Apparently I was not the only person having problems with TIAA-Cref.
When I contacted the company to report my missing contribution, the customer service representative was very helpful and assured me the account would be adjusted. I had complete confidence, and when I checked my account yesterday, the deposit had been made and backdated. My minor situation was resolved to my satisfaction.
Do you have any thoughts about TIAA-Cref? Read the over 400 comments below and leave your own if you have an experience with TIAA-Cref to share.
Updated March 7, 2011 and originally published January 11, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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I’ve read everything in this discussion posted between March 23, 2011 and today, July 27, 2011. To me it looks like the majority of the people posting here are in one of two camps: 1. working people who are currently contributing funds to TIAA-Cref (TC) and are very positive about TC; and 2. the people who are trying to get funds out of TC now that they are retired and are not positive about TC. I used to be in the first camp (and very positive about TC), but now that I’ve retired I’m moved solidly into the second camp (and am extremely frustrated).
I’m just a regular but fairly well educated non-tenure, non-teaching university professor (librarian) who has worked at universities for 37 years. For the past 25 years I’ve been paying into TC and touting their strong commitment to helping the educators of the US. TIAA-Cref made some very big changes during those years including their level of commitment to supporting educators, and for at least a decade their “.org” status is a misnomer. Even so, I continued paying into the TC retirement system. I also, unfortunately, have lived in one of those states where there have been no raises for state university employeesfor the past five years. This means every penny is important to me now that I’ve retired. I retired at the end of spring semester (end of April) and have yet to see one cent from TIAA-Cref. I made my guesses on the options offered to me for payouts — in my opinion they offer very little in writing about the various options and offer little to no guidance one would expect in the form of a personal financial advisor. I filled out (and am *still* filling out) all of the paper work and have returned it in a reasonable time frame, especially considering most of it has to go through HR people on campus for certification and being notarized. It seems that every time I return properly filled out forms, a few weeks later they come across yet another that has to be filled out before they can begin disbursing any funds. From the dates I been given recently, it will be at least mid-August before I have a chance of seeing anything — early June was their first estimate — and the value of my savings will not be set until after *all* the paperwork is in. (This is a concern because as the stock market continues to decline because of the debt limit political crisis the value of my retirement account — and thus my monthly payment — continues to decrease in value.) If they find more forms to be filled out, certified and notarized it will be September, at the earliest, before I see any funds. I’ve followed the rules, gotten things returned correctly filled out and in a timely manner, and now it’s beginning to look like I won’t receive anything for at least the first four months of retirement — not quite the rosy picture that had been painted before retirement.
If anyone is considering electing to use TIAA-Cref as their retirement vehicle, let me suggest they do at two things before making their decision: 1. talk to at least three *retired* TIAA-Cref members to see what their experiences have been, and 2. if they decided to go with TC, start setting aside a *cash* retirement fund, one that is held in a bank or credit union or under the mattress (remember that for each $100.00 you give the bank for a year, they’ll give you a whopping buck and a quarter return at the end of the year), to tide you through the period of early retirement while TC keeps finding additional forms that have to be filled out before you can receive any funds.
As I read this, I cannot believe how similar it sounds to my experience; in fact, I eventually contacted the TIAA-CREF Board of Trustees in order to get a withdrawal request honored. In addition, I was never told by the various representatives that I could wait a few months and draw(in one lump sum at the age of 65) the total amount. Instead, I was only told that I had to annutizeover 9 years. I am more fortunate than the situatiion cited above because it took one week shy of two months to get the first amount of a nine year payout. Why not contact the CEO or the Board about this problem?
You have to outsmart these financial wizards. If you have an annuitized over 9 year account. Take the money when you get your check each year and re-deposit it into a new IRA Traditional Account where you are guaranteed 3%. By doing that you get a higher interest rate than anything that’s out there and then you get a decuction when you file your income for that year or the previous year which you can do up and until the April 15 filing dates. So you get higher interest and a nice return on the IRA deduction. There are many ways to skin a cat and outbeat the so called experts at TIAA
Dan, please don’t give financial or tax advice you are clearly not qualified to give. Distributions from qualified retirement accounts (i.e. the nine year annuitization you reference) cannot be re-contributed to an IRA and deducted (at least not legally).
I also have moved into the camp of the horror of trying to get my money out of TIAA-CREF. I called to get information on a withdrawal. The woman answering said the form could NOT be sent electronically but had to be via surface mail. After a few days, after the date she assured me by which I would receive the form, I got no form. I called again. The man answering said he could send it to me electronically, which he did, and would walk me through how to fill it out, which he did, while I took notes. I printed out the form, filled it in, put a stamp on it for the oversize, mailed it. After a few days, I checked the status. The man answering said there were errors on it and I needed to fill out a new form. By this time I, ordinarily a calm, polite, controlled person, lost it. Plus he could not send me the form right then as he would fill out most of it electronically but I should get it via email the next day. Right now it’s almost two weeks since I made the first request. Each person I speak to gives me a different answer. I need the money now. This company appears to be in almost total disarray. Get all of your money out ASAP. That’s what I intend to do as soon as I straighten out this instant mess, assuming it will be.
How does one contact the Board and CEO. They seem to hide themselves really well.
Cecile,
You can file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau online in about ten minutes (google “better business bureau” and “complaint”). The electronic funds transfer for my withdrawal (after more than a month of failed tries) was initiated the same day they received my complaint from the BBB, which was just a couple of days after I filled out the online complaint form. You should make sure you keep record of the dates you interacted with various representatives, mailed things, etc.
Good luck!
Dan
Here we go again.
When dealing with a self regulatory financial organization like tiaa-cref the bbb is probably your least effective means of complaining I can think of.
Firstly, I would recommend submitting your complaint to tiaa in writing via email from your secure online account, and mailing a copy of the same correspondence by USPS to them. This will set in motion a fairly solid set of reaction from tiaa to record and reply to your written complaint as specified by regulatory agencies. They will then refer your complaint to a team of of consultants who specifically deal with written complaints to see them through to resolution for you.
If you do not receive resolution through this method, or are just plain upset still, you can contact your state’s insurance department (since tiaa is an insurance company they register and abide by each state’s insurance board) and/or the SEC/NAIC. The institution you worked for and contributed to tiaa through can also leverage weight on your behalf.
Your description of what you have been going through sounds appalling! But I would like to speak in favor of TIAA-CREF from my perspective. I retired in June, 2010. I had contacted TIAA-CREF a few months previously, spoke with a rep and was sent information for several options. About a month before retirement, I spoke with another rep who was very helpful (he did have slightly different info than the first – and his info was correct,) and talked me through all the steps. I said I didn’t need my retirement money to begin until the end of August. I received the forms with the correct date in the mail, took the necessary ones to my personnel office (I got them to sign them and mailed them back myself with my own forms.) Presto, my payments were sent directly to my bank account on exactly the date fixed. I don’t know whether the company deteriorated significantly in the year since I retired, or if I was particularly lucky with who I spoke to. But you should have been able to transfer all your funds over to TIAA guaranteed within 24 hours, so that the value didn’t go down – I did that before doing anything else.Of course, if you want to keep some of your funds in variable funds, they will vary. I am ultra conservative in investments, so I just switched everything over. In fact, if not done already, you can go online and do that transfer on your own – just shift everything from CREF to TIAA. If you aren’t sure how, get online to the right page, then call a TIAA rep and they can talk you through it (no signatures, forms, or notaries required!)
Dear Marcia
Of course they are nice to you if you want to keep their high fees and low returns. Perhaps P.T.Barnum said it best. But try to pry your funds out of their stcky hands and you will get the full horror show.
I have friends with Vanguard, Ing, and Charles Schwab (we all retired the same year, 2010) So far as I can see, I am getting he most for what I had invested, and among the lowest fees. Of course, you may have invested in some higher risk arrangement than a straight annuity and be receiving more at present – but I opted for a lifetime annuity, because I plan to be around for awhile – and I don’t have any faith that the Dow will keep going up.
With a TIAA annuity you simply prefer inflation risk to investment risk or longevity risk. I’m not saying that your preference is wrong, but it is incorrect to suggest that it is risk free. Long life to you but the longer you are around the greater the inflation risk. And there should be no fees whatever on an annuity. The lifetime fees for an annuity are part of the purchase price. It’s the only way you can compare the prices.
Vince, you are quite right on both counts – I don’t have ongoing fees – I was referring to the initial costs involved. And, I realize that nothing is risk free (including I might be hit by a bus tomorrow and my heirs will have to deal with the mess:-) )and that inflation, while not a problem at present rates, could someday loom large. But since I don’t have to finance children through college or an expensive lifestyle (as well as saving the max through TIAA-CREF) I was able to leave 20% of my money invested to continue growingso that if the market performs well, I do well there – with enough in that fund to shift to an annuity as years go by to cover the inflation costs unless the market botttoms out again. By all means, for anyone who wants to continue another kind of investment plan in the hopes of better returns, that’s great for them, and I hope they do well – and it’s why Social Security is around, to keep us from the poorhouse if all our other plans (including mine) fail.
I submitted my request to Tiaa Cref to return all my funds to me….they returned it in 24 hours. They are an excellent firm. I believe the people here on this blog are either being funded by other firms or want to just plainly LIE.
Annie, I’m happy for you if what you say is true and that you are not an employee or board member. Sorry, a return in 24 hours cannot be true even if you did everything online and had electronic deposit into a checking or savings acct. I most definitely am not funded by another firm nor am I lying and I have the proof, including a letter of apology from one of TIAA-CREF’s customer satisfaction people. I’m about to withdraw some more to roll over into a CD or IRA for easier access, especially the way things are going in this country. We’ll see how that goes.
Annie,
We are all high education people being ripped off by this company. You must have had all your funds in a money market to get them that fast. TIAA/CREF has been making mistakes on my account for over 10years. That company is a nightmare. I have tired to get my STUPID University to allow options but they are too self-imbued to give a rats ass about older faculty. Are you being paid to defend TIAA/CREF? You need to educate yourself on the downfall of this company and how it is stealing from academics.
Whether your complaints are accurate, or not, I can plainly see by your grammar that you are not truly one of the “highly educated” from which TIAA-CREF is “stealing”. I gather from the spelling errors, improper use of the Eglish language, etc. you most likely have no idea how to read a prospectus, manage your accounts, or understand anything about investing.
Side note…TIAA-CREF is definitely not the easiest company to work with, but their investment strategies are pretty sound and it’s going to be hard to find a financially stronger investment and insurance firm.
I am truly saddened by all of this juvenile “carping.” TIAA-CREF is an incredible gift for all of us in higher education. I have experience with them, while I was working and now that I am retired. I have both retirement and brokerage accounts. I take advantage of their FREE “Wealth Management” services, annual reports on my investments and recommendations for future investing. Free services, advice from staff who are salaried, who do not work on commission. TIAA-CREF has your back. Trust them. Stay engaged with your institution’s advisors. It will not fail you.
Considering that their standard turnaround time to distribute funds is two working days from the time your request is received in good order and an electronic funds transfer usually takes at the very least another day to process, this seems highly unlikely….
That’s not possible. You cannot get your TIAA CREF funds within 24 hours.
You have to call and request the paperwork. They have to send the paperwork. You have to fill out the paperwork. You have to send back the paperwork. They have to process the paperwork. They have to mail you the check.
There is no way this can be done in 24 hours.
I worked at an institution that contributed to a cref account on my behalf for two years. I have moved elsewhere, and I have another retirement account (roth IRa). I am currently trying to withdraw (after an initial failure and the complexity of rolling over to a roth IRA). I sent in forms that were declined by TIAA-Cref because the signatures were over 90 days old (I had to get a notarized signature from my wife who was out of state at the time, a signature from a past employer in another state, neither more wife or I had easy access to fax, so we used the mail, and my wife and I have other jobs to do!). I received a call and was told I could sort it over the phone when I could get to the internet. When I was able to get to my computer and call, this was not the case. Rather, I was told I had to complete hard copies of the same forms over again along with a tax form, but I wouldn’t have to redo signatures other than my own. Apparently I didn’t need my wife’s signature, because the amount was small enough, but the form should say that, because getting a notarized signature can be a pain for people that work in the middle of nowhere for large chunks of the year! I was told by the rep that he would send me a pre-filled form electronically that I would simply have to print, sign and mail. When that didn’t happen, I called again, and I was told that I did have to get a signature from my former employer (the previous rep had told me I didn’t have to). I just want my money.
Update: To my horror, after my case was referred to a specific representative last Wednesday, after business on Friday, my withrawal status once again reas as “Your request could not be processed”. However, and I wonder if this is more than coincidence, Tiaa-Cref received my complaint from the Better Business Bureau this morning, and now my withrawal status reads “Your request has been submitted for payment”. Hopefully I’ll see a credit to my bank account by this time tomorrow.
My father worked in academic medicine and, as a result, had 403B retirement accounts with TIAA-CREF for over 50 years. He passed away in December 2008. We immediately established an IRA at TIAA-CREF for my mother, the named beneficiary, to receive the 403B account funds, which were (according to TIAA-CREF’s online account access system) successfully moved to her IRA in 2009.
In December 2010, as we attempted to arrange a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from my mother’s IRA, TIAA-CREF informed us that the distributions in 2009 were not completed properly and everything needed to be reversed to enable TIAA-CREF to start the process from the beginning. Of course, with the online system completely at odds with this news, I involved my mother’s accountants. With only a few days left in the tax year, TIAA-CREF moved all funds back to my father’s name (he had then been deceased for 2 years), paid an RMD from his accounts (twice as much as would have been paid from my mother’s IRA), and then distributed the funds to my mother’s IRA. TIAA-CREF acknowledged its errors and promised to reimburse my mother’s additonal costs.
Now, 8 months later, TIAA-CREF is refusing to reimburse my mother’s out-of-pocket costs, which are about $25,000 ($18,000 in additional 2010 income taxes plus legal and accounting fees). I have filed complaints with the SEC, the state Office of Financial Regulation, two state senators, and my father’s two prior employers, and I have an attorney poised to sue.
It is remarkable to me that a large institution like TIAA-CREF is actually attempting to get away with this type of abuse. I suppose that the company believes the legal fees for my mother to litigate would be too high for $25,000 in controversy. We’ll see. I am one who believes in doing the right thing, even if it costs to see justice prevail.
Suffice it to say that, anyone doing business with TIAA-CREF does so at his or her own financial peril. The company is unscrupulous in its business relationships with retirees and their beneficiaries. A totally despicable organization in my experience.
You may want to check with filing a complaint with the Department of Labor as well has they also have jurisdiction over ERISA plans. I am having problems with my wife’s TIAACREF plan as well.
After 3 months I was finally able to get the 403b funds rolled over. I also contacted the Department of Labor which was of asstance in getting the situation resolved.
My TIAA-CREFF funds have been miss-assigned / miss-delegated to the wrong colleges.. so that a college I worked decades at has a small amount of my funds, while one I worked at for one tear for a “pittance” has tens of thousands of dollars in it.
The responses I have received have typically said my investments must have done well in the 21 years
since a few hundred dollars, if that, were deposited in that one academic year at that college. No surmise is given as to why the college I worked at for 20 years has assigned to it a tiny fraction of the amount assigned/designated to the one-year gig.
No one returns my calls. I’m told its being looked into. No email has been sent, let alone with a code number saying anything at all-silence.
My last call said its being turned over to a dispute resolution person– as if there was anything to dispute in the face of the bare readable facts.
I’m turning this over to an attorney.
Doesn’t your (second) college have a record of the funds they invested for you? Every paycheck I got (I have kept all 24 years worth) included funds paid into TIAA CREF, and the school’s annual statement gave me a summary – so I could check it with TIAA. I also periodically checked TIAA online to realign investments, and each time made sure the amounts matched. But whatever, you really ought to have your school’s records on your side. They were seriously remiss if they didn’t keep records, and you should be able to get redress from THEM! I know sometimes it gets confusing. For some reason, my school changed over their system, so that the first few years had a different account number than afterwards. But it was the school not TIAA, that made the change, and after retirement, the funds were all there, though in two accounts – which still show up as separate on TIAA’s statements.
This is a standard coached finger pointing response I have heard many times from tiaa employees to direct participants to their employers. Both tiaa and your former employer should be able to provide a contribution by contribution history to you. If the records do not match up, you can ask your employer to contact their support team at tiaa directly on your behalf to resolve.
Tom,
Unless you worked for multiple employers that were part of the same “system,” your funds may have been mis-allocated during the transition from an old system to a new one several years ago that caused a number of issues for tiaa. If you worked for multiple employers within a system, many employers have been unable to provide historical info to positively identify which employer within their system funds came from.
I would recommend speaking with tiaa to review the employer’s rules for each of your plans in order to ensure the error is not reducing the options available to you. If they are not, the impact to you is likely negligible, but if they are you may wish to put your concerns in writing to tiaa in order to solicit a written complaint procedure response.
I have been trying to rollover an account to another institution and all I get from TIAA-CREF is a run around. Everytime that I sent the paperwork they request something different, and when you provide it, they ask for something else. They obviously do not want to part with any money even if it is not theirs. Their reps apparently try to help but in general they are useless and do not seem to know what they are doing. Very frustrating. I will research the agencies that regulate them and file a complaint.
Well my story starts with my trying to withdraw all of my funds from both of my accounts with TIAA-CREF. The First attempt was made in July 2011 and was denied, why? Online sight just says “Your request could not be completed. You may verify your eligibility and request a new payment or call us.” So I call and I’m told funds couldn’t be paid because I was under the age of 55 and the plan I was under required I be 55 before requesting a withdraw. I asked why wasn’t I informed of this when I called and requested the paperwork to make a the withdraw, and was told “yeah the person should have told you that”. OK I turned 55 in September 2011. I request the paper work and receive a paket with a ton of paper work. I fill out the paperwork the best i could. On one of the forms that I needed my wife to sign the place she needed to sign and the part for the notary were on different pages so I went online to there site and printed up a form. My Wife lives out of state so had to do the fax thing mentioned above. Faxed all the paperwork in on September 20,2011 and called later that day to make sure that the fax was recieved and was told that they did recieve all the paperwork but the fact that I used to different forms (some from there web sight and some from what they mailed to me) and the fact that the form that stated how much did I want the State to take out in taxes was wrong. Misunderstanding what it asked I put 100% thinking that it asked how much of the money was taxable. OK so the person tells me this paper work is no good and you will have to resubmitt your paperwork. So September 22,2011 I resend the paper work. I call to confurm they recieved the fax. The rep i spoke with says yes we received all the paperwork and all looks good. So I ask well when can I exspect to se the funds in my account and he says well it takes about two days to processe the paper work and then six days to deposit into my bank via electronic transfer and seven days to mail you a check. So I ask why it took so long to wire the money to my account and he says well let me have a look at your account. He pulls it up my account after my anwsering Four security questions(my social, date of birth, address, and phone number) wow what great security. Then he informs me that I have NO moneys in my account. I of course say you must be mistaken and he puts me on hold for about thirty min. and comes back and says your entire retirement fund was donated to the IRS! I say you are kidding me and he says no. He go’s on to say well it’s not ower fault that you put to deduct 100% of your money to taxes. I went on to tell him of the conversation I had with the person whom informed me of the error I made on the tax form and that my paperwork was NO good. He put me on hold again and came back and said we will try to get your money back so call back in two days and we will let you know something. I’ve never had anything like this happen to me. What should I do? Wait the two days hire a lawer or what? Please Help Me. These people are the pitts when it comes to customer service. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone us this place.
I have had problems with TIAA/CREF for over 10yrs. This is one CRAP load of a company. It is really too bad that the academic machine MAKES YOU INVEST WITH THESE NUTBALLS. Now the latest just shows what idiots work at this place. I have my SRA rolled over each month to Vanguard. This has been going on for five years. Each summer I have no salary and so each fall this process is started again. The last two years have been insane. Today I received a check-minus takes for the monthly funds that are to go to Vanguard. When will someone hut this farce down and give us our funds ?
Glad to know you feel this to be minor.
Others report stonewalling over years on mis-allocations; mistakes running years: no mistake about their legendary incompetencies.
How about endless c calls that go nowhere and deliberately calling their mistakes “dispute/resolutions”..: misdirecting your accumulations into the wrong universities one taught at.
Worse, these mis-attributed sub-totals, dramatically changing– wrongly–changing each year, for consecutive years!! The scariest place to place your retirement funds, is TIAA-CREF
And, the person trying to transfer funds to Vanguard? One can only wonder how many others in that so-called program have been living in torment. He isn’t the first case reported on complaint platforms.
Many of us could write a 500 page book?
File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I got stonewalled until the day they received my complaint from BBB…then I got my money.
Jim
For more than thirty years I paid confidently into a TIAA-CREF retirement plan with no glimmer of expectation of the trouble I’d have with the company’s payout policies and methods at retirement time. About two months before my 90th birthday TIAA-CREF advised me that on that date I would be required to choose one of several options regarding the amount and frequency of my retirement payments. These options were listed and described briefly in a letter covering a hefty bundle of application forms and instructions.
I regretted the change of status required by these payout options for two reason: first, I have no immediate need for them, having, luckily, income from other sources; and second (and more important), I felt that the annuitization of my accounts, required by all the proffered options, increased the possibility that TIAA-CREF could very soon after converting to annuities become the principal beneficiary of my life savings. I am 90, my beneficiary is 86. The odds would strongly favor the probability that most of this money would soon be free to be rolled into its own accounts.
I mentioned these concerns to my local financial advisor and was happy to be reminded that it was entirely unnecessary to accept any one of TIAA-CREF’s disadvantageous payout options. I could simply roll over my accounts to another financial institution, one with a rule that would extend my income date, say, to age 95, providing an additional five years of tax-sheltered savings. I requested TIAA-CREF to roll over to accounts I opened at another finanacial institution.
This is where my troubles began. In nearly two months of confusion and uncertainty (and considerable anxiety) TIAA-CREF seemed to reveal that it had somehow lost its ability to manage rollover procedures. At times I wondered if the problems that arose were not deliberately designed to delay or confuse the rollover effort. I was told, for example, that only TIAA-CREF’s own form was acceptable for some rollover transactions, that the form could not be downloaded from TIAA-CREF’s online site, that it could be sent only to me personally by U.S. mail. I requested it and waited for more than three weeks for it to arrive. When I questioned the company about it, I was told that TIAA-CREF had no record of my request for the form. When I last acquired and submitted it, after a review for correctness of execution by financial experts, I discovered in my next call to TIAA-CREF that it had inexplicably rolled over only part of the full amount in the account, leaving about $17,000 in the account undisturbed. Additional papers had to be submitted to reverse this error.
I ordered rollovers for two other accounts, and once again TIAA-CREF surprised me. I received two personal checks, identified as two monthly annuity payments. When I called TIAA-CREF its spokesperson explained that although I had been sent two checks, I should have received only one, that the second had been erroneously issued a month early. The agent confirmed that TIAA-CREF had annuitized my accounts and that the checks were monthly annuity payments. The company had processed them as though I had after all selected one of its options, despite my meticulously prepared form requesting rollovers. After discussions with my local advisor, who by this time was kindly intervening in my behalf, TIAA-CREF agreed to reverse the annuitizing process and eventually rolled them over to my accounts with the new financial institution.
I’m glad I’m able to say that the ordeal resulted in no loss of funds and that they are now deployed correctly at my new finanacial institution. They are tax-sheltered for another five years. I frankly can’t imagine an explanation for the mix-ups that occurred with what I presume should have been routine financial transactions. The supposition that the troubles were deliberately generated in attempts to discourage my choice of an option TIAA-CREF had not sanctioned (or even mentioned) makes no sense. Nothing TIAA-CREF did or did not do could possibly have influenced my decision to move my accounts to an institution offering a better haven for my retirement funds. More likely, my troubles grew out of a serious disordes in procedures, inadequate policies, and poor communications in the business offices of TIAA-CREF. Until the company takes positive steps to remedy its ills, whatever they may be, the prospective investor should bear in mind the unhappy, even frightening, experiences of hundreds of its clients and former clients.
I’m not surprised that clients who have their retirement funds with TIAA-CREF. This was once a superb organization with a client focused dedication, until they hired Herb Allison, a former Merrill Lynch executive in 2002 ( he left in 2008). The people that I and my university use to interact with to resolve problems are no longer working there. Problems take months to get resolved and mistakes have quadrupled to the point where employees are investing elswhere.
As a former employee I am looking to take money out of the system and haven’t gotten a response to my questions. I was there before Herb Allison. The participants were clearly the number one priority at that time.
It seems they have lowered themselves to the standards of other financial organizations.
I am also a former T/C employee (pre-Herb Allison). Herb killed the customer-focused spirit of the company. I don’t even recognize it anymore.
We have been trying to roll out my wife’s IRA and they continue to gum up the process. They clearly have enacted a complicated set of rules/paperwork to frustrate those who want to leave. From a customer service standpoint, T/C has become a disingenuous joke of a company that no longer desreves to be compared with it competitors like Fidelity or Vanguard (or others). My advice to all is to dump participation with this company and try (your best) to remove any funds that they are clinging on to.
Wow, what a lot of horror stories out there. My TC rollover of 1/3 total funds to Vanguard eventually went though with comparatively little difficulty.
A question: have others found it possible to take the MRD from a PREFERRED TC account? If taken from the traditional account, is one further able to transfer the 10% per year to another account?
You may want to call and talk to tiaa about your options. At last I knew, tiaa will not split payments from the tiaa traditional account being made over the nine year and one day transfer payout annuity. Instead they will likely recommend that you rollover each payment to a tiaa Ira, take your rmd from that Ira, and then rollover the remainder to wherever you wish.
Rolling over the entirety of each payment to your vanguard account and then taking rmd could achieve the same end result. Either way, make sure you are confident ipin the amount you need to withdraw to satisfy your rmd and do not rely on either institution for it.
I have been working on closing my account with TIAA-Cref. I started in Apr. 28 2011. when the first packet arrived….many months later , after countless phone tag sessions with my former employers HR director..( separation date approval) i was notified my forms are incomplete ..i would have to begin again ! The 2nd packet , never arrived.. I just spoke with a service rep and cleared up whatever need to be and should receive my new forms in about a week ! i look forward to starting this all over , with another direct deposit and voided check , dont forget to sign and date everywhere ! mabey after all is said and done . i may have a few hundred dollars for the holiday season after loosing several thousand dollars threw TIAA-Cref.
TIAA Cref can verify your separation date themselves…they just don’t like to bother. If you make an honest effort to do that, things fall through, and TIAA Cref fails on their end, contact the better business bureau, and I bet the electronic transfer will initiate the same day they receive the complaint from the BBB. It worked for me.
These negative comments about TIAA-CREF are all very disturbing.. I am glad Dan seems to find help with the BBB. Here in Cookevile, TN, I have been very unhappy with the BBB on other issues..
Is there any difference for any of you regarding your experience with TIAA as opposed to your experience with CREF?
Stephen
I initiated an EFT over two weeks ago and was mis-handled by someone who was a trainee. After 35 minutes of being kept on hold for much of the transaction, I requested that I speak to a supervisor. He took over but did not seem to be much more adept than the trainee.
I learned that my requested transfer was returned to Tiaa-Cref because the bank account I used for the EFT had been closed and i had failed to notify them of the new routing number and checking account number(My mistake). However i was told that I would be mailed a check for the requested amount within two business days. When i called again, I was told that it had been mailed (three business days later, Dec.01). I also gave the rep new routing #’, checking acct. #, etc. for future transactions.
My check did not arrive today, Dec. 05. I called again. This time I was told that the check was mailed today( not Dec. 01 as i was originally told!!! I asked the rep to give me the new bank info I had provided four days earlier and he said it was not on record!!! I gave it to him again and was told the processor was being “slow”!! He called me back fifteen minutes later and asked for the same bank info I had already given him since he would try a new procedure!!!
Meanwhile it looks like I may be biting the bullet for bills that are to be paid electronically and I am still waiting for my check in the mail.
My experience with withdrawing funds from Cref was so awful that I actually took pleasure this evening in telling a CREF survey person that a ZERO was far too high a score for their service and negative numbers should have been on offer. It is simply the worst firm I have ever dealt with except Merrill Lynch. I am a law professor and I chaired the statewide faculty pension group. Other posters have told similar stories in graphic detail. They will take your money electronically but they must have the largest group of mentally challenged “form creators” in the world. I think they cut down a new tree and make the paper by hand for each form they are supposed to send out. They are also easily confused by married couples with different last names.
If you are stuck with them while you are working, the moment you retire roll all the money you can into an IRA and get away from them.
There is a penalty, as I understand it from TIAA-CREF, to take your entire amount out at the moment you retire. Is that what others among you have encountered? Was it worth it? Is there no way one can cancel the relationship before retirement, moving to a vendor of one’s personal choice? I suppose not when it’s a plan the employer drives to which it contributes.
Unless you own a GRA account with TIAA Traditional in it, they do not charge you a penalty for withdrawing funds (2.5%) in the scenario above, but the IRS may do so if you are younger than 59 1/2 or are separating from the employer you contributed to your account from before age 55
And for those who are enamored of CREF as an investment vehicle
As of dec 1 the 10 year rate of return for Cref is 3.68%
For Vanguard’s total stock market index Admiral shares 3.94%
That is a huge difference on an index fund.
We’re moving to Vanguard. Our CREF funds have a not-too-expensive (by industry standards) of about 0.44%. The Vanguard Admiral index funds that we use have a very low cost of 0.11. Doesn’t sound like much, but it is 1/4 of the CREF cost. And it adds up, big time, with a substantial account and enough time.
“Vince December 6, 2011 at 9:03 pm
And for those who are enamored of CREF as an investment vehicle
As of dec 1 the 10 year rate of return for Cref is 3.68%
For Vanguard’s total stock market index Admiral shares 3.94%
That is a huge difference on an index fund.”
The performance difference is due largely to the lower expense charge on the VG Admiral fund (0.07% vs 0.44%). There is very little difference in the fund’s performance. Smile, if you were in VALIC-AIG the expense charge would be > 1.00%.
Of course there is no difference in the nominal fund performance since they are both index funds.
Index fund Fees are the same as the markup at a car dealership. You get the same car, you can just pay more for it.
Joe,
Please see my recent post regarding ROI.
Gary
My wife retired in July and we’ve been trying to move her money from TIAA-CREF to another company. It has been hell to do so. TIAA-CREF has obstacles along the way that could only have been planned by bureaucrats in Russia. We’ve spent a couple of months now doing this and are about 3/4 the way through. If you have worked at more than one institution and have multiple plans, the situation is even worse. My advice for others is to get your money out as fast as you can once your employment has ended. If you wait until death, be prepared for a very arduous and painful experience.
My wife is a current employee at TIAA-CREF. It is apparently and incredibly stressful place of employment. I can understand everyone having difficulty getting your dollars out of the organization. The internal workings of the Financials seems to be a mess. Not the dollars necessarily but the complexity and the high employee turnover and no back ups and poor to non functioning management make it a really messed up joint. I would recommend your orgainization move to a different retirement plan vendor all together because this place is MESSED UP.
Wow!!! Your livelihood is to some extent supported by horrible TIAA-CREF and you are recommending those to do business elsewhere. I think some people just like to hear themselves complain…as shown through this entire board.
For every one person complaining, there are 100 people completely fine. The crazy and constantly unhappy and complaining individuals that always seem to find there way to boards like these are the same people normal people don’t like to hang out with.
Wow, Jimmy, count me as another abnormal person who has found TIAA-CREF to be totally incompetent and irresponsible. To anyone else reading this: If you have any choice at all, avoid TIAA-CREF like the plague!
I’m a TIAA-CREF retiree who is “self-managing” his TIAA-CREF retirement account. (I do that using internal transfers among and between my CREF equity & bond accounts and my CREF money market account (where I keep a balance), so that as the market goes through its regular big fluctuations, I can take cash, if I need it, from the money market account and not be forced to sell CREF stock when the market is down.
Having daily access (with a 15-minute delay) to the Russell 3000 performance on the TIAA-CREF website under Market News was very helpful for someone like me who is self-managing his TIAA-CREF nest egg, because the Russell 3000 index valuetracks so closely with the CREF Stock Fund unit value (just divide the daily change in the Russell 3000 change by three if you want a good estimate of what the CREF Stock Fund unit-value change will be.)
So what does TIAA-CREF do today? It changes the format of Market News and stops including the Russell 3000 performance .
In the spirit of several other comments on this website – this change in the website is another example of TIAA-CREF’s tendency to pay very little attention to its customers who are taking money OUT (namely retirees) as opposed to its customers who are still working and paying in.
I was employed at a university up north, and enrolled in TIAA Cref, as it seemed like a good investment. Five years later, I moved down to Florida, where I began working at a YMCA, which had its own retirement plan. While I could have left my money in TC, I opted to roll it over to the Y’s account. I contacted TC, and they sent me the necessary forms to fill out for both my TIAA Traditional and my Cref accounts. I completed both forms and mailed them back in. I received confirmation that the Cref account was transferred, but never heard anything about the TIAA Traditional. I contacted them again, a few months later, and was told that they can’t rollover the entire amount at once. It has to be done over 10 years. I said that’s fine, but I haven’t had any confirmation that this process had begun, and I recently received another statement from TC, which had all the funds still in the TIAA Traditional. They sent me another series of forms to fill out, which I did. A few months later, I got the forms back, saying that the HR director that I had sign the form was not the correct person. I sent the form in again, having the same HR person sign the form, and I got it back again. This time, the problem wasn’t with the HR director’s signature, it was with the Notary. I assumed it was because the Notary was also the HR director, so I had it notarized by someone else. Sent the forms back in. A few months later, I got them back. This time, I was told that they could not accept the signature of the HR director at my previous job, as it was a fax copy. I live 1,000 miles away from my previous job, so it’s not like I can just hop in the car, drive over and get a signature. A faxed copy seems perfectly reasonable to me. It has now been almost 3 years since I started this process. Yes, the delay was, in part, my fault, as I had a baby and didn’t always have the time to deal with all the paperwork as soon as it was returned to me. But this is getting a bit ridiculous. I just want to be able to transfer my money. It shouldn’t be this difficult.
Tiaa-Cref continues its dysfunction. Several weeks ago after I sent an e-mail complaint re: their services to their secured message site, I received a telephone call requesting that I call an 800 number to resolve my issues with TIAA-CREF.
I called, left my telephone number———only to never receive a call back!!!!!
Yesterday i called to see if TIAA Cref had received my request (sent two weeks earlier) for a new EFT site. I had been told by them to send specific items (voided check,etc.) which I did. However , not until i called yesterday was i informed that I also had to enclose a TIAA=Cref form, with the previously submitted material, requesting aEFT withdrawal in order for my new EFT to be activated. I was never informed of this latest necessity until yesterday. Communication???????
So what are WE going to do with this once prestigious institution that seems clearly to be unraveling?
“Something lingering with boiling oil in it . . . something humorous but lingering–with either boiling oil or melted lead”
They still have over 100k of my wife’s retirement. Prying anything out of their greedy little fingers takes vast effort
For more than three years, TIAA/CREF has miss-applied, miss-designated, miss-attributed ( what is the term?) my contributions. prior to bungling my bundle, my contributions were assigned to the correct institution. There are three.
Since the entrenched continuing error, over three years, the wrong dollar amounts have been assigned to the three universities I taught at.
Outcome no correction has been made and its not possible to reach upper-level management. Stone walling is breathtaking, but I’ve recorded all of my periodic calls to them.
After spending 32 minutes on the phone with “customer no service” they were still unable to change my address. It is amazing to me how I can receive statements at one address for 4 years but yet they tell me that the only address they have on file is a house that I sold 4 years ago. How could I receive statements from them for the last 4 years???? I am looking at a statement with the correct address but yet they cannot find it in the computer. This does not instill confidence in a company and does not make me comfortable with them having my money. Run not walk away.
I have had both good and unpleasant experiences, but I suspect there is some piling on in a few comments by non-members. However, there are enough genuine problems shared among all of us for TC to take some serious action and soon.
The large number of baby boomers that have been working at all the educational institutions and other non- profits that TIAA-CREF was created to serve are now starting to retire, which means relatively larger numbers of people than TIAA-CREF is used to will be looking to TIAA-CREF to help them manage their retirement nest eggs with money coming OUT, as opposed to money going IN. My sense, based only on my own experience, is that I don’t think TIAA-CREF has fully adjusted yet to accommodate that change that’s coming in what they have to do to fulfill their mission, which is to help people in the academic and non-profit world (none of whom have become “wealthy” given the careers they chose) to have secure retirements. My overall experience with TIAA-CREF is that it is a decent, honest organization that has, commendably, remained focused on its original mission; they just need to realize that over the next 20 years they are going to have to pay more attention to their noisy old customers born between 1946 and 1964.
You must be joking ! T-CRAP problems began with a new software platform and proceeded into bad management over the last 8 years. There have been thousands of complaints filed about lack of access to funds and errors in funds transfers. Yes TIAA-CREF was once a company for non-profits that many Universities FORCE us to invest in, but once they opened to anyone for investment they lost their investment mission for non-profits.
Christopher,
Your comment sounds like a well-reasoned one. I was one of the lucky retirees perhaps because, although I am by no means an accountant or stock watcher (I was a teacher of rhetoric, not math,) I did take time to keep records of my contributions over the years follow TIAA CREF’s WEB site for information on what to expect when I retired. I must admit, I have trouble recognizing that many of my colleagues seem to have just glided along, expecting that TIAA CREF would take care of everything when they hit retirement. So, for example, my closest friend was shocked to learn, not only that his annuity amounts consisted of a much lower guaranteed amount and a variable dividend, but also that it was only the second representative he dealt with who thought to explain that to him. It would be nice if we could rely on TIAA CREF to have sufficient numbers of reps, all fully trained to communicate with people who, though educated are often annuity/retirement funds illiterates. Unfortunately, we have to face reality and learn how to share the responsibility for navigating the shoals of retirement. Perhaps that is even a good thing, because it will help us keep our minds active and more capable of facing the economic and technical changes in the century ahead. At least, that is better than whining about our problems like teenagers reluctant to become adults.
Since you taught Rhetoric , I’ll assume you understand many will take personal offense at your snide comment “At least, that is better than whining about our problems like teenagers reluctant to become adults.”. I’m an attorney and my experience in prying my retirement money out of TIAA was AWFUL. And no, all the careful watching of TIAA over the years in no way shape or form could have prepared anyone for just how terrible and time wasting the experience was. I do take the time to warn all the others out there that as long as you put up with their poor returns and high fees everything will be warm and cozy but the moment you look at the reality and try to go elsewhere with your money you will get the TIAA CREF stonewall.
I’ve found that when I use the message service provided by TIAA-CREF rather than the phone service, I get much better results. When sending a message, I receive a reply that I will have a response within 2 business days, and I’ve never been let down. The nice thing is that if I have additional questions, I can can send those directly to the same person who responded to my earlier message.
To defend TIAA-CREF, I recently requested the paperwork to exercise the Minimum Distribution Option because I turn 70 this year. (I made this request of the person I had been communicating with via e-mail). The forms arrived within days, and quite a bit of the information had been pre-entered (name, address, account numbers, etc.) I only had to add a few things, such as how I wanted my distribution, how often I wanted the distribution, when I want my first check, etc. It could not have been easier. I can even look on the TIAA-CREF Web site to see that my form was received. The person I have been e-mailing about the MDO process volunteered to let me know when the forms were received and that they were complete as I submitted them. Contrast this with another financial firm where I have a Keogh account, and I have to submit an extensive amount of paperwork each time I want to take a RMD. Not only that, I have to get my wife’s signature notarized that she is giving me permission to forego her half of each distribution. The only way I can avoid needing her notarized signature is to set up an annuity to remove the money from the Keogh account.
I do take the time to change my positions in TIAA-CREF periodically, which is probably good because my TIAA-CREF accounts suffered less freefall than my Fidelity, American Funds, and Merrill-Lynch retirement accounts did. The T/C accounts have also recovered at a higher rate than any of the others.
I did not try to remove any T/C funds until MDO “kicked in.” Had I, perhaps I would have a totally different impression of T/C. My next big challenge is where to invest the RMD I have to take this year to maximize my return. I will likely focus on Vanguard initially.
An MDO means THEY keep your money as long as possible. Of course they Love you and will do anything to keep their hands on your money. And you have to compare returns on equivalent assets showing equivalent risks. their returns on index funds are below Vanguard because their fees are higher.
You are very insulting. I am an adult who managed their University FORCED INVESTMENT in T-CRAP for 15 years. Before they changed to a very bad software platform, before they hired bad CEOs. Hey lady this company so bad that the first time I attempted to transfer funds to another company it took MONTHS and they transferred 2x what I actually had in the account. Try explaining this ERROR to the IRS. I am an adult. You need to get real. When did you retire? 20 years ago?
I have kept every statement TC has ever issued me. I have monitored my contributions, and been well-advised on how my money would be allocated. This knowledge has done nothing to help me transfer my money out of TC to a new retirement account. Every time I submit the necessary forms, I am told that there is additional information needed, or that the information I supplied is incorrect.
I am not “whining” like a “teenager”. I merely want the money I invested, MY MONEY, to be transferred to where I would like it. That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable request, and yet, I seem to be stonewalled at every pass. It gets frustrating, and you feel your hands are tied, as there is really no course of action to take, other than to complain about it on this forum.
Sure, those of us who expected to get money within a reasonable amount of time when following TIAA-CREF’s instruction are childish. C’mon.
Your comment sounds like a poorly reasoned one. I am one of the unlucky people who have had to put up for years with TIAA-CREF’s ignorant phone reps, officers who assume that your money is theirs and spend their days sending letters explaining why you can’t do what you want to do with your money (like get it free from their grubby hands). Recognizing incompetent and irresponsible behavior and warning others does not strike me as “whining about our problems like teenagers reluctant to become adults.” I am taking responsibility for myself and my family by doing everything humanly possible to get MY money away from TIAA-CREF.
Just wanted to see if anyone else has questioned the returns that CREF reports. It appears to me that the returns that CREF report as Average Annual Total Returns, are what I believe to be just that: average returns, which I believe means that if a $100 investment looses 20% one year (resulting in $80 left) then rises 25% (resulting in $100), their AATR is 2.5% (-20+25)/2. Now I say that is rediculous and want you to chime in. I say the AATR should be the return which kept constant would yield the present value of the investment. 0% in the case illustrated for two years. Volitility is a good thing according to the way I figure CREF reports numbers. So be ware that figures don’t lie but . . .
Gary
This company is horrible. To begin with, the CEO Roger Ferguson is committed to outsourcing every job he can to India. By the way, any document you have submitted to TIAA can now be seen by a person in India. All you’re banking information, social security numbers, beneficiary information, street addresses, anything. Ferguson couldn’t care less about saving American jobs and he doesn’t care who is viewing and processing your requests. What’s sad is India often does a horrible job and is only concerned with meeting numbers set by management. So that means if anything is in question with a request, they pass it on for someone else to deal with so they can process straight forward cases and look good. If it delays a payment so be it. Now, with jobs being sent to India, management is threatening American employees. It’s not uncommon to hear, “you need to work harder or maybe your job will go to India”, or “if you don’t like it here send out your resume.” Employees are actually warned they are not to say anything negative about Indian employees or they will be “reprimanded.” Nothing is ever fast enough. Everyday all employee performance numbers are put on a board, with your name, for everyone to see. Every hour is scurtinized by management on why a person didn’t perform better, or why one person is doing better than another. These are actual comments by management made to their employees, ” if you don’t like it here send out a resume”, “everyone is taking to many bathroom breaks, you need to cut down on this, at my last company if we were away from our desks, during an un allotted time, we would be written up”, “ if you spend five minutes a day talking to someone you’re wasting 30 minutes a week, which adds to up almost a lost day in production in one year”. People are constantly written up for ridiculous company rules, for example someone’s relative died and they left during work day. They were written up, since this was not a ‘preapproved’ day off. Another, person called from the emergency room and said they would not be in and they were written up, again because it was not a “preapproved” day off. The computer system brought in by previous CEO Herb Allison is horrible. It was already ten years out of date before it was even installed. For example, just to do an address change can take four days. As people quit or are fired management doesn’t replace them. Rather, they just pass on the work to the remaining employees to make up. They couldn’t care less if they burn out they staff. This company is going down fast. It’s sad that management has such little concern about customers and their employees. It seems that all that matters is management keeping their jobs, getting bonuses, and taking this company for everthing they can get before it collapses. This company could be an excellent company but with the likes of Ferguson and his management team the writing in on all the way. By Ferguson’s own admission it’s only a matter of time before TIAA goes under, and with him at the helm there’s no doubt of that.
“CEO Roger Ferguson is committed to outsourcing every job he can to India”. Could you give some idea of the type and amount of jobs that are going to India?
“By Ferguson’s own admission it’s only a matter of time before TIAA goes under.” From what source did you get this information? Is this your interpretation of some comments he has made?
There seems to be a lot of management movement recently. Have you recognized any pattern for this? Also there appear to be a lot of “partnerships” (subsidiaries) being formed. Any pattern for this?
My wife 75 and I 80 both invested our savings in the TIAA Cref. We both are amazed and
outraged how irresponsibly the TIAA consultants-representatives were handling our
distributions.
Example: consultant Paddy Parson exceeded distribution I requested by more than $4,500
in 2010. After my complaint, this excess was allocated to the year 2011.
In December 2011, same Paddy Parson exceeded requested by my wife distribution by more
than $6,500. We asked Paddy to correct her mistake, but she preferred to football us to
representative Erik Negron who promised to allocate the $6,500 to the year 2012 but
didn’t do anything and disappeared not sending us promised confirmation via e-mail.
We have been fighting with TIAA-CREF for more than a year to get the retirement money my brother-in-law invested in order to take care of him since he has become disabled. We have hit one road block after another with many representatives giving is conflicting information. The bottom line is that he will have to forfeit much of HIS money to TIAA-CREF in order for them to dole out a dribble of cash to keep him in a nursing home. BEWARE, if you are thinking of investing with these people and you become disabled, you will not be able to access your money! You will be giving it to them to keep.
Recently this naif thought he would convert $4000 from CREF to a Roth IRA for 2011 tax purposes, only to discover TC’s less than transparent procedures. Fortunately I have big money invested with Vanguard, so they’re willing to help me extract my medium-sized money from TC. A phone call with one of their rollover specialists happens tomorrow, and I’ll report the results here.
I have 3X the funds in Vanguard than I have trapped at T-CRAP. My university forces me to invest with this failing company. I have filed many complaints with my state but they fall on deaf ears. After the FIRST time T-CRAP screwed up a transfer to Vanguard, about 8yrs ago, Vanguard stepped in to help me and they have been a consistent company for all my assets. If T-CRAP is going to go under what is going to happen to our retirement funds? IF you have one of those stupid 10%/10yrs withdrawal annuities with T-CRAP and you are still working start rolling it out into their Money Market fund NOW. By the time you retire you will have a MUCH easier time of getting you cash out of them. I will retire in just a few years and will have over 1/2 of my annuity in their money market so I can easily get it. The day I retire all funds that will not suffer a severe T-CRAP fee for early withdrawal will be transferred to Vanguard.
I have a general question. What is the difference between TIAA and CREF? I have heard that TIAA accounts disappear when you die, while CREF equities go to your designated beneficiary. However, I have also heard that TIAA accounts go to your beneficiary. I don’t know where to look to get an answer to this question.
Thanks for any guidance.
TIAA-CREF offers different ways to withdraw funds from TIAA accounts and CREF accounts, so there is no short answer to your question. Here’s what I’m doing, though: when I retired three years ago, I annuitized all the funds that had accumulated in my TIAA account, with an annuity structured as follows: payments for the rest of my life and my wife’s life, plus with a guaranteed payout period of 10 years from when the annuity started, even if both my wife and I were to die. So, in my case, annuity payments will continue until both my wife and i are dead and for at least the next seven years into our estate for our kids, in case both of us die sometime during the next seven years.. The TIAA-CREF website gives you access to short booklets that explain all the different ways to start getting money out of TIAA-CREF accounts when you retire. They will also explain the differences between TIAA accounts and CREF accounts in that regard. You can also talk to advisors on the phone (for free) – but I suggest you try reading the booklets first so that you have some basic knowledge of how TIAA-CREF withdrawals work in hand first, before you talk to an advisor .
I have been trying to get money from TIAA CREF since December and it has been impossible!! Turnaround time for any email is minimum 48 hours. Complaints:
1. EFT forms must be submitted via snail mail with a cancelled check and can only be submitted with a withdrawel request. How arcane. I haven’t had to submit a cancelled check for EFT for 10 years. Plus it must come with the withdrawel request, not before, because they can’t be responsible and it will get lost! True, I have it in writing!
2. Due to the US Patriot Act they require that I submit via mail hard copy proof that I live at my address. I have asked 3 time for another option, but I keep getting the answer that I must submit a copy of a recent utility bill, cable or landline telephone bill showing my name and address. Well, I rent and all that is included. If offerred a copy of my lease, but they keep replying with the same request, “a recent utility bill, cable or landline telephone bill showing my name and address.” I am talking to a wall.
3. The educational institute that I worked for has been defunct for over 5 years, yet before they can approve my request, they need a termination date given by my previous employer. I have told them that they won’t be able to get that because the contact person was the administrator etc etc. I keep getting a reply that they must follow procedure. They won’t answer my direct question concerning what if they can’t get hold of my previous employer, what are the options. Instead it is delay, delay, delay, no answer, no action.
Help! This borders on criminal or fraud? I have asked for this to be escalated to a manager, and now they want to talk to me via phone. I don’t trust them anymore……I need it in writing.
Hi Diane,
I found your comment while doing a google search about this new USA Patriot Act / TIAA-CREF / residential street address requirement. I currently only have a PO Box and a business address associated with my name, so I’m trying to learn as much as I can about this so that I can decide how to handle it best.
You say that they are requesting utility bills or similar, but the pre-paid return postage letter I received from them is only requesting that I fill out an address and mail it back. It is not asking for any supporting documentation. How is it that you are in a situation where they are asking for more?
I am starting to consider pulling out all of the money as soon as I can and transferring it into a different type of account, because I fear some fine print in some ridiculous law that will deny me my hard-earned money.
Please explain how you got to the point you are at with them. What was the first request you were sent? I read somewhere else that currently there is no penalty for not replying to this request but they may contact people again.
E
I need help w/ a ‘simple’ matter. Been employed w current tiaa cref contributing employer for almost 7 years. 2 years ago part of my job was eliminated-leaving me w/ 16 hours per week. They told me I could no longer get TIAACref contributions. I kept looking for where this is stated. Finally asked for summary plan document a month ago-December 2011. I wanted to see exactly where it said, employees with less than 20 hours per week do not qualify.
So of course it isn;t in there. Employer says they will make good on all the contributions. Not only for me but for 5 other ‘part time’ employees. So I ask about missed opportunity-like if I had had the money earning 3% for 2 years…employer says there is no such rule as that, and that they owe me nothing more than contributions. HOWEVER< they mistakenly with held contributions for 2.5 years…
If I am crazy I'll drop it. If I'm correct, can anyone find the term and how I would go about getting TIAA-Cref to initiate w/ my employer?
many thanks and w/ gratitude
Now you know why management and the GOP hates unions. In any civilized country your union rep or the government labor relations office would protect you. In the dog eat dog USA you are essentially on your own. I saved my paperwork for 26 years to force my employer to credit me with a year of service.
If you are covered by erisa you might read
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/erisa_enforcement.html
TIAA-CREF was ranked in 2011 as one of the ten best investment companies in the country. They always rank very highly. I am now retired three years, have both retirement and brokerage accounts, have been VERY pleased with both. I started well ahead in filing my forms for retirement, had no problem. It is the government regulations that require the various forms, hard copies, etc. I consider myself blessed to be a participant, to have the long-standing experience of TIAA-CREF behind me. Trust me, they have your back, as they are a not-for-profit organization.
OFGS with their massive economies of scale and their forced customer base they should be far and away the best and cheapest investment company. In my experience no other company has ever been so awful to deal with in extracting money from them. And its not government regulations when it comes to extractions.
TIAA/CREF is NOT a nonprofit and has not been for a very long time, Congress took that right away back in the late 1990s. It “considers” itself nonprofit but it is not and there is nothing legally that holds them in a nonprofit model.
In 2010 I was notified by TIAA-CREF that I was required to take an annual RMD from TIAA-CREF. Necessary forms were filled out and I received a payment of $2,766. in Dec. of 2010. The reasonable person would assume that unless the company received a death certificate that such a notice would come each year. None of us gets younger. As my husband and I were preparing our 2011 taxes we realized that I received no check or 1099 in Dec. of 2011. We heard nothing from TIAA-CREF. I called and was told that I had to call them every year to make that deduction. They finally agreed to send me a form to fill out authorizing the withdrawal automatically and yearly. However, in Feb. when we were doing our taxes it was too late to avoid the penalty for 2011. My husband was a registered representative for a number of years and dealt with many fund companies. He never knew of another one that had that rule. When we were setting up the withdrawal schedule we were never asked about a perpetuity option. Common sense says the only option is for every year. Needless to say, I am extremely upset about the penalty I have to pay this year.
It would be nice if 1099-R info could be accessed via the internet from this company. They DO offer that under TIAA-CREF Brokerage Services, but not as part of the usual retirement plans. Once I got my wife’s funds mostly transferred to Vanguard, I had to enter seven 1099-R forms into my tax software. That took over a half hour. And, since some of their retirement plans require periodic (5 or 10 years or however long) distributions (even as a rollover), I’ll be doing two 1099-Rs for the next five years, and one 1099-R per year for the five years after that. In this day and age, a huge company like TIAA should already have taken care of that stuff. But as we know…they only love you when you are giving them your money. Not so much when you want it back.
Bob, I’m not sure how our situations are different, but I retired 2 years ago, took most of my money in a standard, fixed income, TIAA-CREF annuity (which I think is a “regular retirement plan,” and left some of it to ride till I need it. I accessed the 1099-R from my account within the TIAA-CREF website both last year and this year (they appear in my messagesthere, and TIAA-CREF notifies me by my regular email when they are available) so I am not sure why you can’t. I know I did, at some point in the past, elect email instead of mail as my primary access. So, maybe you are right and you can’t get the electronic form – and maybe you have checked out the situation thoroughly with a TIAA-CREF rep. But it’s probably worth checking again. I found that you do get different answers sometimes from different reps – so my advice would be first to email them iwth the specifics of your wife’s account, then do a follow-up call. I don’t want to sound patronizing, and realise you may well have already done this – in which case, you have my sympathy! But I’d feel sorry to think I might have been of help if only I’d replied. Good luck with your retirement plans, Marci
I am also having problems with lost documents and inconsistent information. The BBB is okay but you can also file a complaint on the federal trade commission website.
I wanted to rollover my 403(B) with TIAA-CREF into an IRA. Like others before me, my first call to TIAA-CREF was with a young man who said no problem and he helped with the 7 page form. My benifits administrator varified that I was seperated from the university where I worked. I called T-C again and like others before me, the stupid nightmare began with incomprehensible nonesense about more stupid forms and hurdles. I just stopped with them. Gathered myself together and filed a complaint with the Peidmont area Better Business Bureau. Bingo, in a few days my local stockbroker got a check for the full amount in the mail. All it should take for a rollover is where the money is going and a verification of seperation. Do NOT listen to their nonesense. Advance token to the BBB and file your complaint. For how long this will work until T-C figures a way to beat it, I cannot say. My guess and only a guess is that the BBB uses T-C for their own employee’s retirement program and T-C doesn’t want to blow off a big customer.
Ever heard of another probable beneficiary of the bailout, while consumers were getting screwed and losing (unlost) money? Like “LifeTimes”??? Like everything else, it’s gotta be a mass groundswell and/or class action to get the money (and maybe get the thieves uncomfortably hung by their gems)!!
I do not see anything above that relates to my problem w/ TIAA….
I am very frustrated with them …in fact, I absolutely hate them! I was employed for 20 years with the same company, using TIAA-Cref. It wasn’t until I left 22 months ago that I realized they have me in a TIAA Traditional account…which means I cannot get MY money except once a year over 10 years time. This is not something I was aware of…who would do this except someone who knows they won’t need the money at some point. Yes, I should’ve investigated the situation more thoroughly, but in one-on-one meetings, it was never presented to me that way) I am now unemployed, unemployment benefits end in 2 months,
and they will not even let me take the yearly distribution early unless I send a letter saying I am going to be evicted ( and then they will CONSIDER it)…there has to be a way around this ridiculous way of holding my money hostage. Has anyone experienced this? I am frantic about what I’ll do if I can’t get this money rolled over….
It is really disheartening to hear about all of the trouble so many people have had with TIAA-CREF especially in the area of removing their monies or attempting to roll them over to other companies. Many of the complaints seem to be around the TIAA Fixed account which has a 10% a year withdrawal requirement when the funds are in an employer sponsored 403B. This account when in an IRA or GSRA at TC do not have the same requirement. You can move them at any time. What is most surprising to me is to find out that some institutions deposit the money into this fixed account and that the participant cannot change the allocation to another TIAA Investment. I had thought that once the funds were in the possession of TC that it was completely up to the participant to choose the investment that they wished the funds to be allocated to. I had thought that by law the individual had the right to make that choice. Is it possible that those who are so upset about the 10% withdrawal restriction are not aware that they could have re-allocated those funds?
A final comment on this type of TIAA Investment. During those dreadful years that the markets declined, many of my friends whose monies were in other investments at other brokerages lost all or most of their retirement savings. Mine remained intact and earned a good return in the TIAA fixed account while guaranteeing principal for which I am very grateful. For an account like this to work for those who want and need guaranteed principal and a good return, withdrawals have to be restricted to reduce volatility.
Unfortunately many reps at TC are not too helpful in making clear to us the benefits and limitations of the different investments. If ever the need to be proactive all along the way in asking questions and reading the small print in the prospectus that defines in details how the investment works it is here in one’s retirement portfolio. No one should find at thepoint of retirement or rollover that they have an restricted investment that they may have been able to re-allocate if they didn’t want to face the restriction later on.
As to MDO’s it is sad to hear that TC is messing up here. I guess we have been lucky. they got it right the first time and continue on with our initital instructions unless we call to make a change. Paper work has been filled out once and no mistakes as described in the above posts were experienced. So it seems that our experiences with TC do vary.
I do take heed from the warnings about difficulty in getting monies out of TC and I appreciate and give thanks to all of you who were willing to share those problems so that the rest of us can be alert to the potential problems and plan well ahea. Many thanks.
I am 57 and hope to start withdrawing $ from TIAA-Cref at 59 and a half. Thank all of you so much for your comments, complaints, praises, problems because I am getting very serious right now in learning about distributions.
The point of the baby boomers moving through TIAA-Cref withdrawals etc. makes sense that the place will become inundadted.
Appreciate ALL the comments!
I was shocked to see all of these comments. I have been trying to get my money out of TC since last November and rolled into Edward Jones. I have filled out many forms and continue to fill out forms trying to get my money back. They rolled over one account into an annuity that they are keeping their hands on with a payout over 5 years. They did that to another of my accounts with a payout of NINE years. Now I stilll have two accounts and can’t get them either. They want to put one into another NINE year payout, and the other they “said” they could release to me via Edward Jones. While I was on the phone, yes–screaming finally–I brought up these comments from disgruntled people like me. My employers put little to nothing into my accounts but I put my hard earned cash in, and cannot get my money rolled into Edward Jones. We decided to move our money from too many accounts to someone we trust. Thank goodness my husband who worked at a University was not given a TC option or we wouldn’t be eating right now. BEWARE–I hope no one else falls into this TIAA Cref mud puddle that is never clear, concise, and honest? They are not the friend of those of us who worked for little at nonprofitsl.
Having been diagnosed with an incurable terminal illness, is there any option for someone such as I would might wish to withdraw all of the TIAA ‘tradtional’ in one distribution? Or, is the schedule of 9 payouts impossible to alter?
Thanks to anyone who might offer a response.
Apologies, but I mean to say ‘for someone such as I who might wish to withdraw…’
Elizabeth,
We were unable to get TC to budge from the 10 year payout for my brother-in-law, even after hiring a lawyer. They tried very hard to get us to switch to another type of account (Retirement Transition Benefit) which in essence would have given him a small monthly stipend and upon death the remainder would be forfeited to TC. The agent even gave us incorrect information about this option (through ignorance or on purpose we don’t know) and we had to have him removed from our case and go up the chain to someone else. The bottom line is that TC does not want to set a precedent for terminally ill customers and will do nothing to allow someone to alter their account (unless, of course it is into an account that will net TC money, then they are more than willing to switch you). If you will need to apply for Medicaid beware, Medicaid will consider this an asset, even though you cannot access the funds. You are caught in a real-life Catch 22. I do not have a solution for you, as my brother-in-law passed away before we could fight our way through this jungle. In the end he won out over TC, which was our little consolation for all the hell they put us through.
My recommendation is to get everything in writing from them, even though they will fight this. They abhor a paper trail. After phone calls I would always recap in an email (email addresses are another thing they don’t want to give you) and insist that they sign off on the information.
They are very slippery, so be persistent. Good luck to you.
Thank you so much, Kit, for your response. I am very sorry for the loss of your brother-in-law, and also for the added trials your family endured with tiaa-cref.
One would think that, if a person can prove s/he has an incurable or terminal illness, that person ought to have a right to claim the full amount of their funds deposted with any investment firm.
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