TIAAReviews of tiaa.org

I’m honestly blown away by how unhelpful and uninformed TIAA’s customer service has been. Every time I called, I got a completely different answer about what I could or couldn’t do with my account. Reps kept assuring me everything was set up correctly—only for me to find out later it wasn’t. It’s like no one there actually understands their own company’s policies. I’ve wasted hours getting bounced between departments, trying to fix problems that never should’ve existed in the first place. For a company handling people’s retirement money, this level of disorganization and confusion is just unacceptable.

I wish I could rate them zero stars. The the automatic labyrinth you must navigate on the phone in an attempt to get hold of a broker, the extremely long hold times, the inability to easily control your financial transactions. Terrible all around. Very user unfriendly interface. Getting my money out asap.

I previously arranged with TIAA to take my required minimum distribution the last week in December. I gave very explicit instructions to withdraw the funds from two investments. A week later a TIAA email arrives saying the transition was cancelled at my request. Since I made not such request, I checked my online account which show the transaction was still pending. I contacted the TIAA call center and was told the transaction was cancelled, but could offer no explanation as to why. The rep said the error was corrected and it would go forward. The second week in December TIAA notifies me that my transaction was completed. I checked my account and discovered the money was taken from the wrong investments on the wrong date. TIAA promised to reverse the distributions. The corrections still are not 100% correct. Conclusions: I can’t count on emails from TIAA to be correct. I can’t count on the info in my online account to be correct. I can’t count on them to follow simple instructions and don’t count on them to fix their mistakes.

If I could I would give TIAA ZERO or NEGATIVE stars. Their website is a mess. It is impossible to find information. You go down the rabbit hole from one screen to another without being able to find answers to simple questions about the money they supposedly manage for you. Mismanage is more accurate! When you do reach someone on the phone after long holds, they are completely ignorant of their own processes and procedures. Avoid this company if you want to be able to maintain your retirement funds and have access to a full range of investments. If it is a 401K, after you retire, immediately roll it over to an IRA with a reputable company like Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard.

Started investing with TIAA-CREF in 1995. No choice as that was my university's contractor (I'm a professor). In the past few years they have done poorly, not even meeting average market returns. I moved most of my funds to Edward Jones, but TIAA stubbornly holds on to more than $100k of my funds. That amount, I learned, is invested in an annuity that I never authorized. Still TIAA refuses even to provide the percentage of the annuity I'm entitled to. It's criminal. When you call customer service, you talk to "bots" and ignorant associates. They make promises just to get off the phone, but no progress ever occurs. Stay away from TIAA.

The financial consultant for our college is a criminal who intentionally misleads professors into investing in poorly performing funds because it gets him a larger commission. Then again, I got them to sheepishly admit that he is really a salesperson and not a fiduciary, so he technically isn't breaking the law. But given that TIAA is embroiled in multiple large ERISA lawsuits over this exact behavior, I think my critique stands. For reference, when I chose my own assets and compare to what my returns would have been over the last several years, I would have been paying 3% higher in fees to get a 9% lower return and I am only in a moderate risk class. If you can avoid TIAA do it like the plague.

Terrible customer service, long hold times, confusing and conflicting answers given to what should seem to be simple questions. Have been trying to transfer an inherited account out of TIAA for over a year now and even though I follow their instructions exactly (as has my chosen financial firm) they still "reject" the transfer/close request for various unspecified reasons and the supposedly are researching why it won't complete. Am now on my 16th phone call to them on hold still for 30 minutes when their estimated hold time was "less than 10 minutes". Ridiculous lack of customer focus.

I've been with TIAA-CREF for over 20 years, and they have changed for the worst. When I'm having a discussion about the intimate details of our finances, I may be old fashioned, but I want to talk to a person face to face. Not a phone call, not on Zoom, not someone different every time I call. They also manage my brokerage account and the returns have been lackluster when compared to their competition. I am currently looking into alternatives.