The Principal Financial Group Unveils New Fiduciary Guide; Leader in Fiduciary Services Helps Employers & Advisors Navigate Complex, Challenging Role

Business Wire,  August 16, 2004  

Tags: advisor, fiduciary, leader, Principal Financial Group

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DES MOINES, Iowa -- The Principal Financial Group(R), the nation's 401(k) leader and total retirement solutions innovator, has released a new, easy-to-use fiduciary guide to help employers and their advisors understand the complex rules governing qualified retirement plans. In recognition of the 30th anniversary of those rules, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and the ongoing challenges of the economic and regulatory environment, this an ideal time to offer more tools to help employers understand the fiduciary responsibility they take on when they offer a retirement plan to employees.

Understanding and Managing Fiduciary Responsibility. A Guide for Plan Sponsors helps employers navigate the regulatory landscape to ensure they are meeting their responsibilities and making educated plan choices. The new guide walks through the various tasks a fiduciary may perform and provides information regarding the requirements under ERISA that apply to fiduciaries.

"At The Principal(R), we understand that fiduciary responsibilities can seem overwhelming, if not even scary at times; especially in this uncertain investment and regulatory climate," says Randy Welch, director, Retirement & Investor Services--The Principal. "This guide, compiled by compliance experts, is part of our ongoing commitment to help employers understand their responsibilities in a comprehensive and user-friendly way to ensure that the plan is meeting the needs of employers and their employees."

The fiduciary guide compliments the Principal Due Diligence Program(SM) and Principal Blueprint(R) programs, launched three years ago, which help employers meet their fiduciary obligations by designing a comprehensive investment platform for their retirement plans with ongoing monitoring to help ensure high quality investment offerings and premiere investment managers.

"The end goal for employers is to help employees build a successful retirement savings," said Welch. "The Principal Due Diligence Program and the new fiduciary guide help make the employer's job as plan sponsor a little easier, so that they can focus on running their business."

Highlights of the fiduciary guide include:

--The role of an ERISA fiduciary

--Making investment selections

--The difference between participant education and advice

--ERISA compliance requirements

--Managing fiduciary responsibility

"The fiduciary guide is also an invaluable tool for financial professionals to help deepen relationships with clients," said Tim Minard, vice president, National Sales Director, Retirement & Investor Services--the Principal Financial Group. "Financial professionals can use the guide to offer a simplified understanding of the complex and critical challenge their clients face as fiduciaries." Financial professionals also have access to a supplement called How The Principal Can Help for use during fiduciary reviews. The easy-to-use tool provides space to document how the retirement program meets the requirements.

The Principal offers additional insights into fiduciary responsibilities for both employers and their advisors in a recently released white paper on fiduciary issues. Copies of all materials including the fiduciary guide, supplement and white paper, are available at www.principal.com.

About the Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group(R) (The Principal (R))(1) 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. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $152.1 billion in assets under management(2) and serves some 14.6 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.

(1) "The Principal Financial Group(R)" and "The Principal(R)" are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group.

(2) As of June 30, 2004.

EDITORS: Copies of the new fiduciary guide and the white paper on fiduciary responsibilities are available at The Principal online newsroom at: www.principal.com/about/news/press.htm.

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