Principal life insurance review: Individual policies not available
As of 2021, Principal no longer sells life insurance policies to individual consumers. It does, however, still service existing policies.
By
Logan SachonLogan SachonSenior Managing Editor, Life Insurance & ResearchLogan Sachon is a former senior managing editor of life insurance and research at Policygenius. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The Guardian, Business Insider, CNN Money, BuzzFeed, Money Under 30, VICE, New York Magazine, and elsewhere.
Edited by
Adam MorganAdam MorganEditorial DirectorAdam Morgan is a former editorial director at Policygenius who led the editorial team. Previously, he led editorial teams matrixed across multiple financial publications at Red Ventures — including Bankrate, NextAdvisor, Million Mile Secrets, and others. As a journalist, his work has appeared in Esquire, Scientific American, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere.
Our proprietary ratings methodology takes multiple factors into account, including customer satisfaction, cost, financial strength, and policy offerings. See the “Ratings methodology” section for more details.
4.6
AM Best rating
AM Best is a global credit rating agency that scores the financial strength of insurance companies on a scale from A++ (Superior) to D (Poor).
A+
Cost
Using a mix of internal and external rate data, we grade the cost of each insurance company's premiums on a scale from least expensive ($) to most expensive ($$$$$).
NA
The bottom line
Principal is a Fortune 500 insurance, retirement, and asset management company, and up until 2021, it sold individual term and universal life insurance policies as part of its offerings. In June 2021, it announced that though it would continue to service its existing life insurance customers, it would no longer sell life insurance to individual consumers.
Note: Principal individual life products are not available for purchase. In this review, we are including information for Principal's individual policies that were sold until 2021. Our rating is based on the company's financial strength and customer experience scores.
Pros
NA
Cons
NA
Basic coverages offered
Term life insurance: Principal Term, the individual term policy offered by Principal until 2021, is a traditional term life insurance product available for coverage amounts starting at $200,000, for term lengths of 10, 15, 20, or 30 years. An accelerated underwriting option was also available for applicants up to age 60, for amounts up to $3 million.
Universal life insurance: Principal offered individual customers a universal life insurance policy called Universal Life Flex III (UL Flex III). Coverage amounts for this product started at $25,000.
Indexed universal life insurance: Principal offered two indexed universal life insurance policies to individuals: Indexed Universal Life Flex II (IUL Flex II) was available for amounts starting at $100,000 and Indexed Universal Life Accumulation II (IUL Accumulation II) was available starting at $50,000. Both products were available for individual consumers age 20 to 85.
Variable universal life insurance: Variable Universal Life Income IV (VUL Income IV) is Principal's variable universal life insurance policy offered to individual consumers until 2021. It was available to people age 0 to 85 with coverage amounts starting at $100,000.
Additional coverages offered
Acceleration of death benefit rider: For no extra cost, the ADB rider provides up to 75% of the death benefit, up to $1 million, if you are diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Waiver of premium rider: For an extra cost, the waiver of premium rider waives all premiums during the period that you have a certified total disability.
Child protection rider: For an extra cost, the child rider provides life insurance coverage for the insured’s children up to $25,000 each.
Ratings methodology
Customer experience
4.9/5
Our customer experience scale uses data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) complaint index. Principal has a score of at 0.26, which means it receives far fewer complaints than expected for a company of its size. (The expected number would be 1.0.)
Financial strength
4.3/5
Our financial strength rating is a weighted combination of three industry-leading metrics to measure a company’s financial health: A.M. Best, Standard & Poor’s, and Moody’s. Principal has an A+ rating from A.M. Best, an A+ from Standard & Poor’s, and an A1 from Moody’s.
Note: Principal does not have a price or transparency score, as those ratings pertain to information about products that are no longer offered. We did assign ratings for customer experience and financial strength, however, as those scores are for the company itself.
Principal’s history, reputation, and social responsibility
Principal Financial Group, founded in 1879, is headquartered in Des Moines, IA. A Fortune 500 company and a member of the S&P 500, it provides retirement, insurance, and asset management services worldwide. It is the number-three provider of group benefits in the U.S. [1]
Principal's ESG goals include aligning its responsible investment with the seven United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. [2]
In June 2021, Principal announced that it would discontinue selling U.S. individual life insurance sales after a strategic review. The company said that current term and universal life insurance customers would continue to have their policies owned and serviced by Principal with no change. [3]
Principal in the news
In December 2022, Pensions & Investments named Principal's investment unit a Best Place to Work in Money Management. (Pensions & Investments)
In May 2022, DALBAR, the auditing and ratings company, recognized Principal for excellence in online group benefits administration. (DALBAR)
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References
Policygenius uses external sources, including government data, industry studies, and reputable news organizations to supplement proprietary marketplace data and internal expertise. Learn more about how we use and vet external sources as part of oureditorial standards.
Logan Sachon is a former senior managing editor of life insurance and research at Policygenius. As a journalist, her work has appeared in The Guardian, Business Insider, CNN Money, BuzzFeed, Money Under 30, VICE, New York Magazine, and elsewhere.
Adam Morgan is a former editorial director at Policygenius who led the editorial team. Previously, he led editorial teams matrixed across multiple financial publications at Red Ventures — including Bankrate, NextAdvisor, Million Mile Secrets, and others. As a journalist, his work has appeared in Esquire, Scientific American, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere.
