v3.25.2
Nature of Operations and Significant Accounting Policies
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2025
Nature of Operations and Significant Accounting Policies  
Nature of Operations and Significant Accounting Policies

1. Nature of Operations and Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements of Principal Financial Group, Inc. (“PFG”) have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial statements and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S- X. In the opinion of management, all adjustments (consisting of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included.

Operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2025, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ended December 31, 2025, especially when considering risks and uncertainties that may impact our business, results of operations, financial condition and liquidity. Our use of estimates and assumptions affect amounts reported and disclosed and includes, but is not limited to, the fair value of investments in the absence of quoted market values, investment impairments and valuation allowances, the fair value of derivatives, the fair value of market risk benefits (“MRBs”), measurement of goodwill and intangible assets, the liability for future policy benefits and claims, the value of pension and other postretirement benefit obligations and accounting for income taxes and the valuation of deferred tax assets. Our estimates and assumptions could change in the future. Our results of operations and financial condition may also be impacted by other uncertainties including evolving regulatory, legislative and standard-setter accounting interpretations and guidance.

These interim unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with our annual audited financial statements as of December 31, 2024, included in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The accompanying condensed consolidated statement of financial position as of December 31, 2024, has been derived from the audited consolidated statement of financial position but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for complete financial statements.

Consolidation

We have relationships with various special purpose entities and other legal entities that must be evaluated to determine if the entities meet the criteria of a variable interest entity (“VIE”) or a voting interest entity (“VOE”). This assessment is performed by reviewing contractual, ownership and other rights, including involvement of related parties, and requires use of judgment. First, we determine if we hold a variable interest in an entity by assessing if we have the right to receive expected losses and expected residual returns of the entity. If we hold a variable interest, then the entity is assessed to determine if it is a VIE. An entity is a VIE if the equity at risk is not sufficient to support its activities, if the equity holders lack a controlling financial interest or if the entity is structured with non-substantive voting rights. In addition to the previous criteria, if the entity is a limited partnership or similar entity, it is a VIE if the limited partners do not have the power to direct the entity’s most significant activities through substantive kick-out rights or participating rights. A VIE is evaluated to determine the primary beneficiary. The primary beneficiary of a VIE is the enterprise with (1) the power to direct the activities of a VIE that most significantly impact the entity’s economic performance and (2) the obligation to absorb losses of the entity or the right to receive benefits from the entity that could potentially be significant to the VIE. When we are the primary beneficiary, we are required to consolidate the entity in our financial statements. We reassess our involvement with VIEs on a quarterly basis. For further information about VIEs, refer to Note 3, Variable Interest Entities.

If an entity is not a VIE, it is considered a VOE. VOEs are generally consolidated if we own a greater than 50% voting interest. If we determine our involvement in an entity no longer meets the requirements for consolidation under either the VIE or VOE models, the entity is deconsolidated. Entities in which we have management influence over the operating and financing decisions but are not required to consolidate, other than investments accounted for at fair value under the fair value option, are reported using the equity method.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Description

Date of
adoption

Effect on our consolidated
financial statements or other
significant matters

Standards not yet adopted:

Disaggregation of income statement expenses

This authoritative guidance expands the disclosures about a public entity’s expenses and addresses requests for more granular information about the types of expenses in commonly presented expense categories.

December 31, 2027

We are currently evaluating the impact this guidance will have on our notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Improvements to income tax disclosures

This authoritative guidance provides improvements to income tax disclosures for annual periods primarily related to the rate reconciliation and income taxes paid information.

December 31, 2025

This guidance will not have a material impact on our notes to the consolidated financial statements when the new annual disclosures are included in our notes to the consolidated financial statements.

Standards adopted:

Improvements to reportable segments disclosures

This authoritative guidance enhances the disclosures about a public entity’s reportable segments and addresses requests from investors for additional, more detailed information about a reportable segment’s expenses.

December 31, 2024

The enhanced disclosures can be found in Note 18, Segment Information.

Facilitation of the effects of reference rate reform on financial reporting

This authoritative guidance provided optional expedients and exceptions for contracts and hedging relationships affected by reference rate reform. An entity could elect not to apply certain modification accounting requirements to contracts affected by reference rate reform and instead account for the modified contract as a continuation of the existing contract. Also, an entity could apply optional expedients to continue hedge accounting for hedging relationships in which the critical terms changed due to reference rate reform. This guidance eased the financial reporting impacts of reference rate reform on contracts and hedging relationships and was effective until December 31, 2022. A subsequent amendment issued in December 2022 extended the relief date from December 31, 2022, to December 31, 2024, and was effective upon issuance.

March 12, 2020

We adopted the guidance upon issuance prospectively and elected the applicable optional expedients and exceptions for contracts and hedging relationships impacted by reference rate reform through December 31, 2024. The guidance did not have an impact on our consolidated financial statements upon adoption.

When we adopt new accounting standards, we have a process in place to perform a thorough review of the pronouncement, identify the financial statement and system impacts and create an implementation plan among our impacted business units to ensure we are compliant with the pronouncement on the date of adoption. This includes having effective processes and controls in place to support the reported amounts. Each of the standards listed above is in varying stages in our implementation process based on its issuance and adoption dates. We are on track to implement guidance by the respective effective dates.

Long-Duration Insurance Contracts Disclosures

We include disaggregated rollforwards for deferred acquisition costs (“DAC”), the unearned revenue liability, separate account liabilities, policyholder account balances, the liability for future policy benefits, the additional liability for certain benefit features and MRBs. Further, for certain actuarial balances, disclosures are required for the significant inputs, judgments, assumptions and methods used in measurement, including changes in those inputs, judgments and assumptions, and the effect of those changes on measurement.

Amounts from different reportable segments cannot be aggregated for disclosures. Factors to consider in determining the level of aggregation for disclosures include the type of coverage, geography and market or type of customer. We have identified the following levels of aggregation for long-duration insurance contract disclosures.

Retirement and Income Solutions:
oWorkplace savings and retirement solutions – Group annuity contracts offered to the plan sponsors of defined contribution plans or defined benefit plans
oIndividual variable annuities – Variable deferred annuities and registered index-linked annuities (“RILAs”) offered to individuals for both qualified and nonqualified retirement savings
oPension risk transfer – Single premium group annuities offered to pension plan sponsors and other institutions
oIndividual fixed deferred annuities – An exited business that offered single premium deferred annuity contracts and flexible premium deferred annuities (“FPDAs”) to individuals for both qualified and nonqualified retirement savings
oIndividual fixed income annuities – An exited business that offered single premium immediate annuities (“SPIAs”) and deferred income annuities (“DIAs”) to individuals for both qualified and nonqualified retirement savings; also includes supplementary contracts generated by annuitizations from other individual product lines
oInvestment only – Primarily guaranteed investment contracts (“GICs”) and funding agreements offered to retirement plan sponsors and other institutions
Principal Asset Management – International Pension
oLatin America:
Individual fixed income annuities – SPIAs offered to individuals
Pension – Certain retirement accumulation products where the segregated funds and associated obligation to the client are consolidated within our financial statements as separate account assets and liabilities and are only in the scope of long-duration insurance contracts disclosures for separate accounts
Benefits and Protection – Specialty Benefits:
oIndividual disability – Disability insurance providing protection to individuals and/or business owners
Benefits and Protection – Life Insurance:
oUniversal life – Universal life, variable universal life and indexed universal life insurance products offered to individuals and/or business owners, which will be collectively referred to hereafter as “universal life” contracts; includes our exited universal life insurance with secondary guarantee (“ULSG”) business
oTerm life – Term life insurance products offered to individuals and/or business owners
oParticipating life – Participating life insurance contracts offered to individuals, some of which are part of a closed block of business and are only in the scope of long-duration insurance contracts disclosures for DAC
Corporate:
oLong-term care insurance – A closed block of long-term care insurance that is fully reinsured, which was offered on both a group and individual basis.

For the separate account liability disclosures, our Retirement and Income Solutions segment uses a Group retirement contracts level of aggregation. This consists primarily of separate account liabilities for the workplace savings and retirement solutions business as well as amounts for the investment only and pension risk transfer businesses.