TIAA Reviews 175

step-father passed away in July 2023 and I filled out the death benefit paperwork and it's now Novemebr with no money disbursement and they have said for about 8 weeks their servers are down this compnay is holding money from deceased individuals that wanted their loved ones to have when they past. This company si disgusting and fraudulent

At the beginning of the year I called to request an additional amount be taken out over what my RMD was. It’s now the end of the year (2023) and it turns out much LESS was taken out because the extra $$ decreased the RMD $$.!! It took several calls to finally find a Rep that explained what happened. Same thing happened when trying to set up an Annuity. They have a Field Office here but no one is there including the Secretary! In person appointments are a month out.

First, TIAA allows retirement plan sponsors to try to dictate the timing of the RMD withdrawal, where the retirement plan withdrawal assets come from, and the amount of tax withheld, requiring one to cancel these forced withdrawals to properly withhold taxes, designate asset classes for the withdrawal, and move the withdrawal to the end of the year to allow maximal tax-free accumulation of assets in the plan before withdrawal.

Second, TIAA demands social security numbers as financial identifiers, when other information could be used instead, putting customers at risk of identity theft when SSNs are stolen from TIAA identifier databases or intercepted in online or phone interactions with TIAA. Repeated complaints to TIAA about this have been ignored. Massive data breaches are not uncommon, such as the 2017 theft of 143 million+ Equifax social security numbers. Consumer Reports in a Nov. 28, 2007 online article, states that use of SSNs as an access code for goods and services, when not required by law, should be stopped. Some TIAA customer service agents refuse to proceed with phone interactions without at least the last four SSN numbers, meaning that TIAA stores this information in its databases used for identification, again putting the customer at risk of identity theft. As reported by Ars Technica,a 2009 Carnegie Mellon researcher algorithm reconstructs full SSNs from the last 4 digits when the date and place of birth are available. Use of SSNs for tax purposes, and other uses required by law, is of course legitimate.

Third, when requesting withdrawals over the phone, TIAA representatives ignore verbal requests for the timing of the withdrawal at a later date, and do this on or close to the next business day instead. In a Nov. 7 2023 phone call I requested Dec. 8, 2023 RMD withdrawals, which was ignored for all but one retirement plan. When I discovered this on Nov. 20, 2023, I requested that the original Dec. 8 distribution request be honored in phone calls to TIAA on Nov. 20 (no action was apparently taken as a response to this call), Nov. 30, Dec. 4 (three calls as TIAA hung up or dropped the first two calls), and Dec. 5. In spite of statements to the contrary, there were no callbacks after the dropped calls. As of the writing of this review, supposed escalation tickets from these calls have resulted in no action fixing the problem, even after the promised 24-48 hour response, and the "Complex Resolution Manager" supposedly assigned to the case has not responded. Whether by design, incompetence, indifference, lack of resources, or some combination of these possibilities, TIAA customer support in this case has been disastrous.

In a 2021 SEC enforcement action, TIAA-CREF was fined $97 million for advisors failing to disclose conflict of interests in retirement rollover recommendations (SEC.gov, July 13, 2021 press release). TIAA is also being sued in class action lawsuits for a May 2023 data breach, involving Progressive Software's MOVEit file-transfer system, exposing 2.4 million TIAA customers personal information including SSNs, with plaintiff's attorneys alleging "TIAA maintained its network in a reckless manner, failed to encrypt or redact sensitive information, and failed to meet industry data security standards or requirements of the Federal Trade Commission" ((Bloomberg Law, Aug. 8, 2023, "TIAA Sued Over MOVEit Data Breach of 2.4 Million Consumers").

Unless you want a cavalier approach to the security of your SSN, and/or an infuriating experience with your annual RMDs, avoid this company for your retirement needs.

Both of my parents had TIAA/Creff investments. When they passed, these companies was ridiculous to deal with. Many forms, then told filled out wrong, resubmit, and round you go. The other investments they had were easy and the firms were helpful instead of bureaucratic nightmare that is TIAA/CREFF. My guess is that they are good on the sales end and horrible of after sales customer service. They make you call the call center when they could leave a complete message or send a complete email. By the way, every other investment team I dealt with made sure to either complete the paperwork for you or walk you through it. They are inefficient and waste time. MAKE IT EASY, that should be your customer service goal.

It took 3 hours and 4 phone calls plus online time to request a standard IRA rollover out of TIAA. After I submitted the form online, I was informed that the form was incorrect - even though it had been completed by a TIAA rep during the 2nd phone call - because TIAA does not accept rollover information from outside parties. So I gave the same information again - for the third time during the 4th phone call. I am crossing my fingers that this transaction will be processed tomorrow. I WILL NEVER PUT FUNDS IN TIAA AGAIN.

I called many times in 5 days, but nobody answers phone. Taking huge money from customer , but can't reach them over the phone. It's ridiculous.

This is a terrible company to deal with. You talk to three different people you will get three different answers. The company has decreed a system that prevents individuals from earning a decent investment return.

This isn't simply a recent review: this is a general dissatisfaction. The company charges ridiculously high fees, doesn't do a good job investing AND, what is particularly infuriating is that withdrawals from an annuity happen on the first day of the month BUT the receipt of customer funds may take 3, 4, or in this case 5 days. Apparently their computers don't work on weekends or holidays; must be in their union contract. So the company has use of the float for all that time. AND unfortunately if seems to have a death grip of certain fields like education but, hey, teachers make so much money, it's all good.

Customer service isn’t helpful. Money goes in but good luck taking it out. I’ve been given the runaround for 6 weeks now, trying to close my account. The first time I called they said the institution that was depositing benefits had 30 days to approve my request. After 30 days called again they said my account had a hold on it they would remove the hold and I would have my funds in 2 days. After 2 days and no funds it was my fault I needed to turn in address verification. In my account there is a place for tasks and messages which I had none. I went to upload the documents but the website was down. So I called again they said you’ll have to wait and try again later oh by the way did the last representative tell you that you need to write a letter attach a reference number telling them they could use your identification to verify address included that with your id. You’ve been warned money goes in but it doesn’t come out!

That ROBOT answering the phone at 1-800-842-2252 is driving me INSANE. I have spent HOURS trying to complete what should've been pretty easy if only a HUMAN or a smarter robot had answered the phone and put me through to an "associate" and if their software wasn't so user UNfriendly. Can't go into detail. Refuse to give this nightmare anymore of my time. I'm looking into getting my money into someplace that has much better customer service AND software.

TIAA has the worst customer service for 401k’s. I spoke to two representatives who gave misinformation about a rollover request I submitted. The third representative I spoke to hung-up the call after requesting to speak to a manager. I am glad I moved my money to Fidelity and got out of that circus show.

I've been an investor with TIAA CREF for over 35 years and up till this week, was satisfied. However, post covid, with office closings and the move to online and phone in contact, makes customers feel less valued. I prefer face to face customer service, because that's part of what I'm billed for. I've found a new company, who does business the old way and am going there

Very very poor performance it has massive underlying fees. They purchased products that they own. TIAA hide their fees in the products they purchase. They basically compound their fees without the investor knowing it.

Like many of the reviews to follow getting money transferred out of TIAA is almost impossible. Filing a complaint with the SEC is a possible solution, or perhaps a class action lawsuit.

Convert TIAA-IRA to TIAA Roth-IRA it tooks a month to process and keep getting wrong informations. Now I decide to Xfer completely my TIAA-IRA to other investment firm ... it took forever to process and never notified me... and when I call the agent just full of BS... not resolve any issues. I would rate as Zero star if I could. Sometime I thought they hired all the elementary school to handle financial service...

I needed to make some allocation changes and had some questions. Contacted my rep in MI (they closed the Southfield office and didn’t tell customers). Was told to call the 800 number. Called the 800 number and was told to call my rep with my questions. The service is horrible. Used to be a good company. And we aren’t talking pennies for the value of the account,

I will mention just one incident which shows how unethical (and perhaps illegal) their operating practices are. Specifically, after messing up a phone transaction regarding movement of funds from my checking account into my retirement account so that it did not go through they admitted they owed me approximately $250 and said "they would make me whole". How did they do this? Rather than paying out-of-pocket which was what I expected they had the audacity to take the money out of my checking account and moved it into my retirement account!! They did not tell me they were going to do this or ask me if they could access my checking account. This must be illegal!! Overall, the mystique of Tiaa being above the fray because their clients are university professors and hospital administrators is gone: since going for profit, they have sunk to unheard of levels of immorality and will do anything to get more commissions from clients even if it hurts the clients in the process. The recent lawsuit reported in the NY Times in which they had to pay approximately 300 million dollars to clients for cheating them out of money and not acting in their best financial interest is testament to all of this. Tiaa, shame on you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wasn't able to check my account for 2023, and I just checked and it is showing my account balance went to 0.00 in one day. How can this be possible? I am still confused.

Prior to April, 2023, TIAA was depositing 5 regular required minimum distribution payments into my bank account at the beginning of each month. In mid-March, after filing my taxes for tax year 2022, I submitted a request to increase withholding on my 3 taxable IRA accounts. This was done using a W-4R web form on the TIAA website. After that, on April 2, I noticed that one of my 5 direct deposits was not made. I had to call them and request that they manually deposit the missing payment. This deposit was finally completed on 4/14/23. Just to check that everything was back on track, I logged into the portal after the missing payment was deposited and noticed that the banking information for all three of my taxable IRA accounts had been changed to a non-existent bogus account, so I called and spent about an hour on the phone with a CSR trying to get the problem fixed. I was assured that a case was opened and a special representative would handle getting this all resolved. About a week later, I received an email giving me the name and contact info for this case. I called the analyst and he told me that, rather than being asked to resolve all of the banking deposit problems, he was only responsible for resolving one of the three accounts in error. He told me that he would work to resolve that one account and put in a request for another case to resolve the other two. None of that ever happened. I logged into my account again on 4/28/23. I noticed that the bank deposit information was still missing for all three IRA accounts and there was no way for me to fix it because the accounts had been completely removed from the retirement distributions list. So, I called in AGAIN and spoke with a Chauncy who supposedly verified that the 5/1/23 payments would be made for all 5 accounts and that the corrections that would allow me to see and manage distribution deposits for the accounts using the web portal were still underway. He told me he couldn't give me a date when things would be back to normal so if I wanted to change anything right now, I would need to call in. I was assured that, even though the banking information was not showing up on the web portal, that it was correct on the back end. Well, the payments for May were even more screwed up. On May 2, the only payments deposited in my account were for the two non-taxable Roth accounts. On 5/3/23, I called in AGAIN and spoke with Larry this time about not receiving the three taxable payments. I spent 45 minutes on and off hold and again got assurance the payments would be deposited in the next two days. Nope! On 5/9/23, I called TIAA again. This time I spoke to Ben. Went over the whole situation again and told him I still had not received the deposits or restoration of the distribution bank routing information for the 3 taxable accounts. He offered to pay me a one-time lump sum distribution instead of monthly payments. I think this was his way of 'fixing' this screwup. I emphatically told him that I didn't not want a lump sum but instead want the regular monthly payments just like what had been done prior to April, 2023. He told me he put in a work order to have the payments sent within 3 business days. At that point, I requested to speak to a manager about this. Ben told me his manager was in a meeting and other managers are unavailable. Ben told me his manager, Michael, would call back within 2 business days. Michael did actually call back, but despite assurances he (Michael) would ensure the problems would get resolved, nothing has changed and now he is not calling me back. One other interesting thing I noticed yesterday is that TIAA withdrew money from all 5 accounts on 5/1/23 but only deposited the withdrawn amounts from the two Roth accounts. The money withdrawn from the three taxable IRA accounts went who knows where??? I did not get those funds until 5/11 so my money was somewhere else for 10 days! Anyway, the problems are still not resolved after over 2 months and I don't know where to turn to get anyone there to help!

I have been having an absolutely atrocious time trying to rollover funds from my TIAA 401k to a new account. When I initially completed the paper work, I supplied wiring information because it did not specify if it was for mail or wiring. Rather than contacting me to verify the address, TIAA mailed a check to the wiring address which obviously didn't work. After repeatedly contacting them for updates, they told me the check had been returned and that I would have to start the rollover process from scratch once the funds were readded to my account. I wait another week, no funds are returned. I contact them again and am provided with completely different information. I am told that the funds would never be automatically reapplied, and that I should just provide the correct mailing information (WHICH I HAD TRIED TO DO PREVIOUSLY AND WAS DENIED). Following this, I asked for an email address so that I could keep a log of this information. The customer service rep refused to do so, claiming that they had no emails to contact.