Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund

TIAA

Type	Not-for-profit
Founded	1918
Headquarters	New York City, New York, United States
Key people	Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. (CEO)
Products	Financial services
Revenue	US$ 35.181 billion (2016)
Net income	US$ 1.214 billion (2016)
AUM	US$ 938 billion (2017)
Total assets	US$ 517.963 billion (2016)
Number of employees	13,000 (2017)
Website	tiaa.org

TIAA, formerly TIAA—CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association—College Retirement Equities Fund), is a Fortune 100 financial services organization that is the leading retirement provider of financial services for the academic, research, medical, cultural and governmental industries. TIAA serves over 5 million active and retired employees participating at more than 15,000 institutions and has $938 billion in combined assets under management with holdings in more than 50 countries (as of March 31, 2017).

Much of TIAA operates on a not-for-profit basis, with surplus returned to participants. TIAA is headquartered in New York City in the United States and has major offices in Denver, Colorado; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Dallas, Texas; as well as seventy local offices throughout the U.S.. In 2016, TIAA ranked 82nd on Fortune's list of the 500 largest corporations in America. As of 2016, TIAA is the largest global investor in agriculture, the 2nd largest grower of wine grapes in the United States (by acreage), and the 3rd largest commercial real estate manager in the world.

TIAA was created to replace the system of free pensions provided by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching for professors. When the original fund proved inadequate, TIAA was created in an Act of the New York State Legislature in 1918 as a stock life insurance company for the purpose of providing retirement income for professors through fixed premium guaranteed deferred annuity contracts. Later, in 1952, CREF was created to allow professors to invest in the stock market through the nation's first variable annuity. Its core business continues to be retirement plan administration and annuity products. It is by far the largest manager of 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.