TIAA Reviews 

Terrible customer service. Its like you are trying to steal your own money back from. them. Rude. As soon as I can I'm getting all my $$ out of this joke. DO NOT USE them. Use Fidelity or another service.

I’m sure many people would agree that if it was possible to give them negative stars we would. Giving them a one star review would be giving them more credit than is actually deserved. Absolutely TERRIBLE COMPANY and the employees are in the same boat. No one is trained to do their job, and no one can give you any clarification.
I literally cannot wrap my mind around how those employees feel good collecting a paycheck when they literally DO NOTHING. They have had my funds tied up for MONTHS now and have made it impossible for me to roll it over. And what’s worse? They don’t even have an actual review section in either Google or their own webpage. Because if they did they would be constantly ripped apart. Nothing but a headache and hardship from them. I hope others read these reviews and avoid this terrible company. I hope I can avoid others the hardship I have faced with then. Garbage company that needs to cease to exist.

Many, many problems with TIAA over decades. I finally rolled out of there, but my TIAA funds could only be withdrawn over a 10-year period. I signed up for that and the first year went well, my new account received the funds as a rollover with no taxes taken out. The 2nd year instead of rolling to my new account they sent the check to me with RMD paid.....the first week of March! They refuse to change it, blame it on me. I'll lose nearly 10 months of invested funds by them paying my RMD. I pay my RMD out of other funds, they insist on paying out of their funds. I'm so aggravated. This is the millionth time I've had problems with them. Always my fault. I've complained to the SEC. They told me to get a lawyer. :-(

Just as one example of the quality of TIAA's operations, after a recent interaction in which I wasn't able to resolve an issue, I received a survey regarding the interaction. Upon choosing that I was unable to achieve my objective, the very next question was "which method resulted in completion of your objective?" with no "objective not completed" and inability to further complete the survey. That's OBVIOUS push-surveying to force achieving a high "objective completion" metric.
Even if that is not their intention, how poor does an organisation's quality management have to be to have such an obvious oversight. They don't even test their own systems!

Tiaa is the worst possible place to hold your retirement funds. When it is time for payouts to begin, TIAA will do everything possible to delay or stop your receipt of monthly payments. You will be on hold for literally hours when you call the national line. My bad experience is literally ongoing for 4 years and counting. Get your money out if at all possible.

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!