TIAA RetirePlus® Surpasses 400,000 Individual Participant Accounts, $30 Billion in Assets

Default investment solution that provides easy access to personal pension^iv in retirement sees accelerating demand

NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- TIAA RetirePlus^® has recently grown to more than $30 billion in assets and over 400,000 individual participant accounts across nearly 500 institutional clients. This announcement comes just 24 months after RetirePlus surpassed $10 billion in assets and only five months after growing to 250,000 participant accounts. This accelerating growth stems from the increasing demand for a default retirement solution that provides access to guaranteed lifetime income for all participants.

"TIAA fundamentally believes that all retirement plans in the U.S. should offer participants the option to have a monthly retirement paycheckⁱ as long as they live. RetirePlus is one of the vehicles to provide this retirement paycheck by offering guaranteed income in retirement and guaranteed growth during accumulation – all at a potentially lower plan cost," said Colbert Narcisse, chief product and business development officer at TIAA. "We know that plan sponsors want to design better retirement plans and better outcomes for their participants, and they want to experience the same success that other TIAA clients have had with RetirePlus."

According to the TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) at the George Washington University School of Business (GWSB), a staggering number of Americans display a lack of understanding regarding how long people tend to live in retirement, and this lack of longevity literacy hinders retirement planning and saving.

By switching to TIAA RetirePlus, plan sponsors can create built-in guarantees during asset accumulation and distribution, reduce default option costs, tailor default options based on its participant's demographics, and allow participants to create guaranteed lifetime income in retirement.ⁱⁱ

TIAA RetirePlus can be a qualified default investment alternative (QDIA). It combines the ease of a familiar target-date structure with the ability to select investments from the existing plan while potentially lowering administrating costs and fees. It also allows participants to convertⁱⁱⁱ some or all of their savings into a 'personal pension'^iv in retirement when TIAA Traditional is built into the plan.

TIAA Traditional offers an opportunity to provide even more income for long-term contributors through a loyalty bonus that rewards savers with additional income if they choose to annuitize based on how long they have been investing.^v TIAA has shared more than $3 billion a year on average in profits over the past 10 years.^vi

TIAA RetirePlus allows plan sponsors to work with a 3(21) fiduciary advisor or a 3(38)-investment manager who can customize all aspects of model attributes for the unique needs of their participants.

In addition to RetirePlus for the 403(b) and nonprofit market, TIAA offers the TIAA Secure Income Account (SIA). It's a fixed annuity like the TIAA Traditional annuity and is specifically designed to be used as an allocation within managed accounts or target-date portfolio strategies in non-403(b) plans.

The TIAA SIA is also embedded within the Nuveen Lifecycle Income CIT Series, a collective investment trust (CIT) target-date solution that offers participants the option of converting a portfolio of their holdings into guaranteed income at retirement. The trustee of the CIT is SEI Trust Company. 

About TIAA
TIAA is a leading provider of secure retirements and outcome-focused investment solutions to millions of people and thousands of institutions. It is the #1 not-for-profit retirement market provider^vii, paid more than $5.6 billion in lifetime income to retired clients in 2022 and has $1.28 trillion in assets under management (as of 12/31/2023)^viii.       

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You should consider the investment objectives, principal strategies, principal risks, portfolio turnover rate, performance data, and fee and expense information of each underlying investment carefully before directing an investment based on the model. For a free copy of the program description and the prospectus or other offering documents for each of the underlying investments (containing this and other information), call TIAA at 877-518-9161. Please read the program description and the prospectuses or other offering documents for the underlying investments carefully before investing.

This material is for informational, educational or non-fiduciary sales opportunities and/or activities only and does not constitute investment advice (e.g., fiduciary advice under ERISA or otherwise), a securities recommendation under all securities laws, or an insurance product recommendation under state insurance laws or regulations to invest through a model or to purchase any security or advice about investing or managing retirement savings. It does not take into account any specific objectives or circumstances of any particular customer or suggest any specific course of action.

No registration under the Investment Company Act, the Securities Act or state securities laws—the model is not a mutual fund or other type of security and will not be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and no units or shares of the model will be registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, nor will they be registered with any state securities regulator. Accordingly, the model is not subject to compliance with the requirements of such acts, nor may plan participants investing in underlying investments based on the model avail themselves of the protections thereunder, except to the extent that one or more underlying investments or interests therein are registered under such acts.

No guarantee – Neither the models nor any investment made pursuant to the models are deposits of, or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by TIAA or their affiliates (except with respect to certain annuities sponsored by TIAA or its affiliates), or insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or any other agency. There is no guarantee that the underlying investments will provide adequate income at and through retirement and participants may experience losses. Participants should not allocate their retirement savings to the underlying investments unless they can readily bear the consequences of such loss.

Assets allocated to the underlying investments based on the model will be invested in underlying mutual funds and annuities that are permissible investments under the plan. Some or all of the underlying investments included in the model may be sponsored or managed by TIAA or its affiliates and pay fees to TIAA and its affiliates. In general, the value of a model-based account will fluctuate based on the performance of the underlying investments in which the account invests. For a detailed discussion of the risks applicable to an underlying investment, please see the prospectus or disclosure document for such underlying investment.

TIAA RetirePlus Select^SM and TIAA RetirePlus Pro^® are administered by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America ("TIAA") as plan recordkeeper. TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, Member FINRA distributes securities products. TIAA and CREF annuity contracts and certificates are issued by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), New York, NY, respectively. Each is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations. Transactions in the underlying investments invested in based on the models on behalf of the plan participants are executed through TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, member FINRA.

TIAA RetirePlus Select

TIAA RetirePlus Select is an asset allocation program that includes asset allocation models that a plan participant may choose to guide the investment of his or her account into underlying investment options selected by the plan sponsor (the "underlying investments"). The plan sponsor selects the specific underlying investments available under its plan to represent the various asset classes in the models. An independent third-party advisor engaged by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America ("TIAA") developed the target asset class ratios for the models and the TIAA RetirePlus Select is administered by TIAA as plan recordkeeper. In making TIAA RetirePlus Select available to plans, TIAA is not providing investment advice to the plans or plan participants.

The target asset class ratios for a plan participant's model-based account will become more conservative over time as the plan participant's years to retirement decreases. For information regarding the changes to the target allocations please contact TIAA. An account's actual allocation percentage to an underlying investment may vary from the target allocations due to the performance of the underlying investments or other factors. Accounts invested in accordance with the models will be rebalanced to the applicable target allocations periodically. The underlying investments included in a model are subject to change and may not be representative of the current or future underlying investments for the model. Some or all of the underlying investments included in a model may be sponsored or managed by TIAA or its affiliates and pay fees to TIAA and its affiliates.

Mesirow is not affiliated with TIAA. Mesirow Financial refers to Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc. and its divisions, subsidiaries and affiliates. The Mesirow Financial name and logo are registered service marks of Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc. ©2019, Mesirow Financial Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. Advisory services offered through Mesirow Financial Investment Management, Inc. an SEC registered investment advisor.

TIAA RetirePlus Pro

TIAA RetirePlus Pro, a model-based service, is administered by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America ("TIAA") as plan recordkeeper.

The TIAA RetirePlus Pro Models are asset allocation recommendations developed in one of three ways, depending on your plan structure: i) by your plan sponsor, ii) by your plan sponsor in consultation with consultants and other investment advisors designated by the plan sponsor, or iii) exclusively by consultants and other investment advisors selected by your plan sponsor whereby assets are allocated to underlying mutual funds and annuities that are permissible investments under the plan. Model-based accounts will be managed on the basis of the plan participant's personal financial situation and investment objectives (for example, taking into account factors such as participant age and risk capacity as determined by a risk tolerance questionnaire).

The plan fiduciary and the plan advisor may determine that an underlying investment(s) is appropriate for a model portfolio, but not appropriate as a stand-alone investment for a participant who is not participating in TIAA RetirePlus Pro. In such case, participants who elect to unsubscribe from the service while holding an underlying investment(s) in their model-based account that has been deemed inappropriate as a stand-alone investment option by the plan fiduciary and/or plan advisor will be prohibited from allocating future contributions to that investment option(s).

Established Restrictions: Each plan participant may, but need not, propose restrictions for his or her model-based account, which will further customize such plan participant's own portfolio of underlying investments. The plan fiduciary is responsible for considering any restrictions proposed by a plan participant, and for determining (together with plan advisor(s)) whether the proposed restriction is "reasonable" in each case.

TIAA RetirePlus SelectSM is a service mark and TIAA RetirePlus® and TIAA RetirePlus Pro® are registered trademarks of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America.

About Nuveen Lifecycle Income CIT Series

SEI Trust Company serves as the Trustee of the Nuveen/SEI Trust Company Investment Trust III and maintains ultimate fiduciary authority over the management of, and the investments made, in the Nuveen Lifecycle Income CIT Series (Lifecycle CIT Series). 

Each fund is part of a trust operated by the trustee. The trustee is a trust company organized under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and wholly owned subsidiary of SEI Investments Company (SEI). The Lifecycle CIT Series is managed by the trustee, based on the investment advice of Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC, the investment adviser to the trust, and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC as investment sub-adviser to the Lifecycle CIT Series.

The Lifecycle CIT Series are trusts for the collective investment of assets of participating tax qualified pension and profit-sharing plans and related trusts, governmental plans and other eligible plans, as more fully described in the Declaration of Trust. As a bank collective investment trust, the trust is exempt from registration as an investment company. A plan fiduciary should consider the funds' objectives, risks, and expenses before investing. This and other information can be found in the Declaration of Trust and the Funds' Disclosure Memorandum.

Annuity contracts may contain terms for keeping them in force. We can provide you with costs and complete details.

TIAA Secure Income Account is a fixed annuity product issued through this contract by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY, 10017: Form series including but not limited to: TIAA-UQDIA-002-K and related state specific versions. Not all contracts are available in all states or currently issued.

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ⁱ Paycheck refers to the annuity income received in retirement.  Guarantees of fixed monthly payments are only associated with TIAA's fixed annuities.

ⁱⁱ Results experienced by one plan may not be typical of all plans. Individual results will vary.

ⁱⁱⁱ Converting some or all of your savings to income benefits (referred to as "annuitization") is a permanent decision.  Once income benefit payments have begun, you are unable to change to another option.

^iv 'Personal pension' refers to the income received from a guaranteed-interest annuity contract, not income provided by a defined benefit pension plan.

^v TIAA may provide a Loyalty Bonus that is only available when electing lifetime income.  The amount of the bonus is discretionary and determined annually.

^vi TIAA may share profits with TIAA Traditional Annuity owners through declared additional amounts of interest during accumulation, higher initial annuity income, and through further increases in annuity income benefits during retirement. These additional amounts are not guaranteed beyond the period for which they were declared.

^vii As of July 21, 2022. Based on data in PLANSPONSOR's 403(b) 2022 DC Recordkeeping Survey, combined 457 and 403(b) data.

^viii As of December 31, 2023 assets under management across Nuveen Investments affiliates and TIAA investment management teams are $1,284 billion.

SOURCE TIAA