When Dan Houston was nearing graduation from Iowa State University in 1984, he had three corporate job offers to choose from — one in the forestry business, another in the tire industry and a third from a Des Moines-based insurance company: The Bankers Life Co. 

Bankers Life, which a year later would change its name to Principal Financial Group, was looking for talented, enthusiastic young graduates to sell an exciting new retirement savings product called the 401(k), Houston recalled.  

“Seems like you’ve got three options,” Houston’s future manager told him during his interview. “The tire business, the forestry business or you can be in a business that changes people’s lives forever.” 

That statement made a lasting impact on Houston, and for more than three decades and through more than a dozen different leadership roles at Principal, he has strived to do precisely that.

“When you think about management style, I’ve always adhered to a view that servant leadership is the way to go,” said Houston, who succeeded Larry Zimpleman as president and CEO in August. “You become a great servant leader when you have great role models. I’ve been so fortunate to witness firsthand what servant leadership looks like and how to execute that.” 

An Iowa native, Houston grew up in Houston, Texas, where he undoubtedly had to tell people often his last name is pronounced “house-ton” and not like the city. He first worked for Principal as a retirement sales representative in Dallas. He was promoted to regional vice president in 1993, to vice president in 1997 and to senior vice president in 2000. Houston became an executive vice president in 2006, president of retirement and investor services in 2008 and chief operating officer in 2014.

What are your top priorities coming in to the CEO role? 
A part of it is just continuing the legacy of Larry Zimpleman and Barry Griswell. One of our best skill sets is to manage assets. Continuing our success in being a global asset manager would be at the top of that (priorities) list. Also, we’re a leading benefits provider to small and medium-sized employer groups, and we need to continue to support that business group. Third, a priority is helping middle America reach retirement security, and to do that requires a lot of support. Principal has been quite successful in helping people accumulate those assets. We need to be just as focused on converting that into lifetime income, so that income can be replicated for the rest of their lives. 
 
Do you see Principal becoming more focused on annuity products?
Annuities are just one of many strategies, but also there are a lot of drawdown strategies. 

To me, retirement isn’t a one-size-fits-all proposition; it’s not just the purchase of a set of investment options. As I like to say, “Once you’ve seen one retiree … you’ve seen one retiree.” We all have different perspectives and requirements. What I’m hopeful of is that Principal can continue to assess what the needs are for each individual, and not just what products we have in our portfolio. 

How do you help customers who are behind on meeting their retirement needs? 
I think it’s (an approach of) automate and encourage. We need to nudge people to make better decisions by giving them default options that encourage saving.  … I’ve yet to see someone with a serious problem with saving; it’s a problem with spending. If you look at the spending that’s done during the holidays, if we could reduce that spending by just 9 percent (and save it instead), we could eliminate the retirement gap. Most people don’t even do an annual calculation of how much they need to save for retirement.

What are the most important changes you see ahead in the industry? 
First of all, technology is going to continue to be important. It’s such a great enabler for individuals to be better consumers. It’s going to be one of the tools that will help us do a better job saving for retirement. Secondly, government is going to continue to have a problem funding retirement, so individuals will have to make sure they’re doing everything they can to save for retirement. Third, health care and the ability to have better quality of care in our retirement. We will probably live longer in retirement than our working lives. 
 
What are your charitable interests? 
My soft spot in my heart is around health and human services — trying to make sure everyone has a fighting chance in getting a leg up. That’s why I support United Way of Central Iowa. Secondly, I like to support children’s charities, and The Principal Charity Classic is specifically designed around children’s charities. With that event, we can get the community involved and employees involved through an annual event. There’s nothing that melts the heart as much as seeing one of these physically challenged children getting a bike that’s configured so they can ride for the first time. 

What do you hope people say about you when you retire? 
I think it would be very simple: “He left The Principal in a better place than when he started.” When you think about the impact you can have on individuals, employees, the companies that are part of Principal, what we do makes a really big difference in people’s lives: loss of life, disability, people who were on the wrong track with savings. It gets me very excited to wake up every day. 
 
How do you unwind? 
Simple. My family. They make me better — a better husband, father and grandfather. They keep me centered. They make me happy. Time with them recharges and re-energizes me. I make as much time as possible for them.