pvclogoregisteredsummproa.jpg
LARGECAP S&P 500 INDEX ACCOUNT
Class 1 and Class 2 Shares
Principal Variable Contracts Funds, Inc. Summary Prospectus May 1, 2024
Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s Prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s Prospectus, Statement of Additional Information, Reports to Shareholders, and other information about the Fund online at www.PrincipalAM.com/PVCProspectuses. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-800-222-5852 or by sending an email request to prospectus@principalfunds.com.
The Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2024, as may be amended or supplemented, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.
Objective
The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and examples below. These fees and expenses do not reflect the fees and expenses of any variable insurance contract that may invest in the Fund and would be higher if they did.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Share Class
Class 1Class 2
Management Fees0.20%0.20%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) FeesN/A0.25%
Other Expenses0.01%0.01%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses0.21%0.46%
Example
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. If separate account expenses and contract-level expenses were included, expenses would be higher. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
1 year3 years5 years10 years
LargeCap S&P 500 Index Account - Class 1$22$68$118$268
LargeCap S&P 500 Index Account - Class 247148258579
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 2.3% of the average value of its portfolio.
1 of 4


Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities of companies that compose the Standard & Poor’s® (“S&P”) 500 Index (the “Index”) at the time of purchase. The Index is designed to represent U.S. equities with risk/return characteristics of the large cap universe. As of March 31, 2024, the market capitalization range of the companies comprising the Index was between approximately $5.2 billion and $3.1 trillion. Each component stock of the Index is weighted in proportion to its total market value. The Index is rebalanced quarterly.
The Fund employs a passive investment approach designed to attempt to track the performance of the Index. In seeking its objective, the Fund typically employs a replication strategy, which involves investing in all the securities that make up the Index, in the same proportions as the Index.
The Fund uses derivative strategies and invests in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). A derivative is a financial arrangement, the value of which is derived from, or based on, a traditional security, asset, or market index. Specifically, the Fund invests in index futures and equity ETFs on a daily basis to gain exposure to the Index in an effort to minimize tracking error relative to the benchmark.
The Fund will not concentrate (i.e., invest more than 25% of its assets) its investments in a particular industry except to the extent the Index is so concentrated. As of March 31, 2024, the Index was not concentrated in any industry.
Note:    “Standard & Poor’s 500®” and “S&P 500®” are trademarks of S&P Global and have been licensed by Principal. The Fund is not sponsored, endorsed, sold, or promoted by S&P Global, and S&P Global makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in the Fund.
Principal Risks
The value of your investment in the Fund changes with the value of the Fund’s investments. Many factors affect that value, and it is possible to lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The principal risks of investing in the Fund are listed below in alphabetical order and not in order of significance.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives may not move in the direction anticipated by the portfolio manager. Transactions in derivatives may increase volatility, cause the liquidation of portfolio positions when not advantageous to do so, and result in disproportionate losses that may be substantially greater than a fund’s initial investment.
Futures. Futures contracts involve specific risks, including: the imperfect correlation between the change in market value of the instruments held by the Fund and the price of the futures contract; possible lack of a liquid secondary market for a futures contract and the resulting inability to close a futures contract when desired; counterparty risk; and if the Fund has insufficient cash, it may have to sell securities from its portfolio to meet daily variation margin requirements.
Equity Securities Risk. A variety of factors can negatively impact the value of equity securities held by a fund, including a decline in the issuer’s financial condition, unfavorable performance of the issuer’s sector or industry, or changes in response to overall market and economic conditions. A fund’s principal market segment(s) (such as market capitalization or style) may underperform other market segments or the equity markets as a whole.
2 of 4


Index Fund Risk. Index funds use a passive investment approach and generally do not attempt to manage market volatility, use defensive strategies, or reduce the effect of any long-term periods of poor investment performance. Therefore, the Fund may hold securities that present risks that an investment advisor researching individual securities might seek to avoid. An index fund has operating and other expenses while an index does not. As a result, over time, index funds tend to underperform the index. The correlation between fund performance and index performance may also be affected by the type of passive investment approach used by a fund (sampling or replication), changes in securities markets, changes in the composition of the index, and the timing of purchases and sales of fund shares. Errors or delays in compiling or rebalancing the Index may impact the performance of the Fund and increase transaction costs.
Industry Concentration Risk. A fund that concentrates investments in a particular industry or group of industries has greater exposure than other funds to market, economic, and other factors affecting that industry or group of industries.
Investment Company Securities Risk. A fund that invests in another investment company (for example, another fund or an exchange-traded fund (or ETF)) is subject to the risks associated with direct ownership of the securities in which such investment company invests. Fund shareholders indirectly bear their proportionate share of the expenses of each such investment company.
Redemption and Large Transaction Risk. Ownership of the Fund’s shares may be concentrated in one or a few large investors (such as funds of funds, institutional investors, and asset allocation programs) that may redeem or purchase shares in large quantities. These transactions may cause the Fund to sell securities to meet redemptions or to invest additional cash at times it would not otherwise do so, which may result in increased transaction costs, increased expenses, changes to expense ratios, and adverse effects to Fund performance. Such transactions may also accelerate the realization of taxable income if sales of portfolio securities result in gains. Moreover, reallocations by large shareholders among share classes of a fund may result in changes to the expense ratios of affected classes, which may increase the expenses paid by shareholders of the class that experienced the redemption.
Performance
The following information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. Past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. You may get updated performance information by calling 1-800-222-5852.
The bar chart shows changes in the Fund’s Class 1 performance from year to year. The table shows how the Fund’s average annual returns for 1, 5, and 10 years (or, if shorter, the life of the Fund) compare with those of one or more broad measures of market performance. Performance figures for the Fund do not include any separate account expenses, cost of insurance, or other contract-level expenses; total returns for the Fund would be lower if such expenses were included.
For periods prior to the inception date of Class 2 shares (May 1, 2015), the performance shown in the table for Class 2 shares is that of the Fund’s Class 1 shares, adjusted to reflect the fees and expenses of the Class 2 shares. These adjustments result in performance for such periods that is no higher than the historical performance of the Class 1 shares.
3 of 4


Total Returns as of December 31
chart-2bb3730593a042e981c.jpg
Highest return for a quarter during the period of the bar chart above:Q2 202020.47%
Lowest return for a quarter during the period of the bar chart above:Q1 2020(19.66)%
Average Annual Total Returns
For the periods ended December 31, 2023
1 Year5 Years10 Years
LargeCap S&P 500 Index Account - Class 125.97%15.37%11.72%
LargeCap S&P 500 Index Account - Class 225.68%15.10%11.44%
S&P 500 Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes)26.29%15.69%12.03%
Investment Advisor and Portfolio Managers
Principal Global Investors, LLC
Tyler O'Donnell (since 2023), Portfolio Manager
Aaron J. Siebel (since 2018), Portfolio Manager
Tax Information
The Fund intends to comply with applicable variable asset diversification regulations. Taxation to you will depend on what you do with your variable life insurance or variable annuity contract. See your variable product prospectus for information about the tax implications of investing in the Fund.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as an insurance company), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment, to recommend one Fund or share class of the Fund over another Fund or share class, or to recommend one variable annuity, variable life insurance policy, or mutual fund over another. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
4 of 4