Shareholder Spotlight : Principal Financial Group - Another Rotten Apple in the Cummins Ecosystem

Principal Financial Group dresses itself in polite corporate language and masquerades as an ethical outfit. Chip away at that varnish though and you’ll find a history of mis-selling, sloppy handling of people’s lives, repeated regulatory bruises and lawyers on speed-dial. It also sits on the Cummins shareholder register. It’s not the worst register to find yourself on, but it’s close. Anyway, that is not incidental – it matters. This is an ecosystem where the people with votes sometimes bring their own stains to the table.

The $7.3m Annuity Trainwreck

Imagine a small foundation given money to do something decent. Imagine advisers who see commission and start swapping high-fee annuities like trading cards. An arbitration panel found repeated churn and unsuitable sales and ordered Principal Securities to pay about $7.3m. Strip the banker-speak – advisers kept swapping expensive products to harvest commissions while the charity’s capital bled away. That is organised extraction dressed up as advice.

The Careless Data Leak

February 2021 – a routine audit became an identity-risk event. Principal accidentally emailed a file containing names, addresses and Social Security numbers to the sponsor of another pension plan and an actuarial firm. They say it was deleted and credit monitoring was offered. That is the sterile corporate script. In practice handing over SSNs like a takeaway receipt is a basic, dangerous failure that puts ordinary people at risk of identity fraud.

A Corporate Rap Sheet

This is not a one-off stain. Enforcement trackers and reporting show repeated fines, settlements and regulatory entries across consumer-protection, insurance and retirement-plan issues. Class actions over excessive fees, enforcement notices and penalty entries add up. Taken together, the pattern looks less like occasional bad luck and more like structural sloppiness wrapped in institutional confidence.

Denying People What They Paid For

Insurance is a promise disguised as paperwork. Too often, the promise ends with “no” from the insurer. Courts have rebuked Principal for denying claims while favouring hired reviewers over treating doctors. That is not boring legal detail – it is families stalled and lives interrupted because it was cheaper for an insurer to reject.

Why This Matters To Cummins

Principal holds meaningful positions in big corporations – Cummins included. Institutional investors are supposed to be a brake on bad behaviour. But when those institutions have their own record of mis-selling, data negligence and defensive litigation, the idea that shareholders will pressure boards into decent behaviour looks thin. If you’re calling out corporate hypocrisy at Cummins, notice who’s in the shareholder pews – and ask what their presence really means.

Final Line

Principal Financial Group is not an abstract villain. It is a firm that has repeatedly done harm while keeping its PR intact. It also owns part of Cummins. That fact is part of the ecosystem that lets poor practice linger. Name it. Call it out. Don’t let respectability be a velvet glove for behaviour that bruises people and planet.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Shareholder Spotlight : Principal Financial Group – Another Rotten Apple in the Cummins Ecosystem