Newport Group

Terrible customer service from this company. First time I called for help with my account the associate was not helpful, didn't know how to address my problem and said he was going to transfer me to a senior associate because he didn't know how to help me but instead he hung up on me. This was near their closing hours and I suspect he just didn't want to deal with me so close to closing so terminated the call instead. Called back the next day and spoke to associate Nadine *** who was rude, aggressive, interrupted me and spoke over the top of me, did not listen to me or my concerns and when I asked to speak to a manager because of her poor customer service she refused to provide anyone else to speak to and continued to interrupt and speak over the top of me. It got to the point she was aggressively interrupting and speaking over me any time I tried to talk at all. She also provided factually incorrect information about the issue I was calling to address and I believe she did this intentionally in an effort to get me to go away. Received zero help from this company - go somewhere else for investment help if you have a choice. Unfortunately my company picked Newport for our 401k so I am a prisoner to their terrible service.

2 plus weeks to finally close my account for rollover / numerous mistakes made on paperwork / check was wrong when received now have to wait again.
going on three weeks just to rollover to another IRA account

Newport put me through the ringer for over 2 weeks for a hardship distribution out of my fully vested 401(k). Different info given by reps and sups.
Attempted to get a hardship distribution out of my fully vested 401(k). Have done so the previous month with no issues and got my check within a few days. This month, had to do the same thing, as I have been on unpaid medical leave for months and currently waiting on work LTD insurance to be approved. On 1/14/20, sent in the same paperwork as the previous month for the distribution. Got a generic email from Newport on 1/18/20, (included below) about not being able to process the amount I requested and gave no specific information on WHY or WHAT amount they could. I called in immediately, and the first rep was extremely thorough looking into it, and said I shouldn't have gotten the email, as there was no problem with the amount. She said she was going to send it back to the processor, and to check back in a few days. I called the next day, and another rep tells me now they want to make sure I don't have any other assets or things that I could be drawing from. I told the rep no, and the circumstances of my hardship. He said he would send that information over to the processor. I call back for a third time the next day, and an extremely rude representative said the documentation that I had sent in was now insufficient, even though I sent in the exact same thing the previous month, and was issued a check for the same hardship issue with none of this runaround that I had been getting this time. He stated that now I had to go get all the stuff notarized, and had no answer as to why the protocol had suddenly switched. He was extremely rude, and flat out refused my request for a supervisor, and hung up on me. So I immediately called back, and got a very nice representative who again took her time looking into all of this, and was baffled as well, and said everything that I had sent appeared sufficient, and she had been there for a number of years. She assured me she would be personally following up on everything, and contacting the processor directly for her reasoning, and would be calling me back if she heard anything different. She also put in a request for a supervisor to call me back in regards to the previous representative who was rude. I never heard back from the supervisor or the representative that was helping me. So I called back the next day, and by this time, it had been one full week (1/17/20), and nothing has been processed, none of the reps wanted to look into anything, and just kept repeating the same thing that I needed to get everything notarized from my landlord. Today, 1/23/20, I finally got my landlord to go through the hassle of notarizing everything. I called in, asked for a supervisor right away, spoke to one, and was assured that this notorized document was ALL they needed, and that they would expedite the process as soon as they got the document from me. She told me to call back in two hours after I faxed it to make sure it had been received, and to asked to speak with the supervisor again and she would make sure it got worked right away. I did ALL OF THAT, called back and asked to speak with the same supervisor, was told that she was unavailable, but another supervisor was familiar with the situation and took my call. Supervisor Leticia said she got my fax, and was sending everything over to the processor to get worked. She took my phone number and said she would call me back to follow up, as the issue was now extremely time sensitive due to me getting the runaround all last week. Less than five minutes after I hung up, I get a call from her, and she says that my check was actually processed last Friday (1/14/20), and was mailed on 1/21/20--2 days ago. She had no answer as to why I was told to send in the notorized document, including by the rep that I spoke with the DAY the check was issued, or why the previous supervisor didn't catch it either. Nothing but incompetence on their part. Still waiting to see if my check actually gets here. If I ever quit my job, I'm moving all of my funds, first thing.

401K Hardship Request Not Done correctly
Newport Group currently holds my 401K. I have recently had medical issues which prompted me to apply for a 401K Hardship withdraw from them to cover my medical bills. I sent in (via email) all the Bills I had as they requested. The total amount that I was advised by a rep on the phone that I was approved for was 1795.68. About a week later I get a check in the mail for 1346.77 which was not what I was told I was approved for. So I called back and spoke to another phone rep who put me on hold only to hang up on me after voicing my concern. called back again only to be placed on hold again after explaining my issue and was told she would look into it and then transferred me to another rep that did not know why I was transferred to him. so I again had to explain my issue. He then told me he "thinks its because of the taxes that were taken out" I then explained to him on the form that is on their website to fill out for a 401K hardship under "Hardship request amount" it clearly states "The amount of the hardship request may be INCREASED by the amount necessary to pay any federal, state, or local income or penalties reasonably anticipated to result from the distribution." So that to me indicated that my 401K request withdraw amount would be increased to cover my taxes and fees. This was not done. I have now spoken to many reps. to get this resolved and they have been being to me and not understanding that this was done incorrectly according to their own documents I retrieved from their website. The check statement shows the gross amount they wrote the check for was for 1920.68 taxes taken was 89.78 for Iowa and federal was 359.13. They also had a fee taken out called "recordkeeping" which was for 125.00. So it shows the only thing they covered by writing me a check for the 1920.68 was the recordkeeping fee not the taxes. Which again shows in there own documents I have to fill out and email back to them that they where suppose to raise the amount taken high enough to cover my fees AND taxes not just the fee. I would like the remaining 448.91 that I requested from them from MY 401K. Im am not getting anywhere with them I at this point have spoken to too many reps by phone and the last one I spoke with was very argumentative with me. Please help! Thanks!

Unresponsive while holding money!!
The Newport Group has my 401k funds but I have no way of getting them out. I've tried calling and emailing them but haven't been able to reach them. If I called my bank and they didn't pick up, I would withdraw my funds and go somewhere else - the same is obviously true for any other financial service provider!

Unable to contact customer service representative/access website for business needs.

Unable to contact customer service representative/access website for business needs.