When the Markets Give You Lemons, Make Lemonade!
When there is fear in the markets, there are opportunities. It's time to take a proactive approach to managing your investments. At this point, the markets seem irrational. Although there…
The Stock Market: No, the Sky is Not Falling
The U.S. stock market got off the worst start this year in almost a century. This prompted fear from investors, and Warren Buffett compared the stock market with a “drunken…
Windfall Elimination Provision
Many professors, researches, and employees take jobs at universities without the knowledge that their institution does not withhold Social Security taxes from their salary. This may apply to an entire…
Enhanced Returns: Timing TIAA Real Estate
TIAA Real Estate is a unique account which provides direct ownership interest in commercial real estate. It offers an asset class not widely available to individual investors. The returns of…
The Value of a TIAA Wealth Management Advisor
TIAA and Fidelity offer Wealth Management Advisors (WMAs) to university employees with $500,000 or more in investible assets with their company. Wealth Management Advisors provide a very basic financial plan…
Avoid Disaster With a Guaranteed Period
TIAA-CREF offers multiple income options heading into retirement. These decisions include various options from rolling over an accumulation to an IRA to taking a lifetime annuity. When looking at the…
TIAA-CREF’s New Ticker Symbols!
TIAA-CREF invented the first variable annuity with the CREF Stock Account in 1952. They subsequently offered nine additional variable annuities along with TIAA Traditional to form ten core investment options…
Big Changes in CREF: Higher Fees and More Decisions
TIAA-CREF recently announced a change to the expense structure of the CREF variable annuities. Since the inception of CREF Stock in 1952, TIAA-CREF has had a single class low-cost structure…
Where’s the Ticker Symbol
Investors who start to research TIAA-CREF’s investments usually ask something right away. Why do some of the funds have ticker symbols and others do not? A ticker symbol in relation…
Comfortable Inaction
I recently met with prospective clients. We had a great conversation and ended an hour and a half meeting with handshakes and a smile. After the meeting, I felt really…
CREF Stock: More than it Seems
Many of TIAA-CREF’s variable annuities are broad funds that cover several asset classes. Investors who place money in these accounts must be careful to understand which asset classes are included. After…
5 Horrible Mistakes Made by Investors With Wealth
Introduction Often, individuals with substantial accumulations manage their own money or work with a financial advisor more inclined to sell a product than add value. Many of these individuals are…
TIAA-CREF: I Can’t Get My Money Out
TIAA-CREF has multiple withdrawal and transfer rules which are different depending on the type of contract, type of accounts, and amount in each account. This makes it very difficult for…
Financial Planning: It’s Academic
Financial Planning for employees who work at a university (or hospitals associated with a university) can be complex not only to the employees, but also to financial advisors not used…
My University’s Contribution
University Contributions I have traveled to universities across the United States each with different contribution amounts. I have found college and university contributions can vary widely. The information below provides…