Director - Anonymous employee TIAA Employee Review

2.0
Jul 16, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefit programs; especially retirement, medical and retiree health care. Fast paced growth business Great place to work if you are young, want to learn and put up with mgmt continual flip flopping strategic vision / business growth. Let very unsuccessful and ineffective business operate too long, never face reality; Covariance E&F unit and Banking division are examples of two business units that are draining resources, TIAA-CREF participants paying toll.

Cons

Management does not promote from within; most senior mgmt hires come from outside firm. Certain areas; poor human resources, results in not effective recruitment to fill new positions, takes too long to post position, get hired. The Banking and Trust division was being directed by Legal leaders and not business / product leaders. Wealth Mgmt business is a revolving door, they cannot retain effective advisor work force. Mgmt very top-heavy with ineffective long term individuals so how have little practical knowledge how to run their business unit

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5.0
Jun 14, 2026
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CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work life balance, good benefits, decent pay, ease of running your own practice as an “advisor”, and healthy work environment

Cons

Management styles can vary and affect your experience, upper management doesn’t seem to be well equipped to ensure the organization’s success but it is resilient nonetheless.

2.0
Jul 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good starting salary and benefits package.

Cons

The longer you’re there, the more of an expectation that you work more for the same or less income. Producers find it hard to justify staying when leadership keeps moving the goal posts on how to increase income. No rhyme or reason as to how they decide “promotions.” One advisor might have one good year and get promoted over an advisor that produces year in and year out. They fail to share revenue because they’d have a hard time justifying the income level compared to outside advisors with a fraction of the book size. They claim and depend on brand recognition to justify a capped income but fail, or just won’t admit that is why they keep losing their top talent. Operations is a nightmare that I can’t even begin to describe. When I share the processes that have been in place for over a decade, colleagues in the industry shake their head and laugh. They can’t believe we earn and keep business. The saying while I was there was “the biggest threat we face is that TIAA clients start to explore their options outside of TIAA.”

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