Introducing a New Custom Default Solution, TIAA RetirePlus℠

Business Wire

TIAA RetirePlus is a simple way for plan sponsors and consultants to offer a custom set of model portfolios designed to be QDIA-eligible

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- TIAA, the largest provider in the nonprofit retirement market¹, today announced TIAA RetirePlus, a new addition to their suite of Custom Default Solutions that offers predefined asset class models, easing implementation.

“A Century ago, TIAA was founded on the need for secure retirement income,” said Dan O’Toole, Senior Managing Director of Institutional Investments & Research at TIAA. “That need has not diminished, so we continue to bring new solutions to address the needs of our clients. This latest innovation makes it simple for plan sponsors and consultants to create models that can help improve participant outcomes and includes guaranteed income investments that provide certainty of income within the familiar target-date like structure.”

Mesirow Financial designed the strategy and asset class allocations. The plan sponsor, as fiduciary, selects the investment options for their models on their own or with advice from their co-fiduciary investment advisor, or can delegate selection to their own investment manager with full discretion authority.

TIAA’s Custom Default Solutions program lets plan sponsors and their consultants build model portfolios specific to the demographics of their plan. They provide more control over investment choices and costs and are designed to be eligible to be selected as Qualified Default Investment Alternatives (QDIA). To learn more, visit https://www.tiaa.org/public/consultants/partner-plan-advisors-consultants/retireplus.

“These solutions give plan sponsors and their advisors flexibility and control over perhaps the most important investment alternative in their plans – the default,” said Mr. O’Toole. “By giving workers better access to lifetime income options in their retirement plans, plan sponsors can offer protection against retirees outliving their savings and help provide their employees with the secure retirement they deserve.”

About TIAA

With an award-winning² track record for consistent investment performance, TIAA (TIAA.org) is the leading provider of financial services in the academic, research, medical, cultural and government fields. TIAA has $1 trillion in assets under management (as of 6/30/2018³) and offers a wide range of financial solutions, including investing, banking, advice and education, and retirement services.

You should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. Please call 877-518-9161 for current product and fund prospectuses that contain this and other information. Please read the prospectuses carefully before investing.

This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation to invest through a model or to purchase any security or advice about investing or managing retirement savings. This material does not take into account the specific objectives or circumstances of a plan participant, or suggest any specific course of action. Investment decisions should be made in consultation with a plan participant’s personal advisor based on his or her own objectives and circumstances. The models are not “investment companies” within the meaning of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the models do not issue securities within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

TIAA RetirePlus (the “Program”) 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 adviser engaged by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (“TIAA”) developed the target asset class ratios for the models and the Program is administered by TIAA as plan recordkeeper. In making the Program 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 decrease. 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.

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.

Plan participants 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.

TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., and Nuveen Securities, LLC, Members FINRA and SIPC, distribute securities products. If offered under your plan, 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.

Investment, insurance and annuity products are not FDIC insured, are not bank guaranteed, are not deposits, are not insured by any federal government agency, are not a condition to any banking service or activity, and may lose value.

TIAA RetirePlus^SM is a registered service mark of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017.

607440

¹ Based on data from 63 providers in PLANSPONSOR magazine’s 2018 DC Recordkeeping Survey, combined 457 and 403(b) plan assets as of 12/31/17.

² The Lipper Large Fund Award is given to the group with the lowest average decile ranking of three years’ Consistent Return for eligible funds over the three-year period ended 11/30/12 (36 fund companies), 11/30/13 (48), 11/30/14 (48), 11/30/15 (37), 11/30/16 (34) and 11/30/17 (34) with at least five equity, five bond, or three mixed-asset portfolios. Note this award pertains to mutual funds within the TIAA-CREF group of mutual funds; other funds distributed by Nuveen Securities were not included. From Thomson Reuters Lipper Awards, © 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. Used by permission and protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States. The printing, copying, redistribution, or retransmission of this Content without express written permission is prohibited. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Certain funds have fee waivers in effect. Without such waivers ratings could be lower. For current performance, rankings and prospectuses, please visit the Research and Performance section on TIAA.org. Securities offered through Nuveen, LLC, and TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, members FINRA and SIPC.