No commissions, no ads, no advice. This Principal Securities profile draws only on public records, each linked so you can confirm it yourself.

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The short answer: is Principal Securities a fiduciary?

Principal Securities is a fiduciary in its advisory programs and follows the Regulation Best Interest standard as a broker, so the answer depends on which account you hold. It files with the SEC as Principal Securities (CRD #1137), the dual-registrant structure behind both standards. According to its latest Form ADV (filed March 30, 2026), the firm reported $17.0 billion in regulatory assets under management, held by 51,941 clients across 68,981 client accounts (Items 5.D and 5.F). Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, and other. All of it is drawn straight from the public filings. Get started with Truthifi

Because the firm is a dual registrant, the standard of care changes with the type of account you hold. In its advisory programs it acts as an investment adviser with a fiduciary duty. In brokerage accounts it acts as a broker-dealer under Regulation Best Interest (a best-interest obligation at the time of a recommendation, not a continuous fiduciary relationship). It's worth asking which type of account you hold.

What "fiduciary" means: a fiduciary is legally bound to place a client's interests above its own. (More on fiduciary duty)

Principal Securities at a glance

✅ Verified from public filings, last checked October 5, 2026. Principal Securities (SEC CRD #1137) is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, on a fee-based basis, with $17.0 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	Principal Securities	Source
SEC CRD	#1137	IAPD
Registration	Investment adviser and broker-dealer (dual registrant)	IAPD
Registered since	October 10, 1997 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes in advisory programs, Reg BI in brokerage	SEC Reg BI
Fee model	Fee-based (varies by account: commissions, advisory fee, hourly or fixed)	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	A percentage of assets under management, hourly charges, fixed fees, and other	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$17.0 billion (Form ADV filed March 30, 2026)	IAPD
Clients and accounts	51,941 clients holding 68,981 accounts (60,057 discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	1,464 (1,464 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Parent-owned	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Records carry disclosure items (common at this size). Review them directly	IAPD
HQ	Des Moines, IA	IAPD

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Principal Securities fees: what you'll pay

Principal Securities fees depend on the account type: commissions in a brokerage account, an asset-based fee in an advisory program. Hold a brokerage account, and your costs are typically commissions plus product costs such as mutual fund sales loads, markups and annuity commissions. An advisory program swaps per-trade commissions for an asset-based advisory fee, on top of the underlying fund expenses. Because Item 5.E also lists hourly and fixed fees, a financial-planning engagement here may be billed on an hourly or flat basis rather than as a percentage of assets like a managed portfolio. Ask how each service you use is charged, and compare the answer with the firm's own summary in its Form CRS. For a comparison point, see how fee-only advisors charge and why "am I paying too much?" might be the wrong question.

Who owns Principal Securities, and what conflicts does it disclose?

According to Schedule A of its Form ADV, Principal Securities is owned by Principal Financial Services, Inc. (Form ADV Schedule A)

Because the firm sits under Principal Financial Services, Inc., the useful question is narrower than "any conflicts?" For each fund, annuity or other product recommended to you, ask whether a Principal-affiliated company issues or manages it, and whether the advisor's pay differs if you pick it. Its Form ADV Part 2A describes the firm's conflicts of interest, including how it and its advisers are paid.

Principal Securities SEC record: disclosures

As the table above notes, Principal Securities' regulatory records may carry disclosure items. At a firm this size, the number of disclosures is not by itself a measure of wrongdoing or of the firm's quality. Disclosure counts can reflect headcount as well as conduct, so a raw tally says little until you read what each item involves. A firm reporting 1,464 employees may show more total items than a small one simply because more people are registered under it. Read any that matter to you at the source, on the IAPD page or on FINRA's BrokerCheck. Any Principal Securities disclosures sit on the public record, not on anyone's characterization of them.

On the record, according to IAPD, it has been registered with the SEC since October 10, 1997, makes notice filings in 51 jurisdictions, and reports 1,464 employees. Registration is easy to confirm for anyone asking whether the firm is legit: it has a public CRD and public filings anyone can pull. What registration leaves open is the cost and the conflicts on your own account, which sit in the fee and ownership sections above.

Reading Principal Securities reviews against the public record

Star ratings and client comments describe what working with a firm felt like. They rarely touch what it reports to regulators. With 51,941 clients split between brokerage and advisory relationships, two Principal Securities reviewers may be describing different products under different rules. Before you weigh Principal Securities reviews, set them against three points from this profile. First, the reviewer's account type: someone in a brokerage account dealt with Reg BI and commissions, while someone in an advisory program paid an asset-based fee under a fiduciary duty. Second, the parent: ownership by Principal Financial Services, Inc. and the conflicts in Part 2A. Third, any disciplinary history, which you can pull from BrokerCheck or the Form ADV. A review reports one client's experience; the filing sets out the firm's obligations to its whole client base.

How to verify Principal Securities yourself

Here's how to confirm all of it in three steps:

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/1137.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS): linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match Principal Securities (CRD #1137, legal name PRINCIPAL SECURITIES, INC.) so you're reading the right firm.

To check other firms the same way, see the Truthifi /advisors hub.

What Principal Securities does and who it serves

On its Form ADV, Principal Securities reports providing financial planning, portfolio management for individuals, small businesses and institutions, pension consulting, selection of other advisers, and educational seminars.

It reports providing financial planning to about 1,000 clients in its last fiscal year (Form ADV Item 5.H), a count the form keeps separate from the client totals below.

Its Form ADV (Item 5.D) breaks its clients down by type, 51,941 in all:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	49,012	$11.21 billion
High-net-worth individuals	2,638	$5.53 billion
Pension and profit-sharing plans	29	$20.3 million
Charities	41	$77.7 million
Corporations or other businesses	221	$189.2 million

According to Item 5.D of Principal Securities' Form ADV, individuals make up about 94% of clients and hold about 66% of the assets, while the 2,638 high-net-worth clients (about 5% of the count) hold $5.53 billion, close to a third.

It reports 68,981 client accounts, more than the 51,941 clients counted above (many clients hold more than one account), 60,057 discretionary (the firm can trade without seeking your approval first) and 8,924 non-discretionary, about 13% of the total (Item 5.F).

Our take: according to Item 5.F, about 87% of the firm's accounts (60,057 of 68,981) are discretionary, and Item 5.D works out to an average of roughly $229,000 per individual client ($11.21 billion across 49,012 individuals). Those two numbers matter more together than apart. On a balance of that size, an asset-based fee is charged year after year on money the firm can usually trade without asking first. We'd recommend asking a Principal Securities advisor, before you sign, to state in writing whether your account is discretionary and what it will cost you in dollars per year, not only as a percentage.

It reports that it or a related person has custody of certain client assets, which brings extra safeguards such as surprise examinations. The specifics are in its Form ADV.

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Confirming the firm is the easy part. Seeing everything you hold is the valuable one.

A CRD lookup confirms Principal Securities is registered. No advisor, however good, sees your whole financial life by default. The held-away retirement plan, a spouse's portfolio and the costs inside a fund show up scattered and unreconciled. This is where Truthifi comes in.

How Truthifi can help

Truthifi links your accounts read-only and shows what you own, how it's allocated, how it's performing and where the risk sits, including single-stock exposure, returns next to a benchmark, a fee breakdown of the fees on each account, by type, and your Truthifi Score. If your Principal Securities accounts mix discretionary and non-discretionary arrangements, seeing them next to the accounts the firm doesn't manage shows how much of your money it can trade on its own. You choose which accounts, if any, to share with your advisor.

The simplest first step is the free checkup below. Already use an AI assistant such as Claude? To let it read your linked accounts, you'll need a paid plan; the lighter Truthifi Connect covers that, and fee questions need Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+. Here's how to ask AI about your real investment accounts. See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

Ask AI about your Principal Securities accounts

Once your accounts are connected read-only, you can ask in plain English:

• "What do I own across my Principal Securities accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees across all of these accounts?"

Try it with Truthifi: start for free at app.truthifi.com and run a Monitoring Checkup (limits apply).

No commissions, no ads, no advice: Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice. Its access to your bank and brokerage accounts is read-only. Start free (limits apply). Monitoring Checkup is free. Link up to 10 connections, per Truthifi platform data on its plans. Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

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FAQ

Is Principal Securities a fiduciary? It depends on your account. In its advisory programs it acts as a fiduciary. In brokerage accounts it follows the SEC's Regulation Best Interest standard. Ask which type of account you have.

What are Principal Securities' fees? They depend on the account. Brokerage accounts generally pay commissions and product charges. Advisory programs charge an asset-based fee instead of per-trade commissions, plus underlying fund costs. See the Form CRS.

Who owns Principal Securities? Principal Securities is owned by Principal Financial Services, Inc., as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV.

Does Principal Securities have complaints or disclosures? Its regulatory records may carry disclosure items, as is common at its size. A disclosure is not proof of wrongdoing. Read any directly on BrokerCheck and the firm's Form ADV.

Is Principal Securities legit? Principal Securities is registered with the SEC (CRD #1137) and its filings are public on the SEC's IAPD site, which confirms it is a real, regulated firm. Registration doesn't tell you whether it's the right fit or what you'll pay, so read the fee and conflict sections of its Form ADV.

Can AI help me check whether I'm getting good value? Yes. Start free (limits apply): Monitoring Checkup is free and lets you link up to 10 connections. You can also connect an AI assistant you already use (such as Claude). On Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ you can ask it, in plain English, about the fees on each of your accounts. Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice.

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About this profile

Truthifi built this profile from the firm's own SEC filings (Form ADV and, where filed, Form CRS). Every page is reviewed by the Truthifi Team before publishing. The Truthifi advisor fact packs are an ongoing series checking U.S. investment advisers against their public filings, one firm at a time.

Read next from the Truthifi blog

• What is a fiduciary?
• Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one
• Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question
• How to ask AI about your real investment accounts
• Robo-advisor vs. human financial advisor: which is better?
• All advisor fact packs on Truthifi

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A note on sources. The facts on this page come from publicly available documents, Principal Securities' SEC and FINRA filings, each linked inline so you can verify it yourself (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026). This is general information, not financial or legal advice, and Truthifi is not affiliated with Principal Securities. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Each new Form ADV amendment can shift these counts, so the filing date beside a figure matters as much as the figure itself. If the Form CRS you were handed predates the March 30, 2026 Form ADV, ask your advisor whether anything about your fees or account type has changed since. Found something that needs fixing? Email us at support@truthifi.com.