I called TIAA's 800 number today regarding a check my financial institution had not yet received from TIAA, after TIAA notified me it was on its way to my financial institution. I spoke with a wonderful woman named Tracy, who efficiently and professionally handled and resolved my request with ease. Tracy treated me with dignity and respect and I greatly enjoyed our brief conversation. Thank you for great employees like Tracy, who care about providing excellent customer service! read more

TIAA can't generate a 1099-R for my IRA distribution. I transferred money from my brokerage IRA account to my after-tax brokerage account, both within TIAA using their online portal as part of my IRS RMD. I have not received a 1099-R. I've been on the phone hours over 3 weeks trying to get this form. They admit it should have been generated, but can't seem to get it done. Still waiting for a solution. Expecting another callback. Taxes due in 5 days. Without this form, withdrawals from an IRA account are moved to regular accounts without IRS notification, effectively TAX FREE. Unfortunately, I need it reported for my RMD. read more

This company is THE WORST! They lie about expenses, they mislead customers and they have terrible fund options & customer service. They are zero stars from top to bottom. read more

Their investments do fairly nicely, especially their fixed income funds. Getting in is quite easy for most folks. But getting out is a disaster. Once you decide to get out the only option is a 10 year payout scheme, which is OK because you know that's the deal long before you're ready to retire. And you have to tell them exactly how you want that payout to be implemented. But if you need to make a change later YOU CAN'T. I had horrible tax problem as a result, which could be fixed by just changing the date of my once a year payout. Would they help? Heavens (the other) NO. You can't change anything. TIAA is absolutely disgusting. If you're in there be ready for disaster. read more

This is the worst company I've EVER done business with. Their processes are SO outdated and takes them 10 days to give me MY money, where other companies can get me my money in 1 business day. Horrible corrupt company that only cares about their executives. Run away from this company! read more

My wife and I have been with TIAA through our employer sponsored retirement plan. The place is disaster. The investment advisors are clueless, the funds performances are substandard. You will do better blindly putting in any Vanguard or Fidelity S & P 500 index funds compared to all hyped TIAA garbage and their garbage service. read more

If I could give zero stars I would!! The worst customer service ever. In one week, I have spoken with 8 different representatives, who each gave me different instructions for my request. Needless to say, that request is still not fulfilled because DUH clearly no one knows the process. I'm now just stuck‼ You'd be better off keeping your money under the mattress than using TIAA read more

Just google all the class action lawsuits against them and you will understand how crooked they are. They create schemes to rob hard working people of their retirement income and then convince their employers to choose those schemes for their employees. My average rates of return have been close to 1% throughout these years of soaring market gains. They were incompetent throughout a rollover process and even a year later sent my rollover out into the ether without my name on it so that it never showed up in the receiving account. Run far away from them. read more

Tiaa-Cref is a disaster anymore. They do not answer the phones and they do not even call customers back. It is 3 weeks now and I have texted and called repeatedly to try to get assistance on my investment accounts for retirement. Once, in January 2026, they even promised to escalate my concerns and I would hear from their Customer care representatives within 48 hours. No call came at all. They even have Wealth Advisors assigned to us and they never return calls or messages either. TIAA has been deteriorating for many years. Unfortunately, it never seems to stabilize. Be warned to stay clear of this giant insurance organization to avoid being ignored repeatedly. read more

I would give a negative number if it were an option!!!!!!! They make it almost impossible to withdraw an RMD AFTER 2 phone calls and asking for a supervisor I finally was able to facilitate the withdrawal I believe they make it hard to orchestra withdrawals because they like to hang on to YOUR money for a long as possible over the years I have withdrawn most of my account and transferred my $$ to another major financial institution. I will be closing out my TIAA account this month read more

Worst bank! They purchased my loan, which I had on auto pay, and after they bought it they had my address wrong. They never sent me the mortgage statement nor notified me about being late on my mortgage. I would never do business with these people again even if they offered me a 1% rate! Wish I could rate them 0 stars!! read more

Convoluted redundant paperwork magnified by unhelpful agents on the phone that refuse to answer a direct question about an account. If you try and get the 'right' paperwork, they will send you to the portal or some other convoluted thing like an encypted email you have to create a password to read an attachment and then of course none of it opens and you continue to get 'bad request' from their super secret stuck in the 1980's 'secure' email/website. This company sucks beyond belief. I have been mailed over 200 pages for an inheritance account with them and nobody can tell me what out of that stack of useless paperwork I actually need to fill out to transfer the account to my name. They purposely bury you in this legalize minutae that covers their bases and none of yours. Also disgusted to see an auto rebalancing of my account put me in accounts earning 3%. There is a class action lawsuit against them right now for that very thing. This used to be a good company but it is no longer a good company, nor are they transparent or honest. I will be moving my accounts as soon as humanly possible and quite frankly it is probably going to take a lawyer's involvement to do so. read more

They are so unprofessional. I called to do a Roth rollover to a brokerage. Forms signed and the agent never initiated it. After having to call several times put in calls for the supervisor to call back he never did. They initiated the check many days later with a lower amount because by then the stock market fluctuate. They also zero out my investments when I signed the form for a partial Roll over. read more

Seriously? Long time customer and can't get simple answers to questions that shouldn't be a surprise to you. Can't see account online because "it's not ready yet"? What? Huge fail TIAA. Huge. You should be ashamed. read more

Received not only inaccurate but deadly information on taking RMDs from my IRA accounts. After verifying their devilish inaccuracy I shipped my money OUT. Unless you are an attorney ready to bring charges against TIAA for false and dangerous info, keep far, far away. read more

I'm a power of attorney for my parents and following my mother's death am trying to roll over funds from my mother's accounts into my father's name. It has been an exceptionally difficult months long process. I fill out extensive forms, get conflicting explanations from TIAA employees as to what forms are required. Then if they find an error they hold the forms with no communication. Representatives have been very hit and miss from helpful but miss guided to hostile, maybe one of the 7-8 people I've talked to seemed both informed and able to communicate clearly. Hope I get this handled soon. read more

"I checked TIAA's website today regarding a check my financial institution had not yet received from TIAA, after TIAA notified me it was on its way to my financial institution. If I had to do it over, I would certainly use a different institution for my retirement funds. read more

I am totally disgusted. Someone at TIAA made a mistake and no one seems to know who or why it occurred. Jesse (calling me back from Charlotte, NC), said he had no idea where or who made the mistake. I had originally contacted Matthew Case in Rochester, NY. to report I only received a partial payment from my monthly withdrawal and that I was requesting the balance. Matthew had no idea what happened and he said he did not know the source of the problem and that it would take some time before I received the remainder of my balance, not this week and maybe next week. Furthermore , he informed me that I would have to complete a form giving my husband permission to obtain MY money and that the form would need to be notarized. This concern is unresolved. Meanwhile, I have been receiving the same amount of money every month for years so why did I only receive a partial payment this month? What do they need to correct their error, a lawsuit? read more

If I could leave a negative score, I would. I waited 30 minutes, only to be given the wrong information. In the end, I had to turn to Google and ChatGPT to find the correct answer. Truly unbelievable! read more

If this company is the only option with your retirement plan, then I feel sorry for you. Good luck trying to rollover your money after retirement to more reliable and trusted company. Employees are clueless, not trained, they will not call you back even after automated service has an option to receive call back rather than stay on hold. If you have other options, then run away from this company. read more

If I could I would give them a zero and I would move our retirement accounts elsewhere but they definitely know how much of a hassle it is to move a retirement account...so they us locked in and I guess they don't have to make any changes with Pershing their trading company. If you feel that at any point in time you would like to take over your own retirement account or place trades, as more and more people who are now retiring are, and will continue to do, their 1980's or 90's system of interface is a joke that I seriously wake up thinking...am I really doing this? Your friends will run circles around you in managing their trades and everything involved in managing trade...which is how much is in tradable money and without warning get hit with a "trading without settled funds" violation, fifteen minute delayed quotes on TIAA and I mean that call and ask it is actually delayed so no real time trading on quotes and worse, balances are calculated every fifteen minutes instead of in real time (yes even balances are delayed fifteen minutes), profit for a trade or non-profits are not displayed real time, no where to directly see how a trade went or if you are plus or minus on that trade and calculations on average cost are never done...etc...and you can even get frozen so that you can't computer trade and have to call in for every trade. What type of platform even allows for a client to trade like this? Normal platforms have safe-guards to now allow this to happen. There is nothing in background, no levers or depth to their system...literally a DOS operating system from the 1980's. Yikes, yikes, yikes. It's like being in Kindergarten or on a Kindergarten platform and the more involved you want to be the worse it gets...maybe so that they only manage your money and you can't but I have no answers just frustration. Stay away...just stay away. read more

I have accounts with them, and I used to be pleased, but now it's a nightmare to get through to a human on the phone. Their endless recordings actually say they don't want to talk to you, they want you to do self service. I know many companies are doing that, but TIAA is absolutely the worst. read more

I regret enrolling in the TIAA retirement plan instead of the NC State plan. Over the years, the "financial advisors" at TIAA have not helped me grow my funds or achieve significant gains for a more comfortable retirement. I am currently 65 years old, so I have a few years left to prepare. I sought advice from a person at another financial institution who has successfully managed my wife's portfolio. Yesterday, I spoke with a young "advisor" at TIAA who used complex terminology, making it seem that everyone should inherently understand funds, numbers, and financial concepts. When I thought I grasped what he was saying and asked for help in moving some funds and eliminating others, he said I had to do it myself. Is this how a financial institution operates? It's disappointing for TIAA and this advisor to deny assistance when we are paying their salaries. I also discovered that I cannot move my TIAA Traditional funds, as no one had ever explained this to me. Avoid TIAA at all costs; they will never help you achieve your financial goals. And their customer service (advisors) is not helpful. read more

Lazy and useless workers. After I called twice to solidify everything was set, All 4 said yes. Now I just had to open an investigating on where $2,850 of my money went. Completely fraudulent activity. You will be spending money on lawyers rather than saving it because of stupidity and criminal activity. read more

If there was a Zero star available I would have selected this. I've had my retirement money at TIAA for decades because it was the only option with my employers because of my profession. TIAA makes it IMPOSSIBLE to try to put your money into your own hands. This has happened again and again over the years. The few times I needed to access funds for emergencies, things dragged on and on for MONTHS. Do not recommend them at all. If you have an option, choose the other company. read more

My sister is extremely pleased with the services received by Christopher Arnold and Adalberto Padilla. They each showed enormous patience in helping her decide her RMD and more. I sat in on both calls and I'm very impressed with their professionalism. They each get a "10" from us! read more

This website makes it nearly impossible to figure out how to withdraw money. Plus, login didn't recognize my info though I had changed NOTHING. My investments are doing all right but this website sucks. read more

wow. terrible customer service. it is like the 80s. manual paperwork. phone calls. dragging feet if you want to move money around. slow, error prone is the typical. read more

Warning: Prepare for frustration because you won't get through to any human via the 800 number as the AI robot is not coded for ROLLOVER. Or ASSOCIATE. Online profile in portal inadquate and offers no way to email a question. Calls to customer service regarding steps to transfer accounts yields contradictory directions, involving 'new' forms and tax form as well, both agents refuse to upon my request, put into writing in email what steps are needed to transfer other financial institution. Shockingly casual reps answering questions with questions. So much for fiduciary responsibility , creepy to have retirement funds blocked by dismissive reps who seem altogether 'checked out' and don't know what they are doing. Make sure to report your experience to your employer. read more

My husband is in the process of retiring and has most of his retirement savings with TIAA. We have told the "financial advisor" repeatedly that we want a fixed annuity. Period. Thus, far he has refused to give us the monthly amount a fixed annuity would yield. We are being bullied into re-investing in high risk options so we can make monthly withdrawals from the portfolio. I've explained to the little snot that a stock market crash such as 2008 would wipe us out. He was so condescending and remarked, "I guess I can see your point." It's obvious that TIAA is giving their "advisors" a bonus if they can push clients into crappy retirement plans rather than safe and steady fixed annuities. My husband retires in 60 days, and we still have no idea what his income will be. A year ago, we had a great planning conversation with another advisor who helped us do the right investments for the last year of work. He has since retired, and now we are stuck with the current jerk who is more concerned with his own well-being than ours. I'm really concerned about our ability to pay our bills--I'm actually concerned whether we'll ever be able to access our money based on other reviews. This is NOT the TIAA that my father-in-law enjoyed. Shame on you TIAA! read more

They are complete thieves. You will invest your money no problem...but when it comes time to roll it over or withdraw...just wait. The level of incompetence is out of this world. I have had to file a complaint with FINRA to get the money, and will shortly being going to court as well. I would not invest a penny with this company since they can't be trusted. Invest with Bernie Madoff, you will have better luck with that thief. read more

I moved my 401(k) to TIAA based on its reputation. I've been with them for 10 years now. They took my small teaching fund and switched it over to 15 TIAA-CREF funds. I constantly question why I need to be in 15 separate TIAA-CREF funds on a small amount? No reasonable answer is given. On my recent 401k portfolio review I was again being offered 10 TIAA funds with higher expense ratios. I had to request funds with expense ratios under .50%, and no more than four funds. When I questioned my last advisor of five years, "Why is it was so difficult to set up an appointment for a phone conversation?" I did not receive a response but was immediately transferred permanently to another advisor. read more

If you can possibly avoid it, never use TIAA Bank for lending. I had a lease through it. I paid off the lease, and they are still taking $$ out of my bank account. Customer service is non-existent!! read more

As others say, they don't make it easy to take your money out of TIAA, presumably on purpose. But my experience is different agents have very different levels of knowledge about their procedures and systems (though all are polite), so if you get an unusual response, definitely try calling again to speak with another agent. If you have a choice of financial institutions, I'll just say that you can definitely do better than TIAA. read more

My mom was in higher education for 35+ years, along with my dad. My parents trusted TIAA as most higher ed employees did many years ago. At retirement, my mom established a term life policy with TIAA. The term life insurance policy with TIAA-Cref was always in good standing. When my mom was placed in a nursing home in 2017, I called TIAA (with POA) to change the bank account information to my account so the policy would remain in force. I spoke with a Supervisor named Pam, who advised that the policy would expire on the next renewal after her 80th birthday. Pam stated that the policy was eligible for conversion, and that I should "convert now rather than wait." I agreed, and Pam advised that she would send the conversion illustrations and documents for me to sign. After not receiving the illustrations and documents in a timely manner, I called at least 50 times over 3 month period trying to get information. Finally a customer rep named Franklin Ochs advised me by phone that the policy was not convertible and would not renew after expiration. TIAA's website clearly stated that upon expiration, all term policies renew until age 95 at a higher premium. I contacted CEO Roger Ferguson directly by email. He responded with a form letter, and did not seem to think that the blatant dishonesty, lack of customer service, or ethics was an issue. The policy expired last week, and has left our family in a real predicament when my mom passes away. I encourage all perspective TIAA customers to STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!! BUYER BEWARE: TIAA also now owns Everbank read more

Warning! TIAA bank is a disaster. Customer service says they will address a problem and you never hear back. The website doesn't work on the Safari browser. They just trashed a functional direct-pay system and replaced it with Zelle which is a buggy mess many people rightfully refuse to use. Their customer communications system is apparently broken -- I get no information from them about these changes... only discover them once they've happened. All reports to them of problems go unanswered. read more

Tiaa- they are not ethical and professional. My spouse has been unsuccessfully trying to roll over his IRA from Tiaa to another company. They intentially provided wrong information, wrong address, refusex to provide correct info, etc, etc. In the meantime, they stopped mailing the monthly statements and the value of IRA is dropping fast. Please do not ever invest with them. read more

They work a lot with teachers and make it difficult to take out the funds which may or may not be good. There are some great service reps in benefits and some terrible. Cora McIntosh is terrible and very very slow. When brought to attention again other service reps were helpful but they had a glad handler call who did nothing. We've been fooling around to get funds dispersed for over 6 months and they still have not followed through. read more

Hiring process needs to be refined look at potential not skin tone. The entire platform is like Oscar's, no Asian leaders, no minorities and lots of inexperienced No-Tanned leaders. All this while they are managing minority educators assets? I saw a assistant from another company who happens to have no-tan be a Director, it pays to be........ Only minority we saw were guys that look like used-car salesman. Funny. Disappointed to say the least. read more

When you want to roll your retirement money out to be managed by another company, you will have to be cautious. They are slow to do that for you and by some means, they make it very difficult and as a result, you may miss a good time of doing that roll over. They made a minor mistake by sending the wrong forms. As a result, all the involved rollover transactions had to be canceled and new forms were sent via the snail mail. By the time the new forms arrived and the whole rollover process had to be done again, the stock market might have dropped a lot and as a result, you got less money in your accounts with just an oral apology from the person who took your phone call. Was that deliberate? Who knows? The pros always tell clients that you cannot time the market. Are they timing the market for their own good? Who knows? read more