Office address: 711 High St., Des Moines, IA 50392
Website: principal.com
Year established: 1879
Company type: financial services
Employees: 20,000+
Expertise: retirement planning, asset management, life insurance, annuities, employee benefits, wealth management, institutional investing, real estate investments, defined contribution plans, individual retirement accounts
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Deanna Strable (CEO); Kamal Bhatia (CEO, Principal Asset Management); Joel Pitz (CFO); Vivek Agrawal, Kenneth McCullum, and Bethany Wood (EVPs); Lisa Coulson (SVP)
Financing status: corporation
Principal Financial Group (PFG) is a Des Moines-based global investment management and insurance company. The firm provides retirement plans, annuities, insurance, and asset management to individuals and businesses. Principal manages $712 billion in assets as of 2025 and employs nearly 20,000 people across 27 countries and territories.
Principal grew out of The Bankers Life Association, which Edward Temple founded in 1879 in Des Moines with just $750. Fellow banker Simon Casady put in the same amount to offer affordable life insurance for bankers and their employees. Temple was so confident in the idea that he bought the first $2,000 membership certificate himself.
The firm ran without any paid staff for its first three years. John A. Tibbs joined in 1882 as the first employee and handled daily operations from there. Bankers Life grew fast and was writing farm loans across 21 states by 1885. Temple died in 1909 but left behind a company with $400 million in active policies.
Bankers Life became one of the first insurers to cover women in 1912. It pioneered direct mail marketing in 1927 and brought in $3 million in new sales that year alone.
The company moved to 711 High Street in 1940, a building that Architectural Record named the Building of the Decade. By 1968 it was sponsoring The Today Show with hosts Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs.
The company rolled out its first 401(k) products in 1984 and rebranded as Principal Financial Group the following year. Its 44-story tower at 801 Grand opened in 1990 as the tallest building between Denver and Chicago. Principal went public in 2001, with shares opening at $20.50.
PFG acquired Wells Fargo's institutional retirement and trust business for $1.2 billion in 2019. The company relaunched Principal Global Investors as Principal Asset Management in 2022 to better reflect its global reach.
The firm also agreed to buy the employee stock-option plan business from Ascensus in 2024. In 2025, Deanna Strable became Principal Financial Group's leader after joining the company in 1990.
PFG provides retirement, annuity, and IRA products built for individuals and employers. Its offerings range from workplace savings plans to guaranteed income solutions:
Principal Asset Management, the firm's investment management arm, also offers mutual funds, ETFs, and separately managed accounts. The company provides investment strategies in equities, fixed income, real estate, and infrastructure.
Principal Financial Group states its culture is built on trust and a long history of emphasizing flexibility. The company also promotes these core values:
To support this, PFG tailors work arrangements to fit individual needs and help staff balance life and work. Employee benefits include:
Principal Financial Group also promotes inclusion through a work environment based on integrity, respect, and community. Its employee resource groups (ERGs) provide social and cultural learning plus professional growth for staff worldwide.
Deanna D. Strable serves as chair, president, and CEO of PFG and sits on its board of directors. Strable started at Principal Financial Group in 1990 as an actuarial assistant and worked her way up to her current role. She holds a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Principal Financial Group's leadership team includes the following key executives:
These leaders focus on helping customers plan, protect, invest, and retire. They also commit to supporting communities and building an inclusive workforce.
Principal Asset Management, the company's investment solutions business, created a new leadership role to sharpen its focus on retirement savings. The firm hired Brant Wong from JPMorgan in 2025 to oversee nearly $320 billion in retirement assets. With this move, Principal Financial Group looks to better serve retirement plan sponsors and their participants.
On the investor side, a Hearts & Wallets report found that PFG has the widest mix of risk attitudes among its clients. About one in four feel very comfortable with market volatility while one in five feels very uncomfortable. This range helps Principal Financial Group serve diverse investors as more Americans grow confident about their finances.
ETF providers are trying to woo investors with all-in-one funds that pull together several factors.
Speculation is mounting that the bank is dumping some lines of business to focus on just a few areas, including financial advice.
Acquisition would be in line with trend of record keepers seeking to gain scale to combat fee reduction.
This month's edition kicks off with the buzz from the Envestnet Advisor Summit.
The deal improves Principal's technology offering and opens a distribution channel to independent advisers.
The firm allegedly used high-cost, underperforming index funds in its hybrid target-date funds.
Managers of target-date funds continue to find ways to reduce fees
Morgan Stanley, LPL and Principal among stocks that climbed higher than market benchmarks Friday.
Plan sponsors are deciding that a per-head fee is fairer than revenue-sharing practices in which fees are based on assets
The American College of Financial Services seeks to help advisers up their value-add to clients.
The Wells Fargo Target 2020 Fund (WFOBX) ranks in the bottom 15% among peers when looking at five-year total returns.
Principal has communicated that independent agents must change their business models to keep receiving compensation.
Delaying implementation of the Labor Department rule is the first step Republicans and the finance industry are eyeing as part of a broader overhaul of the measure.
Some providers see sales opportunity due to broker-dealers' narrowing of product platforms.
The insurer joins other financial services companies such as Ameriprise and Principal, who've detailed rising compliance costs associated with the regulation.
