When was Principal Financial Group, Inc. founded?

Principal Financial Group, Inc. was founded in 1879, in Des Moines, Iowa by Edward H. Rollins.

Who are the founders of Principal Financial Group, Inc.?

The founder of Principal Financial Group, Inc. is Edward H. Rollins. The company was established in 1879 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Who is the current CEO of Principal Financial Group, Inc.?

The current CEO of Principal Financial Group, Inc. is Jim Wehlever.

Where was Principal Financial Group, Inc. founded?

Principal Financial Group, Inc. was founded in Des Moines, Iowa in 1879 by Edward H. Rollins.

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Principal Financial Group, Inc.

Life InsuranceFounded 1879- Updated June 2026

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: June 2026

Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.

CorpDigest

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Principal Financial Group, Inc.

Life InsuranceFounded 1879- Updated June 2026

Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya

Last reviewed: June 2026

Founders

Who Founded Principal Financial Group, Inc.?

Q: Who founded Principal Financial Group, Inc.?

Principal Financial Group, Inc. was founded by Edward H. Rollins in 1879 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Edward H. Rollins · Founded 1879 · Des Moines, Iowa

Last reviewed: June 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya

Quick Answer

Principal Financial Group, Inc. was founded by Edward H. Rollins in 1879 in Des Moines, Iowa. The company is currently led by Jim Wehlever.

Founding Story

The origin story of Principal Financial Group begins in the sweltering summer of 1879, when a 34-year-old former agricultural equipment salesman named Edward H. Rollins stood in the dusty, unfinished offices of a new commercial building in Des Moines, Iowa, and signed the charter for the Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company. Rollins, a charismatic and relentless entrepreneur, had spent the previous decade traveling the rural backroads of the Midwest, selling agricultural machinery to farmers and observing the profound financial devastation that befell families when the primary breadwinner died prematurely. He recognized that the rapidly industrializing American Midwest, with its sprawling railyards, agricultural cooperatives, and manufacturing plants, created a massive, unpriced risk of occupational mortality, and he set out to build an underwriting operation that would apply rigorous, mathematical precision to the assessment of that risk. Rollins's defining moment came in the early days of the company, when he personally traveled to the industrial centers of Chicago, Omaha, and Minneapolis, convincing factory workers and farmers to purchase $5,000 whole life policies that promised a modest death benefit and a guaranteed cash value accumulation, a revolutionary concept for workers who lived paycheck to paycheck and had never previously trusted the financial industry. Rollins's philosophy was that life insurance was not a luxury for the wealthy, but a fundamental necessity for the working class, and he established a corporate culture of aggressive, grassroots distribution that would define the company for the next century. He insisted that every agent understand the specific occupational hazards of the industries they were insuring, requiring them to spend time on the factory floors and in the railyards to truly understand the risks they were underwriting. This deep, forensic understanding of the industrial workforce allowed Principal to price its policies with a level of accuracy that its East Coast competitors, who relied on generic, national mortality tables, simply could not match. In 1910, the company expanded its product offerings to include industrial life insurance, a high-frequency, low-premium product collected by door-to-door agents, a strategic move that allowed Principal to penetrate the deepest pockets of the urban working class and build a massive, highly loyal customer base. The company survived the catastrophic 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed millions of Americans and bankrupted dozens of life insurers, by relying on its conservative reserve structure and its deep understanding of the specific geographic and occupational concentrations of the virus. The pandemic was a near-death experience for the young company, but it ultimately strengthened its resolve, embedding a culture of extreme capital conservatism and rigorous risk selection into the corporate DNA that remains the foundational philosophy of Principal today. For the next five decades, Principal grew through a combination of organic expansion and strategic acquisitions, building a massive national footprint in life insurance and group protection, while maintaining the aggressive, grassroots distribution model that had been instilled by Edward H. Rollins in 1879. The company's headquarters in Des Moines became a symbol of Midwestern stability and reliability, a stark contrast to the Wall Street financiers who had caused the Great Depression, and this reputation for integrity and dependability allowed Principal to capture a significant share of the massive post-war economic boom that created the American middle class.

Edward H. Rollins

Co-founder 1879

Background

Edward H. Rollins was a former agricultural equipment salesman and the primary architect of Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company. His defining moment came in 1879 when he established the corporate philosophy of aggressive, grassroots distribution, insisting that every agent understand the specific occupational hazards of the industries they were insuring, a culture that allowed the company to price its policies with a level of accuracy that its East Coast competitors simply could not match.

Role at Principal Financial Group, Inc.

Edward H. Rollins (1845–1912) was an American entrepreneur, insurance executive, and the primary architect of the grassroots distribution model that defined the early years of Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company. Born in rural New Hampshire, Rollins spent his early twenties traveling the backroads of the Midwest selling agricultural machinery, where he observed the profound financial devastation that befell families when the primary breadwinner died prematurely. Recognizing the massive, unpriced risk of occupational mortality in the rapidly industrializing American Midwest, Rollins pooled his savings and local subscriptions to found the Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1879. Rollins's genius lay in distribution and risk selection; he pioneered the practice of requiring his agents to spend time on the factory floors and in the railyards to truly understand the specific occupational hazards of the industries they were insuring. This deep, forensic understanding of the industrial workforce allowed Principal to price its policies with a level of accuracy that its competitors simply could not match, establishing the template for its rapid expansion across the Rust Belt. After amassing significant wealth from the insurance business, Rollins shifted his focus to philanthropy and civic development in Des Moines, playing a key role in the establishment of local hospitals and educational institutions. His legacy endures both in the massive, highly loyal customer base he built and the culture of extreme capital conservatism and rigorous risk selection that remains the foundational DNA of Principal today.

Principal Financial Group, Inc.: CEO & Leadership History

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Jim Wehlever

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

2020–Present

Wehlever, a veteran executive who ascended through the ranks of the company's most complex asset management and retirement product teams, was brought in to execute a massive capital optimization strategy and digital transformation of the legacy life insurance business. He launched the comprehensive digital workplace distribution strategy, successfully grew the company's net investment income to over $1.5 billion while maintaining a robust 390% RBC ratio, and directed over $600 million in share buybacks and dividends to shareholders while maintaining the company's A+ financial strength rating during a period of intense interest rate volatility.

Rob Bowers

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

2019–Present

Bowers has been instrumental in executing Principal's aggressive capital return program, overseeing the optimization of the $650 billion investment portfolio and directing the massive expansion in net investment income to over $1.5 billion annually, a critical component of the company's diversified profitability model.

Dave P. Tivey

President, Retirement and Income Solutions

2018–Present

Tivey has led the aggressive expansion of the company's pension risk transfer (PRT) capabilities, launching specialized programs for large corporate defined benefit plan sponsors, driving an 8% year-over-year increase in net premiums earned for the Retirement and Income Solutions segment in FY2024.