TIAA Reviews 

I have been retired for 4 yrs I move my accounts to a life time aunity at the time of the transfer I was told each yr my monthly payments would increase the first 2 yrs were great I received my increases
The last 2 yrs I have received no increases
I have spoke to a representative and asked why.
I was told the board of directors deside each year who will receive a increase.
I dont understand what right the board of directors have to make such a decision with members money.
With the cost of living intrest rates and inflation we know that tiaa is making $$$$$.
I was a fan of tiaa but not anymore.
They tell you one thing when you turn your money over to them and after 4 yrs everything changes. I have lost my trust with tiaa.
The board members need to stop putting money in there pockets and start taking care of there members 🙏

TIAA is awful. I wish my employers offered other investments. It is difficult to adjust investments to other offerings across portfolio offerings (web site not user friendly), but probably the worst is how difficult it is to get my money from them when I want (and legally can) withdraw. Delay after delay, always some excuse. I am told a check is coming, only to find out a mistake was made.... always allowing them to keep my money longer.

TIAA has provided me with the absolute worst customer service experiences of my entire life. The TIAA customer service experience can best be described as abysmal. Because of restrictions that they impose (and blame on my previous employer), it is going to take me 17 years to get my retirement savings out of them. I'm not certain I will live that long. Nothing was disclosed at any step of the process. This is an unscrupulous company, with no regard for the customer. Please, stay away from them.

My personal id information was leaked/stolen from TIAA in 2024. My social security number, birthdate and other identifying information showed up on the dark web, linked to TIAA, according to Microsoft.
In addition, their customer service is particularly poor. They are not available on weekends or late night. Their website is frequently unavailable or rejects my valid logon.
TIAA often forces me to change investment funds in my retirement accounts at TIAA. I suspect to get larger fees. Their fund choices generally have higher fees than others. I was forced to use a TIAA retirement account because I worked for a University.

Put the wrong amount of contribution and didn't fix it.

TIAA CREF is borderline FRAUDULENT. There should be a law against holding your money hostage for months! A transfer of funds to a new employer should not take 6 months. It took them 3 months to verify that I no longer worked at the 3 district in South Carolina from 2008-2023, Even though I have lived in Florida for 2 years! LOL
They finally sent checks a month or so ago, but they must still be in the TIAA-CREF mailroom. Anything to hold onto that money so that they can make 'FREE' interest. This began in February or March. It is annoying!

The funds are OK but their back office service is abysmal. Last Tuesday I tried to sell and transfer to my checking account some of my assets there and it is going to take at least a week though I need the cash now.

A close relative spoke to a representative, opening an IRA with 5,000 by the April 15th tax deadline. She had money directly deposited in the newly opened account and received an "account opened" notice from TIAA. She just checked yesterday, looking to allocate the 5,000 -- and found 0 funds in the account. The rep failed to tell her that she'd need a picture ID sent to TIAA, as per the "Patriot's Act" -- and that the funds were sent back to her along with a letter -- to the very address they were trying to confirm, apparently! She never received any communicaiton from the company on this and would never have known that she had an empty account. So now she will need to amend her taxes and pay the taxes she thought she had saved by opening the IRA. What a gigantic hassle -- all because the representative didn't do his job effectively. Of course, she spoke to two different people over 40 minutes to get any information at all -- and no one apologized or assumed any kind of responsibiity for this huge omission and ensuing problems caused by this company.

Absolutely the worst company to communicate with. I lost my mom in March 2025 who had TIAA as your retirement and i am still getting the run around about her benefits. Even though i am the beneficiary I had to hire a lawyer to get anywhere with them, and they are still dragging there feet. It's bad enough dealing with the death of a loved one then u have to deal with this company. I wish I could give them 0 stars

TIAA Contacted me today. About their CREF. I hadn't thought to much about them lately. I have an account with them after working for a company. The interaction was amazingly rude for someone who wants my business. I have interviewed many people in my work, I expected a professional.

If you have money with TIAA, get it out, and run like your hair is on fire! The worst customer service, a failing company, difficult at best website and phone system (complicated by design).

Terrible customer service this company is the seed of Satan. My job unauthorized an enrollment under my name giving this diabolical business my personal information. When I called to get unenrolled they informed me they couldn't do so because my job needed to have a certain amount of participants for tax purposes. In addition, they have long wait times. They transfer you to China and back with reps that don't even speak English. It's fraud to forcefully make me apart of their plan and scream at me that I have no say about it. He took my information but didn't want to provide his name or allow me to speak to his manager. I feel as if my job just placed my private information in the hands of scammers. This call should have been easy and smooth after verifying myself and informing them I never enrolled with my consent. However, it wasn't he had all the rebuttals of why staying is going to benefit me in the future and there is nothing I can do about it if my job signed me up. And I must not plan on staying long at the job if I don't want to be apart of their plan, insinuating intrusive lies to escalate the matter. Knowing my reason for the call is to get removed from their plan. He wouldn't stop. It felt like the telemarketing calls when you tell the criminals and scammers to remove your number and they become aggressive. I won't be surprise if the agent second job is working as a scam caller because he was too good at being nasty, forceful, and foul.

Worst customer service on very level. 1) Automated line long, takes time, and ask same question multipole times and keeps saying having trouble - that's 15+ minutes blown. 2) want to make withdrawal - form requires notarization if married. given instructions to download form, get notarized and download back - Can't print form, must use THEIR services at $25.00. all the while your $ is at risk. Try and call for help on hole 45 minutes + each time. Stuck as it's who employer uses, Will have personal CPA go in bi-weekly and move funds, I'm sure they will make a penny off that as well. The most $ hungry, disgusting organization around, and in these days and times. they do not have your best interest at hand. AVOID if at all possible.

The worst, the worst the worst! Every single thing that I requested was done wrong. Over and over and over. Useless, absolutely incompetent customer service! And it is people's money, their livelihoods that is at stake. Disaster. Money sent to the wrong destination twice. Total incomprehension on the part of customer service reps. MONEY SENT TO THE WRONG DESTINATION! This is criminal!

Funny, being with TIAA for over 30 years I find myself here along with a pile of other "happy" customers. It really is a process to get a human being at TIAA to actually speak with you for a resolution. They made a mistake for the 3rd time in 30 years resulting in costing me money and time AGAIN and no one will connect me with a supervisor to talk to about it. I want Kourtney Gibson's email or phone number to speak directly to her but these cowards refuse to give me that. Read their "vision" statement, no mention of customers, just what a great team they have there. They can say goodbye to mine/and my wife's money very soon.

What should have been a simple online pension withdrawal turned into a 14-day (and counting) saga of bureaucratic chaos, and outright dysfunction.

TIAA, a company entrusted with over $1.3 trillion in retirement assets, subjected me to a surreal dance of:
- Impenetrable chatbot loops and multi-hour international hold times,
- Contradictory instructions from a revolving door of support agents — each unaware of the previous one,
- An absurd demand for a U.S. notary - (I live in the U.K., next available appointment at the Embassy: September),
- A complete lack of internal coordination — with different documents, messages, and alerts scattered across tabs in an incomprehensible online portal.
- Even after fulfilling their ever-shifting requirements, I’m still facing uncertainty over how and when my own money will be delivered.

This experience wasn’t just frustrating — it was emblematic of a bigger problem. TIAA’s systems and service culture are broken. If they can’t manage a basic transaction for a long-standing client, what faith can anyone have in their ability to manage pensions?

TIAA talks about “client centricity.” Based on my experience, it’s nothing more than a PowerPoint slide.

Scandalously, inefficient and incompetent!!!

The customer service at TIAA is awful. You cannot directly contact an office in your own area. You are transferred to people all over the country and each person asks for your personal information. Stay away from this company they care nothing about their clients.

They robbed me and now I understand why no one heard of these losers or even uses them. Don’t use them or you will regret it

This company should be shut down. They keep no accounting of your money and put the owner on you to do the research on your contributions. Do not trust your heart earn money with these thieves they have a horrible attitude and will not help you when you need it. Zero customer service they should be closed down.

Terrible customer service. I was treated as if I had ZERO value to them - a company I have invested my life savings in for 30 years. BTW, as an educator, this is the only company we are allowed to have our retirement account in, so I guess they figure we're stuck with them. The day I retire, I will remove ALL my money from their company and roll it over to a place that values my business.