The Principal beneficiary designation form tells Principal who should receive your life insurance or retirement account money when you die, so those funds pass directly to the people you name instead of going through probate. You can complete it online at principal.com or on a paper PDF from your employer’s HR office. The form collects your personal information, the beneficiaries you choose with their percentage shares, and, if you’re married and naming someone other than your spouse, your spouse’s witnessed consent.
Where to Get the Form
Log in at principal.com, click the account name on the left side of your dashboard, scroll to “My beneficiaries” under the Overview tab, and follow the prompts. Most straightforward designations can be finished entirely online.
Some can’t. Naming a trust and any designation that requires spousal consent must be done on paper. The site will prompt you to print the PDF in those cases, and your employer’s HR or benefits office can also give you a copy. The paper form is several pages and includes instructions, sample designations, and the beneficiary schedule itself.
Filling In Your Personal Information
Start at the top. If you’re using paper, print in black ink. Enter your full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and contact information. If your name has changed since you enrolled, use the Name Change section to record both the old and new names.
The form then asks you to pick one of three choices. Choice A names your spouse as sole primary beneficiary. Choice B applies if you’re unmarried. Choice C is for married participants who want to name someone other than their spouse, and it triggers the spousal consent requirement described below.
Naming Primary and Contingent Beneficiaries
Primary beneficiaries are first in line. Contingent beneficiaries are backups who inherit only if every primary beneficiary has died before you. You can list more than one person in each category.
For each beneficiary, provide the full given name (use “Mary M. Doe,” not “Mrs. John Doe”), date of birth, relationship to you, Social Security number, mailing address, and percentage share. If you name multiple beneficiaries but don’t assign percentages, Principal pays them in equal shares.
Check every name and Social Security number against a government-issued ID before submitting. A mismatch can freeze the payout and push your beneficiaries into a dispute process. Accurate mailing addresses matter too, because that’s where Principal sends claim packets.
Per Stirpes or Per Capita
The form may let you mark a share as “per stirpes,” Latin for “by branch.” It controls what happens if a beneficiary dies before you. With per stirpes, that person’s children inherit their share. Without it, most plans default to per capita, and the deceased beneficiary’s share is split among the surviving beneficiaries, which can cut out that person’s children entirely.
This matters most if you’ve named your own children and want grandchildren protected. Say your son is listed for 50 percent and dies before you. Per stirpes sends his 50 percent to his kids. Per capita sends it to your surviving daughter.
Trusts, Charities, and Minor Children
You aren’t limited to individuals. Churches, schools, and other nonprofits can be named as beneficiaries on Principal retirement accounts. If your plan requires spousal consent for non-spouse designations, that requirement applies to charities as well.
To name a trust, use the paper form. The designation needs the trustee’s name, the trust’s full legal name, and the date the trust was established. The instruction page gives sample wording for living trusts with individual trustees, institutional trustees, and testamentary trusts created by a will.
To leave funds to a minor, use a custodian designation rather than naming the child directly. If the form doesn’t have enough space for all your beneficiaries, attach a separate signed and dated sheet.
Spousal Consent for Retirement Accounts
Federal law gives your spouse a strong default claim to your qualified retirement plan. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(11), defined benefit plans and many defined contribution plans must pay the balance to your surviving spouse unless the spouse agrees otherwise in writing. If you want anyone else as primary beneficiary (a child, a sibling, a trust, a charity), your spouse has to sign off.
On the Principal form, that’s the consent section tied to Choice C. Your spouse signs to acknowledge they’re waiving the benefit. The signature has to be witnessed by either a plan representative or a notary public. One or the other, not both. A designation submitted without valid consent when consent is required can be thrown out entirely.
One trap for younger employees: if you’re under 35 when you file the form, your spouse must consent again in writing at the start of the plan year in which you turn 35 for the designation to remain in effect.
If you’re unmarried, indicate your marital status on the form and the consent section won’t apply.
What Divorce Does and Doesn’t Do
Many states have laws that automatically revoke an ex-spouse’s beneficiary status after divorce. Those laws don’t apply to ERISA-governed retirement plans. The U.S. Supreme Court held in Egelhoff v. Egelhoff that ERISA preempts state automatic-revocation statutes, so plan administrators must pay according to the form on file even if it still names your ex.
The practical takeaway is blunt. If you divorce and don’t update your designation, your ex-spouse will likely receive your retirement account. A divorce decree alone doesn’t override the form. The only court order that can redirect the benefits is a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) meeting specific federal requirements. It’s far simpler to file a new designation once the divorce is final.
Submitting the Form
For a paper form, you have three options:
- Fax: 866-704-3481
- Mail: Principal Financial Group, P.O. Box 9394, Des Moines, IA 50306-9394
- Online: if your designation type is eligible, changes save directly through the portal
Sign and date the form before sending it. If you leave the date blank, the designation becomes effective the day Principal or your plan sponsor receives it; dating it yourself gives you a cleaner paper trail. Keep a copy.
Principal’s standard processing time for received documents is 7 to 10 business days. After about a week, log in and confirm the beneficiary information on your account summary matches what you submitted. If something looks off, contact Principal directly rather than waiting.
When to Review and Update
Filing once and forgetting is the most common mistake people make with beneficiary designations. Review yours after any major life change: marriage, divorce, the birth or adoption of a child, a beneficiary’s death, or a significant shift in your finances. At minimum, pull up the account once a year and confirm the names and percentages still reflect your wishes.
Each new form replaces the previous one entirely, and there’s no limit on how many times you can update it. The designation on file at your death is the one Principal follows, regardless of what your will says. Beneficiary designations override wills, which is why keeping the form current matters more than most people realize.