Is TIAA-CREF Still Falling Down?
What’s the matter with financial giant TIAA-CREF? I’ve had problems with an account transfer during the past few weeks, and from what I’ve learned, I’m not alone. I sent in the paperwork to transfer assets from a 403(b) (tax-deferred) account at TIAA-CREF (TC for short) to a traditional IRA, also at TC. That’s a routine transaction. It’s allowed because I contributed to these accounts while working for a previous employer. I did the same thing at Vanguard a couple of years ago. At Vanguard, the mutual funds disappeared from the first account one day and showed up in a new IRA the next day. TC has been working on this transfer for three weeks and still hasn’t finished. The money is in limbo. It has left the first account but has not arrived in the IRA. I’ve called TC several times and sent one fax, but it doesn’t seem to help. The reps agree how slow it is and offer to “escalate” me to another level, whatever that means. Sometimes they tell me that a member of the “team” will call me. I
