Individuals can now enroll in a 401(k) retirement plan by text message

January 16, 2014 (Des Moines, Iowa) - New quick enrollment from the Principal Financial Group® enables individuals to sign up to save for retirement in minutes with a text message. Traditionally employees have signed up for their employer's 401(k) retirement plan with a paper form or an extensive online process, but a new quick enrollment method allows individuals to sign up with a simple text message or through a mobile-friendly website.

"One of the easiest ways to save for retirement is through an employer-sponsored retirement plan, yet the biggest hurdle is simply getting individuals to sign up," said Jerry Patterson, senior vice president of retirement income strategy at The Principal®. "We know people have good intentions, but while many eligible employees say they are going to take action, many of those same employees don't. By making the process quick and convenient, we're able to battle inertia and get individuals to start saving right away."

Quick enrollment from The Principal allows individuals to send a text message or access the mobile-friendly website to enroll in their employer's retirement plan. Once individuals have chosen their contribution amount by text message or the quick enrollment website, new participants can then select their investment elections online or by phone. This can be done at the same time or at a time convenient for the individual.

Retirement readiness

Quick enrollment is part of an overall new approach to workplace retirement that focuses on helping individuals achieve retirement readiness or an adequate income in retirement. As part of this effort The Principal recently introduced Principal® PlanWorks, a strategy that uses key retirement plan design features to help get participants on track to save more for retirement.

"We've studied savings behavior with a focus on the difference between what people do and what they say when it comes to preparing for retirement," notes Patterson. "Through our research we've learned there are some powerful forces in our nature that can get in the way of preparing for and becoming financially secure in retirement. As a result we're aggressively making changes such as text enrollment to enable us to help put individuals on track toward a more successful retirement."

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About the Principal Financial Group

The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal ®) is a global investment management leader offering retirement services, insurance solutions and asset management. The Principal offers businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement, asset management and insurance through its diverse family of financial services companies. Founded in 1879 and a member of the FORTUNE 500®, the Principal Financial Group has $466.2 billion in assets under management and serves some 19.0 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG.www.principal.com.

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