TIAA Reviews 175

I attempted to do rollover from Fidelity to TIAA. 3 months later I still get the run around talking to incompetent TIAA staff and listening to shopping music for a long time just to get the wrong information once again. Then they will mail you another wrong form by mail so I'm not sure what the portal is for. I lost many hours on the phone completing form after form w/ no real solution to a simple task such as rollover. So much agitation. They don't even have a manager to reach to discuss solutions so no accountability.

One star is very generous! Over six hours on the phone with, at least,different representatives- each and everyone gave me different information about the same topic! Misinformed personnel is really a problem with TIAA. I’m glad I’m closing my account because no one knows what they’re doing, I’m sorry to say. Even waiting to speak to a supervisor today – I was disconnected three different times.

I transferred money from my brokerage IRA account to my after-tax brokerage account, both within TIAA using their online portal as part of my IRS RMD. I have not received a 1099-R. I've been on the phone hours over 3 weeks trying to get this form. They admit it should have been generated, but can't seem to get it done. Still waiting for a solution. Expecting another callback. Taxes due in 5 days.

Without this form, withdrawals from an IRA account are moved to regular accounts with IRS notification, effectively TAX FREE. Unfortunately, I need it reported for my RMD.

We retired with close to a mullion in TIAA Traditional and decided to take the money out. You're forced to use a 10 year distribution scheme, which is OK- we knew that was the agreement. But in the first two years we had serious tax penalties because of IRS complications - related to distribution and tax payment timing issues. The whole process took about 5 months.

With the help of our financial advisor we found a solution and went to my TIAA consultant to implement it. Skipping the details, after about 20 email back and forth it became obvious that my emails were never read by the consultant and her technical assistant. My email would state the actions we discussed and ask my questions. Their response essentially regurgitated my summary to date in different words but did not in any way get to answering my questions or addressing the solutions I was suggesting and asking about. It became very obvious that the emails I had meticulously written were never read with any care by the TIAA consultant or any intelligent person at TIAA.

My advice is never use email of the phone with TIAA. Make all communications in person face to face. An expensive way to do business for either side, but that's the reality of the world with "AI" .

Also their website is full of extraneous garbage, hiding the account facts one is looking for. It is abominable.

I pity any conscientious and intelligent employee who has to work within this system.

Avoid TIAA - their customer service is the worst I've seen from any company. My mom passed and as executor, I needed the 1099-R tax form. I called several times from Mar 17 till Apr 8. Each time calling, I was faced with their automated voice system that is really terrible - super hard to get through. And after getting though the automated system a coupe times I was rerouted by the human back to their automated system without guidance on how to get through it to speak to the right area. Eventually, I spoke with the right area and they asked me to upload documents. I uploaded all necessary docs and they were ignored, event after a follow up call 10 days later where they said they had all that was needed. Took more calls to get through to get 1099-R form.

I’ve been with TIAA for more than 40 years, having been employed on a full-time basis at two universities that used the organization to provide retirement services. (I retired in Jan 2026).

I completed and uploaded four documents as directed. I was told that monthly payments are made on the first of the month. Sun Mar 01 arrived and I did not receive a payment. Nor did I receive a payment on Mon Mar 02. That morning, I called TIAA. I was told that monthly payments are made on the first business day and that I “should” get the deposit later that day. In speaking with TIAA on more than a handful of occasions, I had been told that payments are made on the first day of the month, not the first business day of the month.

Tue Mar 03 arrived and I did not receive a payment. I called TIAA and was told that the first monthly payment is usually delayed and I “should” get the deposit later that day. In speaking with TIAA on more than a handful of occasions, I had never been told that the first payment would be delayed.

Wed Mar 04 arrived and I did not receive a payment. I called TIAA and was told that I was sent an email with a payment confirmation. I checked my inbox and did find that email. While on the phone, I asked the woman if I could speak with a supervisor. She took a message and said that I’d get a call back within one to two business days.

On Fri Mar 13, I sent a brief message to TIAA on Facebook and Thasunda Brown Duckett (CEO) on Linkedin about my experience. That evening, I received a call from a supervisor. He defended the staff, noting something about the training that the people who answer the phones go through. I disagreed, stating that these were very basic questions that I was asking such as when to expect my monthly payment in which I was given three different answers (i.e., first day of the month; first business day of the month; and the first payment is a little delayed).

From outward appearances, TIAA looks to be highly reputable, supposedly managing nearly 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS of assets. But check under the hood and you’ll get a different picture. In terms of customer service, my experience with TIAA has been totally unacceptable and unprofessional.

Note: I have a much longer version of my experience with TIAA but it's length isn't allowable here.

I was left frustrated when my account was frozen with my money still in it. None of my attempts worked until I got assistance from ｟G｠｟L｠｟L｠｟P｠ • ｟U｠｟K｠

I had to do their work. They were too dimwitted to take out the money. I had to do everything otherwise I would've had to pay a penalty to the IRS. Now the morons are withdrawing too much money. Perhaps some more lawsuits should be filed against farce TIAA.

I have been trying to start withdrawing money from my traditional TIAA retirement account for months. I have spoken on phone with 6-8 different customer service reps. Each of them has been polite but has not been able to complete the task despite promise of getting it done. I have gotten spousal consent notarized 3 times ($75) and each time they either cannot find it or the form was wrong which was actually filled by the customer service rep. It has become super frustrating. Each time I get a new person who tells me that it was not done right previously. I insisted on speaking with a supervisor who called me back after two days but just passed it on to another rep

Would rate a zero if possible.

I could write dozens of pages on why they are so terrible but they have already wasted so many hours of my life with their incompetence that I will only say to anyone looking: DO NOT USE unless you hate yourself and do not value your time, energy, or money.

They failed to issue the Required Minimum Distribution for 2025 and it will cost me nearly $2,000 due to IRS penalties. I had set it up in 2024 for a recurring annual withdrawal but the idiots erroneously put it in as a one-time withdrawal in 2024 and as a result, nothing was withdrawn in 2025. I just discovered it today. I suspect the state will also penalize us. But they apologized "for any inconvenience." The rep said "their computer was confused."

I received the TIAA BS response to my complaint—painting the problem I reported as ours. As always TIAA tells only part of the story. What part of we will wait and decide and the part you left out where I told TIAA consultant Charles that I would not sign a new form lead TIAA to conclude we wanted NO funds from the UPS account? You should have sent the same UPS funds monthly as TIAA received NO confirmation of cancelation. But as always TIAA takes it upon themselves to make decisions and cancelled our UPS monthly withdrawal and then demand a new form because TIAA had taken upon themselves to cancel the existing withdrawal. Let’s not kid anyone, TIAA then forced us to get new spousal form because TIAA decided to cancel the monthly withdrawal without OUR authorization. TIAA is a non-customer oriented company that will do or say anything to protect themselves. They are so stupid they can not even remeber my husband has a Dr in front of his name. I am so sorry that many Universities have been sucked into their worthless service.

We've changed our on line account to have tax forms mailed as we don't have a printer. They said they mail -2-2026. And again 2-7 2026. It's 2-27 and still nothing in the mail. I wish I could move our retirement account somewhere else.

TIAA CREF website was down all day today - not able to move my retirement assets allocation, probably lost some money. Spoke to them in the morning, promised to fix "an issue in a couple of hours" - they never did.

I have been attempting to roll over my retirement account out of TIAA and it has been a nightmare. They have all the documents, notarized, but keep finding reasons not to complete the transaction. Every customer service rep is really nice but gives different instructions. It's starting to feel like they are being deliberately obstructive. It really shouldn't be so time consuming to get my money.

Website keeps crashing, customer service is useless. I have spent WEEKS trying to set up direct deposit.

Update: finally found a customer service number that could help. They said they set up the direct deposit. So, we'll see. Upgrading one star.

Adding more didn’t unlock withdrawals, until Gřɘɏ~Øχ~ħʉɓꜱ stepped in and restored everything.

They messed up my IRA rollover and my money is missing in action. They cannot tell me who my financial advisor is (send me the contact details of somebody who does not provide advice). I cannot get any help to fix this issue

It's completely amazing that reputable business could publish articles on this firm. I was duped and i lost a lot of money on this website. I've learned my lesson and will repent now before it's too late. Since i started working with #plan2prosper# progress has become regular, and takeout has once again become simple and reliable.

I have been waiting for a reply to try to schedule my brokerage assistant team appointment to a different person due to their lack of professionalism and finally to change to a different team it due to lack of response and professionally in the group that I was assigned to.
I have notified the team manager and specifically a person named Caroline Goodman who is as supposed to take care of it as I assume she is higher up the chain.
Extremely disappointed!
Will see if I need to change my investments to a different company like Fidelity.