The Principal Financial Group (The Principal? is one of the largest employee benefits providers in the nation and a leading underwriter of group life, health, dental and disability coverage. Using the BenefitPoint platform, The Principal will deliver its key product information and unique value proposition directly to BenefitPoint's growing network of brokers, consultants and employers. BenefitPoint's technology platform enables The Principal to provide customized, comprehensive information to its broker and consultant partners across the country at Internet speed.

"The Principal is committed to being the partner of choice in our relationships with brokers and consultants. Our alliance with BenefitPoint will enable us to streamline business transactions with our partners and serve them more effectively," said Robb Hill, senior vice president of Employee Benefits Sales & Service for the Principal Financial Group. "We feel our relationship with BenefitPoint will improve our proposal process and enable The Principal to serve more customers through the broker and consulting partners using BenefitPoint's platform."

"The Principal Financial Group is known as a leader for the breadth of its product and service offerings to its large customer base across the country," said John T. Scatterday, vice president of sales for BenefitPoint. "We are pleased to partner with an industry leader such as The Principal, and look forward to helping them streamline their online distribution capabilities using the BenefitPoint technology."

About The Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group (www.principal.com) is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance and mortgage banking through its diverse family of financial services companies. More employers choose the Principal Financial Group for their 401(k) plans than any other bank, mutual fund, or insurance company in the United States¹. Its flagship and largest member, Principal Life Insurance Company (The Principal)², was founded in 1879. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $116.9 billion in assets under management³ and serves some 13 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

1 CFO Magazine, April/May 2001, based on total plans served in 2000 by insurance companies, banks and investment firms.
2 "The Principal" is a registered trademark referring to Principal Life Insurance Company, a member of the Principal Financial Group.
3 As of June 30, 2001.

About BenefitPoint, Inc.
BenefitPoint delivers the leading Internet-based employee benefits infrastructure for the distribution and management of group insurance and financial products. As the central nervous system of the employee benefits industry, BenefitPoint provides a complete set of B2B services enabling benefits professionals to manage the entire group health insurance and benefits lifecycle. We provide: client management, eProcurement, online benefits communications, enrollment and administration tools, employee benefit and worksite products and analytics and data mining.

Building on the existing industry relationships among carriers, brokers, employers, and employees, the BenefitPoint solution combines the efficiency of the Internet with the established distribution model of the insurance industry to eliminate paper, to make it possible to deliver more products and services, and to make better information available.

Since general availability in February 2000, BenefitPoint has received widespread industry adoption from regional and national insurance carriers as well as from more than 120 of the leading U.S.-based brokerage and consulting firms. The company, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, can be reached at 415.277.5600 or at www.benefitpoint.com. BenefitPoint, Inc. is privately held.