Principal Helps Fiduciaries Navigate Complex Requirements

DES MOINES, IA, October 10, 2007 --- Navigating fiduciary responsibilities can be a daunting task for retirement plan sponsors, but a new tool from the Principal Financial Group® can help. The Principal® has added a new resource to its three-part fiduciary package—Get Educated, Get Focused and Get Started. When used in conjunction with a trusted financial professional and third party administrator (TPA), these tools can help plan sponsors understand and manage their fiduciary responsibilities effectively.

The new resource, the Annual Fiduciary File, provides a place to record and organize the documents and actions plan sponsors take throughout the year to help fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities. The file includes a catalog of recommended documents that plan sponsors may choose to include in the file in order to meet their fiduciary responsibilities, and a log report listing steps for plan sponsors to consider as they begin to document actions related to their fiduciary obligations.

"At The Principal, we understand that fiduciary responsibilities can seem overwhelming. We also know plan sponsors are very concerned about making sure they are fulfilling those responsibilities. The new Annual Fiduciary File is another extension of our ongoing commitment to provide tools to financial professionals that can help plan sponsors understand and meet their responsibilities and make educated plan choices," says Greg Burrows, vice president, Retirement and Investor Services, The Principal. "Our full package outlines fiduciary responsibilities in a comprehensive and user-friendly way to ensure that the plan is meeting the needs of employers and their employees."

The Principal fiduciary package has been reviewed by nationally known ERISA expert Fred Reish, partner and managing director of the law firm of Reish Luftman Reicher & Cohen. He says plan sponsors who work with financial professionals and use these tools can be confident they have implemented a system to satisfy ERISA's most important requirements.

"Offering and managing a retirement plan does not need to involve liability or government penalties. It can be a positive experience for both the company and its employees," Reish says. "In well-managed plans, employees can retire with potentially greater benefits and companies can enhance their employee relationships. Using the materials prepared by The Principal can help companies realize those benefits."

The Annual Fiduciary File rounds out the Get Started element of the three-pronged fiduciary package and complements additional resources already available to plan sponsors:

• Get Educated—a reference guide to understanding fiduciary responsibility as defined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal law governing the management of retirement plans, plus information to help plan sponsors understand how much they and plan participants are paying for investment and administrative services.
• Get Focused—a step-by-step guide that outlines some of the steps plan sponsors may need to take to fulfill fiduciary responsibilities, when they need to be taken, and what support The Principal provides.

About the Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal®) is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance, and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies and national network of financial professionals. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $282.1 billion in assets under management and serves some 18.1 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.

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