TIAAReviews of tiaa.org

If your employer gives you a choice of investing with TIAA or something else, choose SOMETHING ELSE. The pattern of mistakes—75% of the transactions I have attempted—can only be read as intentional fraud. I've had my money with them for 35 years. They have found a way to FAIL TO DELIVER my own money to them almost every time. A wire transfer that didn't go through; a cheque that never arrived; a cheque with the wrong address; a transaction cancelled by mistake; agents who for mysterious reasons can't see my account "right now." They are now as shady as a health insurance company. Tomorrow I shall look into closing my account.

TIAA lost 13 thousand dollars of my money and can't explain where it went!!!! Criminal!

This is an abusive organisation, one designed to hold onto your savings. In 1989, when I was 28, I signed an agreement with TIAA for them to invest my pension funds. Little did I understand the fine print that the investment was not "liquid" and that it would take time to pay it out. I received no statements to my mail or email over the next 35 years. When, at age 74, I wrote to take out my savings, they advised they would provide about 30% now, and would pay out the rest over nine annual installments. I was given no warning about this, no updates, nothing. The person I spoke too was very sympathetic; obviously, he had heard others going through the same misery. When I wrote to complain, the answer back was predictably lawyerly: you signed a contract in 1989, so it's tough on you. Of course one doesn't follow these things; that is what TIAA banks on. And now, I will not have all my funds until I am in my mid 80s, if I make it that long. Merciless, greedy, disgusting. This is one place to avoid like the plague.

As others have said, TIAA makes it impossible to get my own money from them and invest it with a reputable company. Isn't that called theft? Fraud? I have spent endless hours on the phone, completed reams of paperwork only to be jerked around and given different information every time I talk to someone. They have cancelled my transactions repeatedly with no explanation or remedy. I am livid and have now filed a complaint with the SEC. Even their website is impossible to navigate or use. This company should be shut down.

I had several thousand dollars transferred from a retirement company to TIAA in July 2024. When calling to check on the rollover money, 10 days after the check was mailed, I was told two times that the check had not arrived yet. When I contacted the other retirement company they told me the check had been cashed and cleared indicating that TIAA deposited my money. The money was not in my account and I had to notify TIAA that they had deposited my money and it was missing. It is has now been over three weeks since I started this process and I have called them every day since the discovery of the missing money and all I am being told is that they don't know where the money is and don't know when it will be deposited into my account. They have been extremely unhelpful and the manager I spoke to even tried to blame the other retirement company for TIAA's error. I am in the process of moving all of my money out of TIAA because I do not trust them and for the horrendous way they have handled this problem. Update: My money was located and deposited into my account 8 days after I notified TIAA that my money was missing. When I moved the money to another institution they did not put the correct name on the check so it could not be deposited. I had to notify TIAA of the error and they had to stop payment and issue a new check. This process can take up to 15 business days. This could end up being a two month process and hours of phone calls for a simple rollover. I have moved all my money from TIAA and will no longer be a customer of theirs.

My sister had made me beneficiary of her account. I have verification of this in her own handwriting. Also, when I went to file her taxes, I needed to go online to print her tax documents. I am the trustee of her trust and she had left me her username and password. While I was online, I clicked on beneficiaries and my name was there. This money was going to be left to me for becoming the legal guardian of her 40 year old autistic son. Now they are adamant that I am not the beneficiary. They have been in contact with her daughter who disowned her back in 2010. The form has to be signed by the administrator of the trust or executor of the estate, who is me. I will not be signing. I am working with an attorney to get this straightened out

I am an attorney. I speak with some knowledge and perspective for having dealt with financial institutions for decades. The trustpilot rating of 1.5 for TIAA is too high. It should be closer to zero. In trying to obtain my mother's TIAA benefits after her death, I found various TIAA personnel to be insulting and/or rude. I found other representatives to be incompetent. TIAA screwed up the beneficiary in my mother's trust, concluding (without any basis whatsoever) that there were two trust beneficiaries, not one. TIAA found a way to withhold her account for months when they could have released it in several weeks. Moreover, TIAA repeatedly sent reams of paper and brochures over and over again, as if they didn't know or care about they waste and confusion they caused by what had been sent already. If that isn't enough, I received this morning (7/24/2024) a notice that TIAA will no longer communicate by USPS mail, only via its website. Good luck with that, if you're a senior without good computer skills. Most banks and financial institutions give you a choice of mail vs. online. Not TIAA. One other note: if you have a CREF (bonds) account, TIAA will not release it all to you or roll over to your IRA your own money at your request in a one-time distribution. Instead, TIAA will insist on spreading your distribution out over nine years. This is an outrage. BOTTOM LINE: TIAA does not work for the benefit of teachers and other university staff. It works for its own benefit. If you have any choice in the matter, do not choose TIAA. If you have TIAA, get out of it.

The support person helping me with my paperwork when my sister passed away was very rude so I decided to listen to my sisters financial advisor. I filled out the paperwork incorrectly and tried to correct it but TIAA sent me a check. I did not cash it and asked if we can process the paperwork correctly. They said NO now I have to pay a HUGE tax on money that my sister left for me to take care of myself in my old age. When someone is grieving you think they would be flexible. NOT A GOOD COMPANY. I WOULD NOT USE TIAA.