Public symbols for Principal 401K funds?

Are there any public symbols to track principal.com 401K funds, or are
these funds (with "Separate Account" suffix) different (secret) from their
funds available to general public. The online info for their 401K mutual
funds does not show any abreviated symbols.

For example one of the 401K funds is Principal Small Company Value
Separate Account. When searching Yahoo Finances for Principal, I find
small value funds PSVNX, PVSIX, PSVSX, and PSVIX, but chart only shows
current year activity, YTD only shows through last quarter (currently
6/30/05) and NAV of any of them is about half of the 401K small value
fund. So maybe the separate accounts are mix of their similar funds.

Re: Public symbols for Principal 401K funds?

Did you try their website?
Did you read the prospectus for each of your choices?
Are you sure these are not annuities?
Does this look familiar:
If it does, your 401k is a variable annuity and it has no symbol.


"David Efflandt" <> wrote in message
news:
> Are there any public symbols to track principal.com 401K funds, or are
> these funds (with "Separate Account" suffix) different (secret) from their
> funds available to general public. The online info for their 401K mutual
> funds does not show any abreviated symbols.
>
> For example one of the 401K funds is Principal Small Company Value
> Separate Account. When searching Yahoo Finances for Principal, I find
> small value funds PSVNX, PVSIX, PSVSX, and PSVIX, but chart only shows
> current year activity, YTD only shows through last quarter (currently
> 6/30/05) and NAV of any of them is about half of the 401K small value
> fund. So maybe the separate accounts are mix of their similar funds.

Re: Public symbols for Principal 401K funds?

On Fri, 5 Aug 2005 03:37:52 -0400, Ed <> wrote:
> Did you try their website?
> Did you read the prospectus for each of your choices?
> Are you sure these are not annuities?
> Does this look familiar:
> If it does, your 401k is a variable annuity and it has no symbol.

While that is not one of the funds we have, Principal does stick to terms
like "investment" or "account", and only mention in the fine print of
disclosures that Separate Accounts are under "group annuity contracts".

Still not sure what the difference is between no-load mutual funds and
variable annuities when either is in a tax deferred retirement account,
unless you are not eligible for, or have maxed out, other retirement
investment options and still have money to burn.

I am just learning about mutual funds and stocks to possibly do more with
a new Roth IRA and old IRA money that has been gathering a relatively low
fixed interest (but better than S&P 500 the past 5 yrs.). But if interest
rates continue to creap up, maybe CD or bond rates will not be too bad
when another IRA CD expires next April for the conservative portion of my
retirement funds.

> "David Efflandt" <> wrote in message
> news:
>> Are there any public symbols to track principal.com 401K funds, or are
>> these funds (with "Separate Account" suffix) different (secret) from their
>> funds available to general public. The online info for their 401K mutual
>> funds does not show any abreviated symbols...

Re: Public symbols for Principal 401K funds?

"David Efflandt" <> wrote

> Still not sure what the difference is between no-load mutual funds and
> variable annuities when either is in a tax deferred retirement account,

While a variable annuity offers mutual funds it is not a mutual fund, it's a
tax deferred insurance product. There have been many discussions about
whether it makes any sense to have a tax deferred investment in a tax
deferred account. VA's have higher costs associated with them and they are
generally frowned upon as 401k choices. They also have no symbol.