TIAAReviews of tiaa.org

TIAA and the mess of brokerage and bank (Everbank now) is the worst combination of any financial institution. The worst website you will ever find and this is an online only place unless you live in a city in Florida. The brokerage platform is a disaster and is about 20 years behind the times and is so far gone and so bad do not even think of using it. The bank that they promote like crazy is not really their bank so there is not a bank associated with them but they try to make it seem like there is one. Everything TAKES FOREVER TO GET DONE AND i MEAN EVERYTHING. Most of the time the customer service people are very nice but there is often not much they can do since the entire operation is a mess and is run by those who have no idea how to run a financial institution. It may well be that you have to use them since that is what your institution requires you to place your retirement money but use it at the lowest level possible. Trust me, this is a horrible institution and needs a complete set of new management that actually know something about how this type of organization should be run. Keep in mind that for many years (from the start) this was a non-profit with no competition and just about every company that had that type of start is a disaster when competition arrives. If it was possible I would give this a minus 10 since every aspect of it is a mess and will drive you crazy.

TIAA-CREF is the most incompetent company I have ever dealt with. You have to fill out numerous forms, make endless phone calls, receive contradictory information, and be prepared for mistakes when some transaction is supposed to be done automatically. Any transaction that is easy with a company like Vanguard is endless and difficult with TIAA-CREF. Why do most US universities put the teachers' money in such a company?

My father is retired and recently transitioned to an assisted living facility. He’s very functional but has some memory and confusion issues and is no longer comfortable exclusively managing his finances so my brothers and I are helping. I looked at his 401k through TIAA and felt that he was a bit too heavy on stock investments for his age so my father and I worked to change his investments based on the TIAA online recommendations. As it turns out, my father’s investments were being actively managed but he had forgotten that fact. After connecting with his wealth manager I learned that the investment decisions included a significant allocation to a guaranteed income fund and this was not in line with the goals my father had previously expressed. This was part of the terms and conditions that we checked yes to but who really reads those. Every single day Americans are confronted by these terms despite the fact that nobody reads them and few can even comprehend them. The wealth manager contacted TIAA to explain the situation and ask them to reverse the investment elections but was told no even after this was supposedly escalated to management. I think this is a shady practice. They took advantage of an elderly man and his children who were trying to help him. I’d advise anyone looking for financial services to look elsewhere. This company is devoid of any humanity.

step-father passed away in July 2023 and I filled out the death benefit paperwork and it's now Novemebr with no money disbursement and they have said for about 8 weeks their servers are down this compnay is holding money from deceased individuals that wanted their loved ones to have when they past. This company si disgusting and fraudulent

At the beginning of the year I called to request an additional amount be taken out over what my RMD was. It’s now the end of the year (2023) and it turns out much LESS was taken out because the extra $$ decreased the RMD $$.!! It took several calls to finally find a Rep that explained what happened. Same thing happened when trying to set up an Annuity. They have a Field Office here but no one is there including the Secretary! In person appointments are a month out.

First, TIAA allows retirement plan sponsors to try to dictate the timing of the RMD withdrawal, where the retirement plan withdrawal assets come from, and the amount of tax withheld, requiring one to cancel these forced withdrawals to properly withhold taxes, designate asset classes for the withdrawal, and move the withdrawal to the end of the year to allow maximal tax-free accumulation of assets in the plan before withdrawal. Second, TIAA demands social security numbers as financial identifiers, when other information could be used instead, putting customers at risk of identity theft when SSNs are stolen from TIAA identifier databases or intercepted in online or phone interactions with TIAA. Repeated complaints to TIAA about this have been ignored. Massive data breaches are not uncommon, such as the 2017 theft of 143 million+ Equifax social security numbers. Consumer Reports in a Nov. 28, 2007 online article, states that use of SSNs as an access code for goods and services, when not required by law, should be stopped. Some TIAA customer service agents refuse to proceed with phone interactions without at least the last four SSN numbers, meaning that TIAA stores this information in its databases used for identification, again putting the customer at risk of identity theft. As reported by Ars Technica,a 2009 Carnegie Mellon researcher algorithm reconstructs full SSNs from the last 4 digits when the date and place of birth are available. Use of SSNs for tax purposes, and other uses required by law, is of course legitimate. Third, when requesting withdrawals over the phone, TIAA representatives ignore verbal requests for the timing of the withdrawal at a later date, and do this on or close to the next business day instead. In a Nov. 7 2023 phone call I requested Dec. 8, 2023 RMD withdrawals, which was ignored for all but one retirement plan. When I discovered this on Nov. 20, 2023, I requested that the original Dec. 8 distribution request be honored in phone calls to TIAA on Nov. 20 (no action was apparently taken as a response to this call), Nov. 30, Dec. 4 (three calls as TIAA hung up or dropped the first two calls), and Dec. 5. In spite of statements to the contrary, there were no callbacks after the dropped calls. As of the writing of this review, supposed escalation tickets from these calls have resulted in no action fixing the problem, even after the promised 24-48 hour response, and the "Complex Resolution Manager" supposedly assigned to the case has not responded. Whether by design, incompetence, indifference, lack of resources, or some combination of these possibilities, TIAA customer support in this case has been disastrous. In a 2021 SEC enforcement action, TIAA-CREF was fined $97 million for advisors failing to disclose conflict of interests in retirement rollover recommendations (SEC.gov, July 13, 2021 press release). TIAA is also being sued in class action lawsuits for a May 2023 data breach, involving Progressive Software's MOVEit file-transfer system, exposing 2.4 million TIAA customers personal information including SSNs, with plaintiff's attorneys alleging "TIAA maintained its network in a reckless manner, failed to encrypt or redact sensitive information, and failed to meet industry data security standards or requirements of the Federal Trade Commission" ((Bloomberg Law, Aug. 8, 2023, "TIAA Sued Over MOVEit Data Breach of 2.4 Million Consumers"). Unless you want a cavalier approach to the security of your SSN, and/or an infuriating experience with your annual RMDs, avoid this company for your retirement needs.

Both of my parents had TIAA/Creff investments. When they passed, these companies was ridiculous to deal with. Many forms, then told filled out wrong, resubmit, and round you go. The other investments they had were easy and the firms were helpful instead of bureaucratic nightmare that is TIAA/CREFF. My guess is that they are good on the sales end and horrible of after sales customer service. They make you call the call center when they could leave a complete message or send a complete email. By the way, every other investment team I dealt with made sure to either complete the paperwork for you or walk you through it. They are inefficient and waste time. MAKE IT EASY, that should be your customer service goal.

It took 3 hours and 4 phone calls plus online time to request a standard IRA rollover out of TIAA. After I submitted the form online, I was informed that the form was incorrect - even though it had been completed by a TIAA rep during the 2nd phone call - because TIAA does not accept rollover information from outside parties. So I gave the same information again - for the third time during the 4th phone call. I am crossing my fingers that this transaction will be processed tomorrow. I WILL NEVER PUT FUNDS IN TIAA AGAIN.