log in to principal.com, navigate to your 401(k) account, and select Distributions and Rollovers (or the equivalent in your plan's portal view).
2. Select Direct Rollover. A direct rollover sends funds from the plan directly to the receiving IRA without passing through your hands — the 20% mandatory federal withholding under IRC § 3405(c) does not apply.²
3. Enter the receiving IRA's account number and exact FBO payee instructions — the legal name the check or wire should be made payable to (e.g., "Fidelity Management Trust Company FBO [Your Full Legal Name]").
4. If your plan holds stable value assets with an equity wash restriction, initiate a transfer of those assets to an equity option inside the plan before or on your last day to start the restriction period clock. Roll non-stable-value assets immediately in a separate distribution. See the Principal guide for the full equity wash sequence.
5. Confirm processing timeline with Principal participant services. Direct rollovers from Principal-administered plans typically take 7–14 business days from request to disbursement, plus 1–3 days for the receiving IRA to post the funds.

For plan-specific traps common to all Principal-administered plans — including the stable value equity wash provision, annual profit-sharing timing, proprietary fund liquidation, and vesting cliff proximity — see the full Principal 401(k) Rollover guide. The Principal guide covers the mechanics inherited by all plans migrated from Wells Fargo IRT.

Wells Fargo & Company employees: your 401(k) is at Empower

Employees of Wells Fargo & Company — the bank itself — have a different situation from participants in employer plans that used Wells Fargo IRT as their recordkeeper. Wells Fargo's own corporate 401(k) plan (the Wells Fargo & Company 401(k) Plan) is administered by Empower, with Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company serving as trustee.³ Wells Fargo employees access their 401(k) through a custom Empower portal at empower.com/client/wellsfargo.

This creates a notable irony: Wells Fargo sold its IRT business — which administered 401(k) plans for other companies — to Principal, while simultaneously moving its own employees' 401(k) plan administration to Empower. Former Wells Fargo employees initiating a rollover should log in to the Empower portal, not search for a Principal account. For the full rollover process, Empower-specific traps, and processing timelines, see the Empower 401(k) Rollover guide.

Rolling a 401(k) TO a Wells Fargo Advisors IRA

Regardless of what plan your 401(k) comes from, you can choose to roll it to a Wells Fargo Advisors IRA (full-service brokerage with an assigned advisor) or a WellsTrade IRA (self-directed, $0-commission brokerage). Wells Fargo Advisors accepts direct rollover transfers from any qualified plan.

Before selecting Wells Fargo Advisors as your rollover IRA destination, understand the cost structure relative to alternatives:

Wells Fargo Advisors may be the right choice if you have an existing Wells Fargo banking relationship and want consolidated access to your banking, brokerage, and retirement accounts through a single portal. The Wells Fargo Private Bank also offers enhanced service tiers for clients with substantial assets who want wealth management alongside the rollover IRA. If your primary decision driver is minimizing fund expenses in a self-directed rollover IRA, Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab typically provide superior economics. See the rollover IRA custodian comparison guide for a detailed breakdown.

Important: full-service advisor compensation disclosure. If you open a Wells Fargo Advisors managed account rather than a self-directed WellsTrade IRA, your assigned financial advisor may earn commissions on product sales or an ongoing asset-based advisory fee. Under DOL fiduciary rules, advisors giving rollover advice must act in your best interest — but understanding exactly how your advisor is paid remains your responsibility. Ask your Wells Fargo advisor: "Are you recommending I roll to a Wells Fargo IRA because it is in my best interest, or because it generates a fee or commission for you? What is your compensation on this account?" A fee-only advisor (who charges only a flat or hourly planning fee and earns no commissions) can review your rollover options without a conflict of interest.

Processing timelines

5 Wells Fargo rollover traps

1. Searching for a dead portal — WF IRT accounts are now at principal.com, not any WF site

The most common Wells Fargo rollover problem is simply not knowing where the account went. Participants who worked at a company that used Wells Fargo IRT often spent years logging in to a Wells Fargo-branded retirement portal. When they leave their job — sometimes years after the 2019 acquisition and 2021 migration — they try to log in to a Wells Fargo retirement site and find dead links, general banking pages, or nothing relevant to their retirement account.

Old Wells Fargo retirement portal URLs are no longer active for participant access. The account is at principal.com. If you received migration correspondence from Principal in 2020 or 2021 and did not act on it, or if your email address on file was outdated, you may have missed the credential setup window entirely — which is why many participants try principal.com for the first time years after the migration and find they need to register from scratch. Registration requires your SSN and date of birth. Call 1-800-547-7754 if online registration fails.

One additional complication: some employers that used Wells Fargo IRT had employee-branded retirement portals (e.g., retirementbenefits.yourcompany.com) running on WF infrastructure. These portals were either shut down, redirected to Principal, or left as dead links after the migration. Participants from those employers may not realize "their company's retirement portal" was WF IRT branded — they search for their company name alongside "401k rollover" and find nothing. The resolution is the same: principal.com, call 1-800-547-7754 if needed.

2. Confusing Wells Fargo employees' plan (Empower) with former IRT participants (Principal)

The irony of Wells Fargo's situation is that the company that used to administer other companies' 401(k) plans (IRT) now has its own employees on a third-party platform (Empower). A current or former Wells Fargo employee is not on Principal — they are on Empower, accessible at empower.com/client/wellsfargo.

This matters because the portals, phone numbers, and processing mechanics are entirely different. A Wells Fargo employee who calls the Principal participant services number to ask about their rollover will receive no useful information because their account is not there. Similarly, a Wells Fargo employee searching "Wells Fargo 401k rollover" online may find guidance about the IRT → Principal migration that is completely inapplicable to their own employer's plan. Identify which situation applies before doing anything else — the table at the top of this guide covers both cases.

3. Stable value equity wash at the former WF IRT plan (now Principal)

Wells Fargo IRT plans commonly included stable value funds backed by insurance or group annuity contracts. These funds migrated to Principal along with all other plan assets. Principal-administered stable value funds typically carry a competing fund restriction — an equity wash provision — that prohibits moving stable value assets directly to a money market, short-term bond, or similar competing option (including the settlement account at a rollover IRA destination).

The equity wash restriction typically requires a 90-day hold period after transferring stable value assets to a non-competing equity option inside the plan. If your former WF IRT plan (now at Principal) holds a stable value fund and you want to roll out immediately, the sequence is: (1) transfer stable value balance to an equity index fund inside the plan on or before your last day, (2) roll all non-stable-value assets immediately in a direct rollover, (3) initiate a second distribution of the former stable value assets after the 90-day equity wash period clears. To confirm your specific plan's restriction and hold period, call Principal at 1-800-547-7754 before initiating any distribution.

This is not a problem of the WF → Principal migration itself. These restrictions existed in WF IRT plans before the sale and carry over to the same plan documents at Principal. They reflect the underlying insurance contract, not the recordkeeper. Many large-employer plans do not have a stable value fund at all — if yours doesn't, this trap doesn't apply.

4. Annual profit-sharing contributions — leaving mid-year can forfeit a pending contribution

Many former Wells Fargo IRT plans now administered by Principal include annual profit-sharing contributions that post to participant accounts after year-end. Unlike per-paycheck employer matching contributions, a profit-sharing contribution is a discretionary employer contribution typically declared and posted in Q1 of the following year. Some plans require active employment at year-end, or on the date the contribution is posted, to be eligible.

If your former WF IRT plan (now at Principal) includes a profit-sharing feature and you are considering leaving in the fourth quarter, review the timing before finalizing your separation. Call Principal at 1-800-547-7754 and ask: "Does my plan have a profit-sharing contribution, and is active employment required on the contribution posting date to receive it?" The answer is in your plan's Summary Plan Description, available through the Plan Documents section of principal.com. See Scenario 1 below for a real-dollar example.

5. Wells Fargo Advisors rollover IRA — understanding the advisor's economic incentive

Wells Fargo Advisors financial advisors who recommend rolling your 401(k) into a Wells Fargo Advisors managed IRA are subject to the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule and must act in your best interest. But "best interest" compliance does not eliminate the economic incentive for the advisor to recommend a rollover — a managed IRA generates ongoing fee revenue for the advisor, while leaving the money in your old 401(k) generates nothing for Wells Fargo. The regulation limits the nature of the recommendation but does not remove the conflict of interest from the transaction.

Specifically: under the DOL's amended Prohibited Transaction Exemption 2020-02 (PTE 2020-02), a financial institution recommending a rollover from a 401(k) to an IRA it manages must provide a written disclosure of the conflict of interest, the compensation the advisor and firm will receive from the rollover, and why the recommendation is in your best interest relative to alternatives (including leaving in the plan). You are entitled to receive this disclosure before agreeing to the rollover. Ask for it in writing.

If you receive a rollover recommendation from a Wells Fargo Advisors financial advisor, compare the all-in cost (fund expense ratios + advisory fee + any transaction fees) against the cost of staying in your employer plan or rolling to a self-directed IRA at Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab. On a $500,000 rollover, a 1% advisory fee at Wells Fargo Advisors vs. a 0.03% expense ratio at Vanguard represents approximately $4,850 in additional annual cost — on an account that grows at 7%, that difference compounds significantly over a 20-year retirement horizon.

Three real scenarios

Scenario 1: Manufacturing company employee discovers account at Principal — stable value + profit-sharing timing

Carol, 58, worked for 19 years at a mid-size manufacturing company whose 401(k) had been administered by Wells Fargo IRT since 2005. She left in October 2025. Her balance at separation was $720,000: $540,000 in a diversified equity lineup and $180,000 in the plan's stable value fund (now administered by Principal, declared rate 4.1%).

When Carol tried to log in to her old employer's retirement portal, the link was dead. Her HR department told her "it's at Principal now" — but she had no principal.com credentials. She called 1-800-547-7754, verified her identity with her SSN and date of birth, and received a temporary PIN by mail within 4 business days.

While reviewing her account at principal.com, Carol noticed a profit-sharing section in her plan documents indicating an annual discretionary contribution posted each March for employees active at December 31. She had left in October — just two and a half months before the year-end eligibility cutoff. A fee-only advisor estimated her profit-sharing allocation at roughly $3,400 (based on prior-year amounts and her salary level). The advisor helped Carol weigh delaying her start date at her new employer against capturing the profit-sharing. She decided the new opportunity outweighed the $3,400 and proceeded with her October separation.

Carol also confirmed the stable value fund had a 90-day equity wash restriction. On her last day, she logged in to principal.com and transferred the $180,000 stable value balance to the plan's S&P 500 index fund (starting the equity wash clock), then initiated a direct rollover of the $540,000 equity assets to a Fidelity rollover IRA the same week. Ninety days later, she rolled the former stable value assets in a second direct rollover to the same Fidelity IRA — completing the full rollover by February 2026.

Lesson: Former Wells Fargo IRT accounts are at principal.com — credential recovery may take a few days but is always recoverable. If your plan has a year-end profit-sharing provision and you are considering an October or November separation, model the profit-sharing amount before finalizing your last day.

Scenario 2: Wells Fargo bank employee, age 56, preserving Rule of 55

Marcus, 56, was a commercial banking officer at Wells Fargo & Company for 11 years. He accepted a package in a workforce reduction and left in May 2026 with $890,000 in his Wells Fargo & Company 401(k) Plan at Empower. He wanted income from the account to bridge living expenses while he evaluated his next move — expecting to be without salary income for 12–18 months.

Because Marcus separated from service during the calendar year he turned 56, he qualified for the Rule of 55 exception under IRC § 72(t)(2)(A)(v): distributions from the Empower-administered Wells Fargo 401(k) plan could be taken without the 10% early withdrawal penalty while the assets remained in the qualified plan.⁴ Rolling to an IRA would permanently forfeit this exception — IRA withdrawals before age 59½ are subject to the 10% penalty with no age-55 exception.

Marcus decided to leave $290,000 in the Empower plan to fund the expected 12–18 months of living expenses via penalty-free distributions and rolled $600,000 to a Fidelity rollover IRA. The split allowed him to preserve Rule of 55 flexibility on the portion he needed for bridge income while starting Roth conversions inside the rollover IRA during the low-income year. With $600,000 in the Fidelity IRA and no W-2 income in 2026, he converted $72,000 to Roth — filling the 22% bracket to just below the 2026 IRMAA first-tier threshold of $109,000 MAGI for a single filer.⁵ The remaining $290,000 stayed at Empower for Rule of 55 distributions.

Lesson: Wells Fargo employees have their 401k at Empower (empower.com/client/wellsfargo), not Principal. At ages 55–59½, a split rollover can preserve the Rule of 55 on a portion while beginning Roth conversions on the rolled portion during a low-income transition year.

Scenario 3: Tech professional evaluates Wells Fargo Advisors IRA vs. self-directed rollover

Jennifer, 43, changed jobs at a financial technology company and left a former employer's 401(k) — now at Principal after the Wells Fargo IRT migration — with $315,000. Her Wells Fargo private banking advisor called proactively and suggested opening a Wells Fargo Advisors managed IRA to consolidate with her existing WF banking accounts, proposing a fee-only managed portfolio at 0.85% annually ($2,677/yr on her $315,000 balance).

Jennifer reviewed the advisor's written disclosure under PTE 2020-02, which confirmed the advisor's firm would receive compensation from the advisory fee. She then compared the proposal against a self-directed Fidelity rollover IRA holding FZROX (0.00% expense ratio) — an annual cost of approximately $0–$95 in fund expenses vs. $2,677/yr at the Wells Fargo advisory fee rate.

Over 22 years to her projected retirement at 65, at a 7% pre-fee gross return, Jennifer modeled the compounding cost difference: the 0.85% advisory fee would reduce her terminal portfolio value by approximately $130,000 compared to the FZROX self-directed approach. She also did not have complex estate planning, Roth conversion sequencing, or equity compensation issues at age 43 that would require ongoing planning advice — she wanted low-cost index exposure, not a managed relationship.

Jennifer rolled to Fidelity. She noted that a fee-only financial planner charging a one-time $2,500 planning fee to review her overall financial situation would provide more tailored guidance than a 0.85% ongoing fee for fund selection she could do herself — and cost dramatically less over her remaining accumulation years. She has no objection to Wells Fargo Advisors as a wealth management relationship for clients with complex ongoing needs, but her situation did not require it.

Lesson: Rolling to a Wells Fargo Advisors managed IRA adds a significant ongoing advisory fee on top of fund costs. At 43 with a $315,000 balance and no complex planning needs, the compounding cost of a 0.85% advisory fee ($130,000 over 22 years) far exceeded the value delivered. Self-directed rollovers at Fidelity, Vanguard, or Schwab are typically better economics for participants who will manage their own investments — and a one-time fee-only planner can provide planning input at a fraction of the ongoing cost.

When to get a specialist involved

A straightforward rollover out of a former Wells Fargo IRT plan (now at Principal) can often be initiated online after credential recovery — particularly for plans with no loan, no employer stock, no stable value restriction, no Backdoor Roth complication, and no Rule of 55 consideration. A fee-only specialist adds meaningful value when any of these apply:

• Ages 55–59½ (Rule of 55 trade-off — the decision is permanent once you roll; partial rollover strategy requires modeling)
• Employer stock with low cost basis (NUA analysis must happen before any distribution; opportunity is forfeited if you roll the shares to an IRA without taking the NUA election)
• Large balance above $500,000 (IRMAA sequencing, Roth conversion windows, and RMD planning each affect after-tax outcomes by tens of thousands of dollars)
• Stable value equity wash with annual profit-sharing pending at year-end (two competing timing pressures requiring coordinated decisions)
• Backdoor Roth strategy (pro-rata rule, reverse rollover options, interaction with the incoming Roth conversion plan)
• Evaluating Wells Fargo Advisors IRA vs. self-directed IRA vs. staying in the plan (conflict-of-interest analysis, fee modeling, and fiduciary disclosure review)
• Credential recovery failure (account not accessible after multiple Principal contact attempts — a specialist can help navigate the institutional resolution process)

1. Principal Financial Group acquires Wells Fargo IRT business: Principal® completes integration of Wells Fargo Institutional Retirement business (Principal.com press release) — The acquisition closed July 1, 2019. Principal acquired 5,000+ plans, 3.9 million participants, and approximately $827 billion in assets under administration. Migration waves completed through June 2021. The deal value was $1.2 billion. Source verified June 2026. See also: 401k Specialist Magazine — Principal Closes $1.2B Wells Fargo Retirement Deal.
2. IRC § 3405(c) — Mandatory withholding on eligible rollover distributions: IRS Publication 575 — Pension and Annuity Income — 20% mandatory federal withholding applies to eligible rollover distributions paid directly to a participant. Direct rollovers to an IRA under IRC § 402(c) are exempt from mandatory withholding. Verified June 2026.
3. Wells Fargo & Company 401(k) Plan recordkeeper: Empower — Wells Fargo 401(k) Plan FAQs — Empower serves as recordkeeper and Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company as trustee for the Wells Fargo & Company 401(k) Plan. Verified June 2026.
4. IRC § 72(t)(2)(A)(v) — Rule of 55 exception: IRS — Retirement Topics: Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions — Distributions from a qualified employer plan to a participant who separates from service in or after the calendar year the participant reaches age 55 are exempt from the 10% early distribution penalty. The exception applies only to the qualified plan — rolling to an IRA forfeits it permanently. Verified June 2026.
5. 2026 IRMAA thresholds: Medicare.gov — Lower Costs — The 2026 IRMAA first tier begins at $109,000 MAGI for single filers and $218,000 for married filing jointly. Base Part B premium is $202.90/month; first-tier surcharge adds $81.20/month. Verified June 2026 against CMS published IRMAA tables. Consistent with values verified on sibling pages of this site.

Wells Fargo IRT acquisition details, Principal migration timeline, Empower recordkeeping arrangement for the Wells Fargo & Company 401(k) Plan, and Wells Fargo Advisors fee structures reflect publicly available information as of June 2026 and may vary. Portal URLs, phone numbers, processing timelines, and advisor compensation disclosures are subject to change. The Wells Fargo IRT acquisition by Principal closed July 1, 2019; migration waves were completed through June 2021 per Principal's public announcements. Contact Principal (1-800-547-7754) or Empower (empower.com/client/wellsfargo) directly to confirm account access and initiate distributions. Review your plan's Summary Plan Description for profit-sharing eligibility, vesting schedule, stable value equity wash provisions, and any active employment requirements. Consult a tax advisor before making any rollover decision. Content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or investment advice.