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).
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.
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Long organized as a tax-exempt non-profit organization, a 1997 tax bill removed TIAA's tax exemption. It is now organized as a non-profit organization, the TIAA Board of Overseers, with taxable subsidiaries; all profits are returned to policy holders.
Although the company asserts that it maintains a set of values consistent with its long heritage of not-for-profit service to the academic and nonprofit sectors, a New York Times article by Gretchen Morgenson found that TIAA now operates like other for-profit investment advisors, and has been accused by former employees of pushing high-cost products on clients. In June 2016, TIAA instructed employees to "avoid accidentally implying that you may be acting as a fiduciary," and not to reference "the participant's best interest" or discuss "TIAA's not-for-profit heritage."
History
In 1918, Andrew Carnegie and his Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, under the leadership of Henry S. Pritchett, created the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), a fully funded system of pensions for professors. Funding was provided by a combination of grants from the foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York, as well as ongoing contributions from participating institutions and individuals.
In 1921, the policyholders voted to nominate Professor Samuel M. Lindsay of Columbia University to represent them on the TIAA board of trustees. Policyholder representation on the TIAA board was consistent with the Carnegie Foundation desire that educators assume a role in running the organization.
Conservative investing allowed TIAA to survive the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression.
In 1933, Albert Einstein became a participant, a fact that TIAA--CREF later used in a notable 2001 advertising campaign.
After World War II, in reaction to rising inflation and lengthening life expectancies, and a dramatic expansion of the education sector with the G.I. Bill, TIAA recognized the need for its participants to invest in equities in order to diversify their retirement funds. In 1952, TIAA created the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), a variable annuity, for that purpose.
On June 15, 2007, TIAA became one of the first U.S. companies to voluntarily adopt, and the first to implement, a policyholder advisory vote on executive compensation policy.
On August 12, 2008, TIAA--CREF announced the opening of a new office in London. The office will be staffed by local investment professionals who will extend TIAA--CREF Global Real Estate's activities in the United Kingdom and Europe.
On September 7, 2008, Herb Allison, the former chairman and CEO of TIAA--CREF, was tapped to lead beleaguered home mortgage backer Fannie Mae, as part of a government bailout engineered by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
On September 14, 2012, TIAA--CREF bought Festival Place, a shopping center in Basingstoke, England for £280 million.
On May 16, 2013, TIAA--CREF purchased a 50% stake in the Grand Canal Shoppes, including the Shoppes at the Palazzo, in Las Vegas for net proceeds of $410 million USD as part of a new joint venture with General Growth Properties. GGP will continue to oversee the asset management of the project.
On April 14, 2014, TIAA--CREF announced that it would acquire Nuveen Investments in a deal valued at $6.25 billion.
On February 22, 2016, TIAA--CREF rebranded as simply TIAA as part of a new marketing and imaging campaign. CMO Connie Weaver explained that the old name was perceived by customers as being complicated, and that the new branding scheme was meant to portray a simpler and friendlier image of the organization.
On August 8, 2016, TIAA reached a deal to buy EverBank Financial Corp. for $2.5 billion in cash.
On June 12, 2017, TIAA completed the acquisition of EverBank. At the time of the press release, the combined bank's legal entity name is TIAA, FSB.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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