The Principal Financial Group of Des Moines announced Tuesday that its five-year-old fund family, The Principal Investors Funds, posted several favorable results in Barron's Annual Fund Families Survey.

The Principal Investors Funds includes 55 funds, which are subadvised by 21 investment managers, including Principal Global Investors, T. Rowe Price Associates, Alliance Bernstein, Goldman Sachs, and others. After a rocky start, they have seen their asset weighted return follow a steady upward trend since 2002.

Now, for the second year in a row, Barron's rates the family one of its top 20 (18th place), based on one-year performance. Perhaps boosted by last year's listing, the fund also landed among the15 top-selling funds for 2005, according to BISYS's Financial Research Corporation.

Additionally, the family ranked 10th overall in balanced funds with its Principal LifeTime Funds, 13th overall among world stock funds, and 22nd overall among U.S. stock funds.

Barron's weekly financial magazine is published by Dow Jones, Inc. The 2005 survey on fund families was conducted by Lipper, and gauges the market performance of 73 companies offering diversified stock and bond funds. 

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