TIAA-CREF continues to take steps to offer you a wider range of financial products and services that broaden your investment choices and help you make sound financial decisions. We also continue to improve our service infrastructure to increase our capability, flexibility and speed in meeting your needs. Throughout this complex transition, some individuals have experienced delayed transactions and other service shortfalls. We apologize for any issues or problems this transition may have caused.
Today, thanks to our work to improve customer service, we are consistently completing most client transactions on the day they are received. While some individuals may continue to experience delays, overall customer service continues to improve. With this in mind, we have posted below some frequently asked questions about service issues and the actions TIAA-CREF is taking to uphold our historic mission of meeting your financial needs on the best terms practicable.
Where there have been shortfalls, what are you doing to fix the problems?
We continue to take steps to help ensure that all participants can rely on their transactions being processed in a timely manner, their account statements accurate, and queries or complaints responded to and resolved quickly and completely.
What guidance can you give clients who have a service problem?
If you experience a problem with your transaction or account, please contact a TIAA-CREF customer service representative at 1 800 842-2776. Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. (ET), and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (ET). See additional ways to Contact Us. We will work to resolve your problem as quickly as possible.
When do you expect these issues to be resolved?
While we are completing most client transactions on the day they are received, we continue work to accelerate service improvements and improve overall service quality. Of course, we will continue compensating individuals for economic loss as a result of delays we have caused.
Why has it appeared to be such a challenge for TIAA-CREF?
This was an unprecedented transformation for TIAA-CREF and essential to meeting our clients' financial needs. In some cases making improvements to our service infrastructure has entailed replacing thirty-year-old systems and the software that runs them. It is a complex undertaking, but one that is already benefiting clients by allowing us to deliver expanded choices of funds and accounts, personalized advice and other advantages on a single, reliable platform.
What benefits can TIAA-CREF clients expect as result of the company's transformation?
Clients can expect that TIAA-CREF's combination of choice, objective, non-commissioned1 advice, consistent historical performance2 over the long term, and guaranteed lifetime income options3 surpasses what is available from many other full-service financial services companies. Unlike our competitors, TIAA-CREF's sole and defining purpose is to serve individuals and institutions in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields.
1 Our Advisors receive no commissions. They are compensated through a salary-plus-incentive program that focuses on client service excellence.
2 Past performance cannot guarantee future results.
3 Guarantees are subject to the claims-paying ability of the issuer.
All TIAA-CREF investment products are subject to market risk and other risk factors, which can be found in each product's prospectus. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., members FINRA, distribute securities products. Annuity products are issued by TIAA (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association), New York, NY. Advice and Planning Services is a division of TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services LLC.
© 2009 and prior years, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), New York, NY 10017
