Principal 401(k) plans and fees
Source: Schedule C of Form 5500 filings, form year 2024, DOL EFAST2 bulk data · DOL 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
Principal recordkeeps 5,239 of the 50,598 large 401(k) plans with an identified recordkeeper in form-year-2024 Form 5500 filings, a 10.3% plan share covering 7,370,936 participants.
$170.05
Median plan-paid administrative cost per participant across the 5,230 published plans recordkept by Principal with computable fee data, form-year-2024 filings.
$47.88 above the $122.17 median across all 54,782 published plans with fee data.
How many 401(k) plans does Principal recordkeep?
| Plans recordkept, full universeOf 50,598 form-year-2024 filings with an identified recordkeeper. | 5,239 |
|---|---|
| Plan share | 10.3% |
| Participants in those plans | 7,370,936 |
| Participant share | 9.0% |
| Plans on file at 401(k) MonitorOf the 57,824 plans in the form-year-2024 data. | 5,239 |
| Participants in those plans | 7,370,936 |
| Assets in those plans | $369.3B |
A plan counts toward Principal only when its Schedule C names a provider the pipeline could map to this brand. A filing naming a provider it could not map is counted in nobody’s book, so every count here is a lower bound rather than a full book.
What do 401(k) plans recordkept by Principal pay in fees?
The median plan-paid administrative cost across the 5,230 published plans recordkept by Principal is $170.05 per participant, against $122.17 across all 54,782 published plans with fee data. 1,892 of the 5,230 (36%) pay less than that all-plans median.
These are plan-paid expenses from Schedule H only. Fees the sponsor pays directly, and fees embedded in fund expense ratios, never appear here, so every figure is a floor, not the all-in cost. The recordkeeper is one of several providers a plan pays. 9 of the 5,239 published plans report no computable plan-paid cost and are excluded from the median. How to read your own plan’s number: are your 401(k) fees high?
Which are the biggest 401(k) plans Principal administers?
| # | Plan | Active participants | Assets | Plan-paid cost / participant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lowes 401(k) Plan | 263,650 | $8.6B | $3.57 |
| 2 | Darden Savings Plan | 197,946 | $1.6B | $8.05 |
| 3 | Allegis Group, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan Two | 170,251 | $288.6M | $4.71 |
| 4 | I.A.T.S.E. Annuity Fund | 100,349 | $1.4B | $75.46 |
| 5 | Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. 401(k) Plan | 94,731 | $292.8M | $9.03 |
| 6 | The Adecco Group 401(k) Plan | 64,616 | $874.4M | $19.75 |
| 7 | Freedom Care 401(k) Plan | 59,655 | $23.4M | $10.89 |
| 8 | CHS/Community Health Systems, Inc. Retirement Savings Plan | 59,277 | $4.8B | $55.49 |
| 9 | Ross Stores, Inc. 401(k) Savings Plan | 56,638 | $1.0B | $8.90 |
| 10 | The Hy-Vee And Affiliates 401(k) Plan | 55,933 | $3.1B | $45.43 |
Each linked page shows the plan’s full fee breakdown and its percentile among plans of the same size.
Where do Principal 401(k) participants log in?
Participants in a plan recordkept by Principal manage their account at Principal ↗.
If your employer has since changed recordkeepers, an old balance may not be there. The DOL’s Retirement Savings Lost & Found ↗ tracks accounts left behind.
Useful links
- Principal participant login ↗
Where participants in a plan recordkept by Principal check their own balance.
- Find a 401(k) you left at an old job ↗
The DOL's Retirement Savings Lost & Found. Free and official.
- Look up any plan's full Form 5500 ↗
The DOL's own filing search. Search by plan or sponsor name.
- Median 401(k) fees by plan size
The peer medians every plan page ranks against.
- The largest 401(k) plans in the US
The whole-universe ranking, published or not.
Source
| Dataset | DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data (FOIA) |
|---|---|
| Form year | 2024 |
| Recordkeeper identificationService code 15 or 64; the mapping from raw filing names to brands is ours. | Schedule C, Part I, Item 2 |
| Dataset last refreshed | July 28, 2026 |
Bulk dataset at askebsa.dol.gov ↗ · How the recordkeeper is identified
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, "Principal 401(k) plans and fees", computed from DOL EFAST2 Form 5500 bulk data, form year 2024.
