Company Profile
TIAA-CREF
Company Overview
For over 90 years, TIAA-CREF has been helping those in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields plan for and live in retirement. We do this with a full array of financial products and services to help them live to and through retirement and invest for life's other goals along the way. In keeping with our strong nonprofit heritage, we offer low fees, a long-term approach to investing, and a full line of financial products and services provided by non-commissioned consultants. Instead, they are compensated primarily on how well they serve you, not what they sell you. TIAA-CREF was created to replace the system of free pensions provided by Carnegie Corporation for professors. When the original fund proved inadequate, TIAA was created in an Act of the New York State Legislature in 1918 as a stock life insurance company for the purpose of providing retirement income for professors through fixed premium guaranteed deferred annuity contracts. Later in 1952, CREF was created to allow professors to invest in the stock market through the nation's first variable annuity. Its core business continues to be retirement plan administration and annuity products. It is by far the largest manager of so-called employer-sponsored 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans, a defined contribution retirement plan for employees of 501(c)(3) educational, religious, and charitable organizations. The company also offers 401(k) and 457 plans, Keogh plans, and Supplemental Retirement Plans. Contributions from these plans are typically invested in the company's traditional or variable annuities or its line of mutual funds.
In recent years the company has greatly expanded its capabilities and advisory services and broadened clients' investment choices.
At the retail level, TIAA-CREF offers Traditional and Rollover Individual Retirement Accounts, Roth IRAs, mutual funds, after-tax annuities and life insurance (through TIAA-CREF Life), 529 college savings plans, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, financial planning, and trust and investment management (through TIAA-CREF Trust Company, FSB). These investments are offered to the general public, and TIAA-CREF is no longer limited to the academic community.[2]
On the institutional side, TIAA-CREF Asset Management serves institutional investors and intermediaries, including registered investment advisors, investment-only defined contribution platforms and broker/dealers.
Company History
Andrew Carnegie is credited with foreseeing the need to offer pensions for professors. A prototype of the TIAA annuity system was developed by Carnegie while he served on the board of trustees of Cornell University between 1890 and 1905, for the benefit of that institution's faculty. In 1918 his Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, under the leadership of Henry S. Pritchett, created the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). It was incorporated as a life insurance company and tasked with providing life insurance and pensions for college and university employees, and endowed with $1 million from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
In 1921, the policyholders voted to nominate Professor Samuel M. Lindsay of Columbia University to represent them on the TIAA board of trustees. Policyholder representation on the TIAA board was consistent with the Carnegie Foundation desire that educators assume a role in running the organization.[2]
Conservative investing allowed TIAA to survive the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression. Faced with high inflation, increasing life expectancies, and a dramatic expansion of the education sector with the G.I. Bill, TIAA established the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), a variable annuity allowing for investment in equities, in 1952.
On June 15, 2007, TIAA became one of the first U.S. companies to voluntarily adopt, and the first to implement, a policyholder advisory vote on executive compensation policy.
On June 28, 2007, the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) announced its selection of TIAA-CREF as the sole investment provider for its supplemental retirement savings programs. CalSTRS is the second-largest public pension plan and the largest teachers' retirement fund in the United States.
On August 12, 2008, TIAA-CREF announced the opening of a new office in London. The office will be staffed by local investment professionals who will extend TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate's activities in the United Kingdom and Europe.
On September 7, 2008, Herb Allison, the former chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF, was tapped to lead beleaguered home mortgage backer Fannie Mae, as part of a government bailout engineered by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
On November 16, 2009, TIAA-CREF signed an agreement with a third-party to sublet the 17th, 18th, and 27th floors of the New York headquarters building at 730 Third Avenue to a third-party company that offers NY conference space and services.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
TIAA-CREF is a Fortune 100 financial services organization that is the leading retirement provider for people who work in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields. TIAA-CREF serves 3.7 million active and retired employees participating at more than 15,000 institutions and has $434 billion in combined assets under management.
Benefits
The Company's benefits plans are designed to offer options and features that employees desire and to promote shared responsibility between the Company and employees in providing for current coverage and planning for the future.
Health and Well-Being plans include health care, wellness programs, dental and vision coverage, as well as paid time off (PTO), life insurance and disability coverage. In addition, we offer a full range of competitive options, designed to meet the diverse needs of our workforce and help protect employees financially.
The foundation of employees' future financial security is the TIAA-CREF Retirement Plan. All contributions to the plan are made by the Company for all eligible employees based on their salary level and age. Another key element of employees' future financial security is our 401(k) plan, which offers a convenient way to save pre-tax dollars that grow, tax-free, until retirement. Employees can also save in our Retirement Health Care Savings Plan, which lets them accumulate after-tax savings on a tax deferred basis to pay for post-retirement medical and dental expenses. We continually assess all Benefits programs, including the Retirement Plan, to make sure they are cost-effective as well as suited to our employees' needs.