Principal Ease 401(k) Plan
Principal Life Insurance Company · Des Moines, IA · EIN 420127290 · Plan 334 · Form 5500 for plan year 2024
This is a pooled multiple-employer plan, so its participant and asset totals span many unrelated employers.
What Principal Life Insurance put into the plan, per active participant
$254
Principal Life Insurance Company put $254 into this plan for each of its 161,040 active participants in plan year 2024. That is the whole employer side, matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions and reallocated forfeitures together, because the Form 5500 reports them on one line, so it is not the match rate. This filing covers many unrelated employers under one plan, so the figure is an average across all of them rather than one employer's behaviour.
It is kept out of every peer group and takes no score.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Principal Life Insurance pays, and how much it puts in
This is dollars, not a rate. A Form 5500 carries no payroll, so the figure reflects both how much the employer puts in and how much the employer pays: two plans running the same formula report different amounts when one pays better. Crossing the peer group with industry holds most of that difference still, and none of it disappears.
This is one plan year, not an average. A true-up, a plan merger or a one-off contribution moves a single year on its own.
Source: Form 5500 filing for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, received by the DOL September 15, 2025 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
What the plan cost, per participant
$46.59
The plan paid $46.59 per participant in plan-paid administrative expenses in plan year 2024, cheaper than 59% of plans with 5,000+ participants. The middle plan of that size paid $54.84.
Why a plan this big pays less per person before anything else
Bigger plans pay less per head by construction, because the same negotiated bill divides across more people. That is why this ranking sits inside the plan's own size cohort and is never taken across all plans.
Schedule H reports only what came out of plan assets. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees taken inside fund expense ratios, never appear here, so this is a floor and not the all-in cost.
401(k) Monitor Score
Not scored
This is a pooled plan covering many unrelated employers, so its figures are averages across a client book. It takes no score, and it is kept out of every peer group so that it does not move anybody else's standing.
It keeps whichever of the two it does report, above. Nothing is filled in from an average, from another year or from another plan, because a two-part score computed on one part is a different measure wearing the same name.
What the score would read, on a filing that carries both: Where this plan stands against plans of its size and industry on two amounts its Form 5500 reports: employer money in per active person, and plan-paid cost per person. It reads no match formula, no vesting schedule and no fund lineup, because a Form 5500 states none of them.
On this page: where the match terms are stated · what to check next · every figure on the filing · fees itemised · the plans this one is ranked against · service providers
The match and vesting terms, from a Form 11-K
The match formula and the vesting schedule are stated in a Form 11-K, which is filed only by employers whose plan holds company stock. A Form 5500 reports neither.
What Principal Life Insurance puts in
Not in public filings for this employer
We have no SEC Form 11-K for this employer, and the Form 5500 this page is built from does not report match terms.
Two places state the terms in full: your plan’s Summary Plan Description, which your employer must provide on request, and your recordkeeper’s site, which for this plan is Principal ↗.
What you contribute to collect all of it
Not in public filings for this employer
The rate that collects the full match is part of the match formula, which a Form 5500 does not report.
Vesting score
Not scored
The vesting schedule is stated in a Form 11-K, and we have none for this employer.
A schedule this cannot read at whole-year anniversaries is left without a number rather than given a middle one.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
41st percentile
$46.59 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 59% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What to check next
This filing is not about one employer
One Form 5500 covers many unrelated employers here, so every figure on this page is an average across all of them. The match, the vesting schedule and the fees that apply to one worker are set by that worker’s own employer, and none of the three is stated in this filing.
Your own numbers are not on this page
Every figure here is the whole plan for plan year 2024, taken from one filing and divided by headcounts. Your own contribution rate, your balance and the fees taken from your account are on your recordkeeper’s site, which this filing names as Principal ↗. What you may put in during a year is set by the IRS and not by the plan: this year’s limits ↗.
Key figures
| Total plan assets, end of year | $650,877,712 |
|---|---|
| Net assets | $650,877,712 |
| Participants, beginning of year | 124,666 |
| Of which active | 161,040 |
| Plan type | Multiple employer |
| Size cohortThe peer group we rank fees against. | 5,000+ participants |
| Employer share of the money that went in, plan year 2024The rest came from employees, who put in $100,155,683. The share falls when employees save more, so a plan whose staff contribute heavily reads lower here through no act of the employer. It is printed as a fact and it is not part of the score. | 29% |
Plan-paid administrative expenses
The plan paid $5,808,667 in administrative expenses in plan year 2024, across 124,666 participants: $46.59 per participant.
| Contract administrator fees | $5,120,431 |
|---|---|
| Professional fees | not reported in filing |
| Investment management fees | $624,846 |
| Other administrative fees | $45,016 |
These are plan-paid expenses from Schedule H only. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees embedded in fund expense ratios, never appear here. This figure is a floor, not the all-in cost, and a low number is not “free”.
The plans this one is ranked against
Fees on this page are ranked against the 5,000+ participant cohort, where the median plan pays $54.84 per participant. The sponsor files from Iowa, one of 657 plans on file there, at a median of $172.99 per participant. Its business code places the plan in insurance, one of 1,068 on file, which run to a median of $119.27.
Plans of a similar size in Iowa
| Plan | Participants | Cost per participant |
|---|---|---|
| The Hy-Vee And Affiliates 401(k) PlanHy-Vee, Inc. | 75,540 | $45.43 |
| Casey's General Stores 401(k) PlanCasey's General Stores Inc. | 38,041 | $17.88 |
| Iowa Health System Section 401(k) Retirement Savings PlanIowa Health System | 35,545 | $58.33 |
| The Rsm US LLP Retirement PlanRsm US, LLP | 21,555 | $66.83 |
Service providers (Schedule C)
Recordkeeper: Principal (as filed: “PRINCIPAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY”)
5,239 plans on file name Principal as their recordkeeper, at a median of $170.05 per participant.
| Provider | Service codes | Direct comp. ($) | Indirect comp. ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principal Life Insurance Company | 64, 50, 37, 13 | 5,119,861 | 0 |
| Osaic Wealth Inc. | 99, 55, 50, 49 | 57,819 | 43,337 |
| Ameriprise Financial Services LLC. | 50, 27 | 48,869 | 62 |
| Lpl Financial LLC - Rpcp | 50, 27 | 45,654 | 45 |
| Global Retirement Partners LLC | 50 | 41,473 | 28 |
| Synovus Securities, Inc. | 50, 17 | 35,456 | 15 |
| Barnes Wealth Management Group | 27 | 26,635 | 11 |
| Sima Retirement Solutions, LLC | 50, 27 | 25,958 | 9 |
| Wilmington Trust,N.A. | 50, 27 | 23,615 | not reported |
| Kestra Advisory Services, LLC | 50, 27 | 18,569 | 1,067 |
| Prager Metis | 50, 10 | 18,375 | not reported |
| Creativeone Securities, LLC | 50 | 17,547 | 3 |
| Thurston Springer Advisors | 50, 27 | 17,540 | 4 |
| Wells Fargo Clearing Services LLC | 99, 50, 49, 27 | 17,076 | 19 |
| Equitable Advisors, LLC. | 99, 50, 27 | 16,930 | 3,168 |
| Cadaret Grant & Co Inc. | 99, 50, 49, 27 | 13,234 | 42 |
| Wells Fargo Advisors Fin Network | 50, 27 | 12,835 | 4 |
| Sax Wealth Advisors, LLC | 50, 27 | 12,713 | 2 |
| Valmark Securities Inc. | 50, 27 | 12,508 | 13 |
| Northwestern Mutual Wealth Mgmt | 50, 27 | 12,066 | 9 |
| Alera Investment Advisors, LLC | 50, 27 | 11,524 | 13 |
| Sanctuary Advisors, LLC | 50, 27 | 11,508 | 5 |
| World Investment Advisors, LLC | 50, 27 | 10,002 | 1 |
| Sageview Advisory Group, LLC | 50, 27 | 9,865 | 2 |
| Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors, LLC | 50, 27 | 9,620 | 5 |
| Girard Advisory Services, LLC | 50, 27 | 9,291 | 1 |
| Ima Advisory Services, Inc. | 50, 27 | 8,865 | 10 |
| Capital Asset Advisory Services | 27 | 8,417 | 5 |
| Lindsey Financial Solutions, LLC | 50, 27 | 7,886 | 759 |
| Securities America Advisors, Inc. | 50, 27 | 7,833 | 11 |
| Compass Advisory Group LLC | 50, 27 | 7,610 | 2 |
| Wealth Advisory Group, Inc. | 50, 27 | 6,932 | 2 |
| Cambridge Investment Research Advis | 50, 27 | 6,796 | 1 |
| Commonwealth Financial Network | 99, 50, 49, 27 | 6,209 | 151 |
| Stifel Nicolaus & Company Inc. | 99, 55, 50, 49, 27 | 4,389 | 4,771 |
| Mml Investors Services LLC | 99, 50, 49, 27 | 3,855 | 2,511 |
| Fbl Marketing Services, LLC | 99, 55, 50, 49, 27 | 2,589 | 18,548 |
| Cetera Advisor Networks LLC | 99, 55, 50, 49, 27 | 2,349 | 12,843 |
| Park Avenue Securities | 99, 55, 50, 49, 27 | 1,135 | 60,910 |
| John Marchetti | 50, 27 | 621 | not reported |
| Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. | 99, 50, 49, 27 | 77 | 26,541 |
| Principal Securities Inc. | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 211,100 |
| Lpl Financial LLC | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 79,632 |
| Ameriprise Financial Services Inc. | 55, 49 | 0 | 73,466 |
| Northwestern Mutual Investment Serv | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 58,693 |
| Rbc Capital Markets LLC | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 44,785 |
| New York Life Securities | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 41,350 |
| Cetera Advisor Networks Insurance S | 55, 49 | 0 | 32,295 |
| Purshe Kaplan Sterling Investments | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 31,843 |
| Equitable Network LLC | 55, 49 | 0 | 27,169 |
| Sanctuary Securities Inc. | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 23,491 |
| Truist Investment Services Inc. | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 18,242 |
| Cetera Advisors LLC | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 16,384 |
| Mml Insurance Agency LLC | 55, 49 | 0 | 15,038 |
| Hilltop Securities Insurance Agency | 55, 49 | 0 | 13,249 |
| Gwn Securities Inc. | 99, 49 | 0 | 10,164 |
| Bell-Anderson Agency, Inc. | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 8,722 |
| Prudential Insurance Agency LLC | 55, 49 | 0 | 6,886 |
| N P A Ins Agency Inc. | 55, 49 | 0 | 6,052 |
| Equity Services, Inc. | 99, 49 | 0 | 5,924 |
| Janney Montgomery Scott LLC | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 5,535 |
| Mt & W Associates, Inc. | 99, 55, 49 | 0 | 5,520 |
| Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated | 99, 49 | 0 | 5,265 |
| Morningstar Investment Management L | 70, 26 | 0 | 0 |
| Wilshire Advisors LLC | 72, 27 | 0 | 0 |
Useful links
- Find a 401(k) you left at an old job ↗
The DOL's Retirement Savings Lost & Found. Free and official.
- Look up this plan's full Form 5500 ↗
The DOL's own filing search. Search by plan or sponsor name.
- Download this plan's data (CSV) ↗
Every field on this page, one row, ready for a spreadsheet.
Source
| Dataset | DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA) |
|---|---|
| Form year | 2024 |
| Filing ACK_ID | 20250915131750NAL0003057586001 |
| Dataset last refreshed | July 28, 2026 |
Bulk dataset at askebsa.dol.gov ↗ · Look up the filing on EFAST2 ↗
Filings lag by design: a plan can file up to 9½ months after its year ends, so this is the newest data on file. Why filings lag
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, "Principal Ease 401(k) Plan: Form 5500 facts", from DOL EFAST2 filing 20250915131750NAL0003057586001, plan year ended December 31, 2024.