TIAA Reviews 175

If you used TIAA advice services, please email TIAAcomplaints(end with at google email. This platform doesnt allow me to type it) Provide information on when and where you spoke with a TIAA representative and what disclosures you were provide. There is a high probability that investments changes related to that advice has cost you money. There is a class action lawsuit in the early stages regarding this. I am incredibly familiar with the inner workings of TIAA and how their products and tools operate. With just a little amount of information, I can provide you specifics on how you were impacted. Thanks

Can’t roll over from TIAA they will steal your money and make it near impossible to get. Choose a different provider.

TIAA has too many underlying fees, not seen to the investor. For example; 100% of your funds are in a 100% large cap fund. It is possible for the Dow S&P and NASDAQ to go up on all three months i.e. the entire quarter but the fund went down. The only way that happens is through poor investments (not the case I reviewed the stocks) or stealing the money via unseen/ underlying fees

A former employer removed my funds from Fidelity and transferred to TIAA. I called TIAA to inquire and rep just didn’t seem knowledgable. Constantly yawning while I was trying to create online account. When I hung up and said thank you, I received a “mmm hhmmm”. What happened to your welcome, which would’ve been a proper response. From the reviews posted it wouldn’t do any good to complain with TIAA and I have no desire to see how they might do with my funds. Will be rolling over to another broker once the blackout period is over.

The representative was condescending and insulting as she deliberately stalled during my recent bank changes. After several minutes beyond reason, on hold, I hung up. 15 wasted minutes.
Called back. Spoke to different representative and was done in less than 10 minutes.
I asked to file a complaint.
I was promised the proverbial call back never made.
Horrible attitude, obviously little concern for professionalism

Called

In that I did all I needed to do without help. Please note that TIAA was once v service-oriented. When they began a separate, agent-based side of retirement, things went down hill. Note that TIAA had a huge SEC case (they had to pay massive fines) in 2018 or 2019.

This retirement plan that I had for just over a year while working at a Christian school is horrible! The school put in $13.16 as a contribution for the first quarter of 2023 while TIAA took $47.82 for 'fees'! I quit working at the Christian school and decided to move my money to my IRA. That has been a fiasco!!! They require a notary and husband's signature just to transfer the tiny retirement fund. TIAA struggles with their communication as I had no email sharing that the documents that I uploaded were not accepted in late January. I also had 2 different agents giving me different instructions on how to upload the rollover paperwork so I did it how the lady said to upload it. Now, it is March and I have to start over on all the paperwork! Trying to get through to an agent has been horrific with phone call dropping out after I waited a few times for 35 minutes in late January. I can't believe the stress this lousy retirement account has been on me. UPDATE: It is May 2024 and I still am having issues trying to move my retirement out of TIAA even after involving a financial company to help me a month ago by faxing the required information to TIAA. TIAA can't find any documentation of a rep talking on the phone or proof of the faxed information. Don't invest your money into this incompetent company! UPDATE on 5/29/24: Still waiting to get this little account withdrawn and put into a better investment situation. TIAA is messed up.

Signed up for a high yield savings.

The user experience of the desktop platform was confusing and lacked information that is standard on other platforms.

1 month in after transferring my funds, they canceled my account do to missing information but never informed me of either the information needed or the cancellation. I logged into the platform several times with no alerts visible until one day my funds & record of my account vanished with no explanation.

In correcting the issue, their customer service was decent with no language related friction. But after being told I’d receive a fed ex tracking number right away for the check of my now closed account, as well as someone who would help address the issue of missing interest, I have yet to see a follow up and am going to have to call again.

Overall, a huge waste of time and I would not trust them with my money again even though they have the highest APY.

Aside from the disjointed customer service the website is inherently impossible to navigate
We are in the process of transferring to fidelity which requires an enormous anount of notarized paperwork

My wife and I have been members of TIAA since the 1970s. Over this long period of academic employment and into retirement, we have benefited from sound advice given by our contacts at TIAA. They are careful to explain the reasons for recommended actions and always solicit our input.

A negative five stars would be too good for TIAA-CREF, 4 Months and still trying to start my pension with them. a dozen calls, 3 agents saying all is submitted as required using the forms they provided to me, only to be told by a fourth agent they were wrong and more needs to be done. They are incompetent. I can only hope this next set of paperwork actually results in my pension starting.

Wish I could give less than one star. I get every time a different information about the same thing, that probably all inaccurate at some level in its own way. About basic things, nothing hard. I have gotten not only unclearly explained advice at retirement, but also advice that was wrong for my situation, probably everyone's case it would have been wrong. I got outright false suggestions, no person can clarify what went wrong when that seems to be the case. Unclear, how they are running their business. Scary, since many of us must have account with them, via employer.

I am glad to see that I am not crazy. I am my mothers POA and Guardian and due to her declining status I have been trying for months to be her beneficiary. Now they have stopped her payments that go to her nursing home despite having the court paperwork, that they say they do not have. I want to get an attorney but dont want to pay for that. they are the absolute worst.

Had to call many times just to get funds transferred to rollover IRA. Each time something went wrong. Many times the customer service phone tree hangs up on you before being able to speak to a human. They mail checks out by regular postal mail with no tracking numbers, so have no idea where the payments are if they don't arrive. Very antiquated system. Not recommended.

Of all businesses I have dealt with, TIAA CREF is the worst. I tried to receive my retirement, but they took months giving it to me. Then I realized they only paid half of it and kept half. I’ve been trying to get my retirement for 8 months. This is not retirement! I am forced to keep asking for my money! NEVER USE THIS COMPANY! This is not how I wanted to retire, begging for my money. Now I have to get an attorney. DO NOT TRUST TIAA CREF!

My experience is the same as previous reviews. TIAA was an excellent company 30 years ago. Today, the "customer service" is the worst. It takes multiple calls (each hours long) to complete common transactions. They seem to work to prevent any rollovers from taking place. Representatives often give out incorrect information and promise calls back from "supervisors" that never happen.

TIAA was , at one point, THE trustworthy and professional manager of academic and medical retirement plans. That was 30 years ago. Now, there are other more efficient, more professional, and lower cost alternatives. My experiences with TIAA is that their products are expensive, and their personnel seem inexperienced and frequently supply answers to questions that ultimately prove inaccurate. In addition, their client facing web tools are many years behind in intuitiveness and usability.
Finally, they seem to have morphed into a DEI company that muddles in financial services. That is not why I previously chose them to manage my retirement.
My chief regret at this point is not realizing how difficult it would be to get my money out of TIAA.

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

If it was possible I would give this a minus 10 since every aspect of it is a mess and will drive you crazy.

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

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