TIAA-CREF

From Ask in Wiki

.

TIAA-CREF is one of the largest financial services companies in the United States, with more than $428 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2007. Its approximately 15,000 institutional clients are drawn from the non-profit and educational sectors, and the company itself is operated on a not-for-profit basis. TIAA-CREF is headquartered in New York City and has major offices in Denver, Colorado and Charlotte, North Carolina as well as 55 local offices throughout the U.S. Since 2002 its Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer has been Herbert M. Allison, Jr. TIAA-CREF ranks 80th on Fortune's list of the 500 largest corporations in America.

TIAA-CREF was originally created to provide retirement income for professors, and its core business remains retirement plan administration and annuity products. It is by far the largest manager of so-called employer-sponsored 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans, a defined contribution retirement plan for employees of 501(c)(3) educational, religious, and charitable organizations. The company also offers 401(k) and 457 plans, Keogh plans, and Supplemental Retirement Plans. Contributions from these plans are typically invested in the company's traditional or variable annuities or its line of mutual funds.

At the retail level, TIAA-CREF offers Traditional and Rollover Individual Retirement Accounts, Roth IRAs, mutual funds, after-tax annuities and life insurance (through TIAA-CREF Life), 529 college savings plans, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, financial planning, and trust and investment management (through TIAA-CREF Trust Company, FSB).

History

Andrew Carnegie is credited with foreseeing the need to offer pensions for professors. In 1918 his Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, under the leadership of Henry S. Pritchett, created the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). It was incorporated as a life insurance company and tasked with providing life insurance and pensions for college and university employees, and endowed with $1 million from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Conservative investing allowed TIAA to survive the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression. Faced with high inflation, increasing life expectancies, and a dramatic expansion of the education sector with the G.I. Bill, TIAA established the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), a variable annuity allowing for investment in equities, in 1952.

Recent developments

Over the past several years the company has taken steps to offer institutional and individual clients a wider range of financial products and services, along with personalized advice and education to help investors make sound financial decisions. To deliver these and other benefits, TIAA-CREF has decided to shift to a more modern and flexible plan-based retirement record-keeping system rather than continue to use a more rigid one that it considers outmoded. Throughout this complex transition, some consumers have experienced hugely delayed transactions and other service shortfalls. The company claims to be working "urgently" to resolve all service matters and improve service to both institutions and individuals, and has posted information on its web site about these issues and actions TIAA-CREF is trying to take in order to deliver the service clients expect. See [1]

On June 28, 2007, the California State Teachers' Retirement System(CalSTRS) [2]announced its selection of TIAA-CREF as the sole investment provider for its supplemental retirement savings programs. CalSTRS is the second largest public pension plan and the largest teachers' retirement fund in the nation.

On June 15, 2007, TIAA became one of the first U.S. companies to voluntarily adopt, and the first to implement, a policyholder advisory vote on executive compensation policy. Preliminary results, announced on July 17, were that 82% of policyholders who voted approved the quality of the company’s executive compensation plan and disclosure, including its connection to performance, achievement of TIAA’s business objectives and creation of long-term value for policyholders.