Principal Financial Group Inc PFG

Principal Financial Group, Inc., incorporated on April 18, 2001, is an investment management company. The Company offers a range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance. The Company's segments include Retirement and Income Solutions; Principal Global Investors, Principal International; U.S. Insurance Solutions, and Corporate. The Company focuses on small and medium-sized businesses, providing a range of retirement and employee benefit solutions, and individual insurance solutions to meet the needs of the business owners and their employees. The Company offers services to businesses, individuals and institutional clients.

Retirement and Income Solutions Segment

The Company offers a portfolio of products and services for retirement savings and retirement income. To businesses of all sizes with a focus on small and medium-sized businesses, it offers products and services for defined contribution plans, including 401(k) and 403(b) plans, defined benefit pension plans, non-qualified executive benefit plans and employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) services and full service payout services. It offers SIMPLE Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) and payroll deduction plans. To large institutional clients, it also offers investment-only products, including investment only guaranteed investment contracts (GICs). To employees of businesses and other individuals, the Company offers the ability to accumulate savings for retirement and other purposes through mutual funds, individual annuities and bank products.

The Company organizes its Retirement and Income Solutions operations into two business groupings: Retirement and Income Solutions-Fee, which includes full service accumulation, trust services and individual variable annuities, and Retirement and Income Solutions-Spread, which includes individual fixed annuities, investment only, full service payout and banking services. It delivers both administrative and investment services to its defined contribution plan and defined benefit plan customers through annuity contracts, collective investment trusts and mutual funds. Its mutual fund service platform is called Principal Advantage, a plan service package based on its series mutual fund, Principal Funds, Inc. (PFI). It offers investments covering the full range of stable value, equity, fixed income, real estate and international investment options managed by its Principal Global Investors segment, as well as third party asset managers. In addition, full service accumulation offers plan sponsors trust services through an affiliated trust company. Its individual variable deferred annuities provide customers with the flexibility to allocate their deposits to mutual funds managed by the Principal Global Investors segment or unaffiliated third party asset managers.

The Company's individual fixed deferred annuities consist of both single premium deferred annuity contracts and flexible premium deferred annuity contracts (FPDAs). It also offers a fixed deferred annuity where the interest credited is linked to an external equity index, subject to maximum and minimum values. The Company's individual fixed income annuities consist of single premium immediate annuity contracts (SPIAs) and deferred income annuity contracts (DIAs). SPIAs and DIAs are products where the customer pays a premium in return for periodic benefit payments. The Company provides investment only services for GICs and funding agreements. It offers full service payout products, which respond primarily to the needs of pension plan sponsors in the form of single premium group annuities, which are immediate or deferred annuities that provide a current or future specific income amount, fully guaranteed by it. The Company's subsidiary, Principal Bank, offers IRAs, which provide Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured retirement solutions for its customers.

Principal Global Investors Segment

The Company's Principal Global Investors segment manages assets for investors around the world. The Company focuses on providing services to its other segments in addition to its retail mutual fund and third party institutional clients. The Company delivers its products and services through its network of specialized investment groups and boutiques, including Principal Global Equities; Principal Global Fixed Income; Aligned Investors; Principal Real Estate Investors, LLC; Principal Enterprise Capital, LLC; Spectrum Asset Management, Inc.; Post Advisory Group, LLC; Columbus Circle Investors; Edge Asset Management, Inc.; Morley Financial Services, Inc.; Macro Currency Group; Finisterre Capital LLP; Origin Asset Management LLP, and Principal Portfolio Strategies. The Company offers mutual funds to individuals, businesses and institutional investors for use within variable life contracts, variable annuity contracts and employer-sponsored pension plans, as a rollover investment option and for general investment purposes. It also maintains various other domestic and global fund platforms, separately managed accounts and segregated accounts for institutional and retail investors.

The Company's multi-boutique strategy is diversified across various primary asset classes and service delivery options, including Equity Investments, Fixed Income Investments, Alternative Investments and Principal Portfolio Strategies. Products offered by the Principal Global Investors segment include individually managed accounts, separately managed accounts for high net worth individuals and fund platforms for retail and institutional investors, such as Principal Funds, Inc (PFI), Principal Variable Contracts Funds, Inc and Other Principal Global Investors Funds. PFI is a series mutual fund.

As of December 31, 2016, PFI offered 84 investment options for defined contribution plans, individuals, institutional investors, advisor fee-based programs and other retirement plan clients. Principal Variable Contracts Funds, Inc. is a series mutual fund that provides investment options for variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts issued by the Principal Life Insurance Company (Principal Life) and other insurance companies not affiliated with Principal Life. Principal Global Investors maintains various fund platforms, including Qualifying Investor Alternative Fund and Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities funds domiciled in Dublin, Collective Investment Trusts, Business Trusts and other boutique sponsored funds.

Principal International Segment

The Company's Principal International segment has operations in Latin America and Asia. The Company offers pension accumulation products and services, mutual funds, asset management, income annuities and life insurance accumulation products. In Brazil, it offers a range of pension accumulation and income annuity products through a co-managed joint venture, Brasilprev Seguros e Previdencia S.A. It offers mutual fund and asset management services through Claritas Administracao de Recursos Ltda., a mutual fund and asset management company. In Chile, it offers pension accumulation and income annuity products, and also mutual fund, asset management services and life insurance accumulation products. The Company offers mandatory employee-funded pension and voluntary savings plans through Administradora de Fondos de Pensiones Cuprum S.A. (Cuprum). The Company offers income annuity and life insurance accumulation products through Principal Compania de Seguros de Vida Chile S.A., its life insurance company. The Company offers voluntary savings plans and mutual funds through Principal Administradora General de Fondos S.A., its mutual fund company. The Company offers asset management services through Principal Asset Management Chile S.A.

In China, the Company offers mutual funds and asset management services to individuals and institutions through a joint venture, CCB Principal Asset Management Co., Ltd. In Hong Kong SAR, it offers both pension saving and mutual fund products to corporate and retail clients through its subsidiaries. The Company's schemes include Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) and Occupational Retirement Schemes Ordinance (ORSO). The Company sells mutual funds to retail customers seeking to accumulate assets for retirement and other long-term investment needs. In India, it offers mutual funds and asset management services to both retail and corporate customers through its joint venture, Principal Pnb Asset Management Company Private Limited. In Mexico, it offers pension accumulation, mutual funds, income annuities and asset management services through its companies. The Company offers mandatory pension plans through Principal Afore, S.A. de C.V. and Principal Grupo Financiero. The Company offers mutual funds and asset management services through Principal Fondos de Inversion, S.A. de C.V., Operadora de Fondos de Inversion and Principal Grupo Financiero. In Southeast Asia, it offers mutual funds, asset management services and pension accumulation products through its joint venture, CIMB-Principal Asset Management Berhad (CPAM).

U.S. Insurance Solutions Segment

The Company's U.S. Insurance Solutions segment provides group and individual insurance solutions. It focuses on providing insurance solutions for small and medium-sized businesses and their owners and executives. It organizes its operations into divisions, including Specialty Benefits Insurance and Individual Life Insurance. Specialty benefits insurance, which includes group dental, vision, life and disability insurance and individual disability insurance, is a component of the employee benefit offering at small and medium-sized businesses. It offers traditional employer sponsored and voluntary products for group dental, vision, life and disability. It also offers group dental, vision and disability on a fee-for-service basis. Its individual disability insurance is also sold on an individual or multi-life basis. Its group dental and vision insurance plans provide partial reimbursement for dental and vision expenses. Its group life insurance provides coverage to employees and their dependents for a specified period. It sells traditional group life insurance that does not provide for accumulation of cash values on both an employer paid and voluntary basis. Its group disability products include both short-term and long-term disability, offered on both an employer paid and voluntary basis. In addition, it provides disability management services, also called rehabilitation services, to assist individuals in returning to work following disability. It also offers voluntary critical illness insurance, which provides a lump-sum cash benefit to pay for additional expenses associated with common critical illnesses.

Its individual disability insurance products provide income protection to the insured member and/or business in the event of disability. In addition to income replacement, it offers products to pay business-related costs, such as overhead expenses for a disabled business owner, buy-out costs for business owners purchasing a disabled owner's interest in the business, expenditures for replacement of a key person and business loan payments. It also offers a product to protect retirement savings in the event of disability. It specializes in providing solutions for small to medium-sized companies to protect against risk and loss, assist with succession planning and wealth transfer and to build and protect wealth for retirement. It also provides solutions to meet the personal needs of business owners, executives and individuals. Its products include Universal and Variable Universal Life Insurance and Traditional Life Insurance. Universal and variable universal life insurance products offer the policyholder the option of adjusting both the premium and the death benefit amounts of the insurance contract. Traditional life insurance includes participating whole life, adjustable life products and non-participating term life insurance products.