Principal Financial Group
Financials
50
out of 100. Number 213 of 512, counting from the worst.
Where Principal Financial Group does well
- Renewals 3 of 20. Few problems found.
- No forced-arbitration clause appears in the public website Terms of Use — disputes go to courts rather than private arbitration (though venue is locked to Iowa).
- Principal's GLBA notice is comparatively restrained on marketing: it does not share with affiliates so they can market to you, does not share creditworthiness information with affiliates, does no joint marketing with nonaffiliated financial companies, and (with the narrow exception of a departing Principal Securities advisor, which has a stated opt-out) does not share with nonaffiliates to market to you.
- The Global Privacy Statement states 'We do not sell PI within the meaning of the CCPA,' honors the Global Privacy Control signal, and explicitly refuses to sell minors' data. California and Vermont customers get additional state-law sharing limits.
Principal can rewrite the rules governing your use of their sites whenever it wants, with no notice promised and no consent from you.
The fine print
6 clauses and findings from the draft archive, dated 1 October 2026. The plain English comes first; the small print is the company's own words. None of these has been checked yet.
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Principal can rewrite the rules governing your use of their sites whenever it wants, with no notice promised and no consent from you.
These Terms and Conditions may be changed at any time at the sole discretion of Principal.
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They can change how they use your personal data unilaterally; you are only promised a notice if they 'deem it appropriate' — and even then only on their website.
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make changes that materially affect our use of PI or your privacy rights, we will announce the changes by providing a notice on this Site and/or, if deemed appropriate, by email.
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Any customer, anywhere in the US, who disputes anything about their use of Principal's websites must sue in Des Moines, Iowa courts — a steep practical barrier to small claims or class actions.
These Terms of Use are governed by the laws of the State of Iowa with jurisdiction and venue being in Polk County, Iowa... legal action may be brought against, or by, you must be brought in state or federal courts in Polk County, Iowa.
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Closing your accounts does not stop the data sharing; your personal and financial information keeps flowing to affiliates and service providers indefinitely.
When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice.
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Principal shares your data across its companies for marketing and you cannot opt out of most of it; sharing can even begin 45 days after they mail the notice — before many new customers have seen it.
For our marketing purposes—to offer our products and services to you: Yes [shares] / No [you cannot limit]. For our affiliates' everyday business purposes—information about your transactions and experiences: Yes / No. If you are a new customer, we can begin sharing your information 45 days from the date we sent this notice.
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They can cut off your online account access for any reason, without warning, while monitoring and logging your activity without telling you — a serious lever given retirement accounts live behind that login.
Principal reserves the right to terminate and/or block your use or access of its websites for any reason without prior notice to you... Principal reserves the right to monitor your access and use of its websites without notification to you.
How these were found
Documents relied on: (1) Terms of Use at https://www.principal.com/ax/legal (read in full via browser_open); (2) Global Privacy Statement at https://www.principal.com/full-privacy-policy, marked 'Last updated: October 2025' (read in full via browser_open); (3) Principal Financial Group Customer Privacy Notice (GLBA notice, secure02.principal.com GetFile?fm=EE11865 / fm=EE11865PSI) — content read via detailed search-result excerpts; the PDF itself was not opened directly. The legacy URL https://www.principal.com/privacypolicies returns 404; the live hub is https://www.principal.com/privacy-policies. No Principal-published forced-arbitration clause was found in any public document; Principal Securities brokerage account agreements (gated behind account setup) were not accessible and were not assumed to contain arbitration. No auto-renewal trap language was found in the public terms; insurance/retirement product contracts were not separately reviewed. No mirrors (OpenTermsArchive, etc.) were needed — all quotes come from official Principal domains.
These notes come from the original draft and are not independent verification.