Thanks to legendary philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, colleges and universities in the United States offer some of the best retirement plans in the nation. With customary foresight, Carnegie recognized that colleges needed to offer adequate pensions in order to attract talented teachers.
In 1918 the Carnegie Foundation established Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (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 — including an initial gift of $1 million — and ongoing contributions from participating institutions and individuals. Incorporated as a life insurance company in the state of New York, TIAA began operation under the leadership of Henry S. Pritchett, a former president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. By the end of its first year, 30 public and private institutions had signed on.
From the beginning, the Carnegie Foundation wanted educators to assume a role in running the organization, and in 1921 policyholders voted to nominate Professor Samuel M. Lindsay of Columbia to represent them on the TIAA board of trustees.
TIAA's portfolio followed the prudent thinking of its time, investing in government, railroad and industrial bonds. This strategy allowed TIAA to weather the depression. Assets under management grew from $19 million in 1929 to $105 million in 1939.
When the Second World War ended, government grants made it possible for many returning veterans to go to college. The number of graduates tripled between 1944 and 1950. TIAA now had nearly 600 participating institutions, but it was facing new challenges. During the 1940s, inflation averaged more than 7 percent per year, with a record 18.2 percent in 1946. In addition, increased longevity was radically changing actuarial projections. In just 50 years, the average life expectancy in the United States had increased from 48 years to nearly 70.
TIAA's pensions were meant to last a lifetime, and with lives lasting longer and the dollar shrinking, new strategies were needed. TIAA responded with a pioneering economic study and financial innovation. Over a period of 18 months from 1950-51, a TIAA task force analyzed historical data to determine how a combination of TIAA and a "variable annuity" funded by periodic investments in common stocks would have fared during the 70 years from 1880 to 1950 — a span that included two world wars, several financial panics and a severe depression.
The task force concluded that investing retirement assets in fixed-income instruments alone was unwise because of the inflation risk. On the other hand, market risk made the sole use of equities unwise as well. A mix of the two, however, provided the best possible protection against fluctuations in stock prices and changes in the value of the dollar.
Inflation had generally occurred during times of rapid growth. By investing in the companies that were generating that growth, a stock-based fund would offset the loss of buying power experienced by the income from a fixed-rate account. When stocks declined, the fixed-rate account would provide stability. This is the strategy recommended by virtually every financial planner today.
To implement these conclusions, TIAA created the College Retirement Equities Fund, the world's first variable annuity, which began operation on July 1, 1952. Later that year, an editor at Fortune wrote to a colleague: "I think this is the biggest development in the insurance-investment business since the passage of the Social Security Act."
TIAA-CREF continued to provide innovative solutions for building retirement assets. In the 1970s, it was one of the first companies to use an extensive portfolio of international stocks as part of its investment strategy. In 1988, it began expanding its variable annuity offerings, which now number 10 and include the TIAA Real Estate Account, allowing participants to invest in directly-owned real estate properties.
The balanced approach to building retirement assets pioneered by TIAA-CREF has helped thousands of participants retire with financial security. Since its inception in 1952, the CREF Stock Account has generated an average annual rate of return of 10.40 percent per year (as of 1/31/2008). TIAA's Traditional Annuity has paid its guaranteed interest rate plus a dividend since 1948.
As the stock market continued its protracted decline in 2003, retirement participants flocked to TIAA-CREF, producing the highest yearly increase in premiums in the organization's history.
Today the TIAA-CREF group of companies offers a wide range of products to the general public, while continuing to serve its core constituents in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields.
In 2002, TIAA greatly increased its mutual fund offerings to broaden investment opportunities for participants. In February 2008, TIAA-CREF ranked 9th overall out of 67 mutual fund families in the annual Lipper/Barron's Fund Family Survey. For more information, please see the Lipper/Barron's survey coverage. To view a current list of retail class mutual funds offered by TIAA, visit the Mutual Funds section of our website.
TIAA-CREF recently launched and continues to expand its line of Lifecycle Funds. Each fund is structured to automatically readjust its portfolio to maintain an appropriate mix of investments as the target retirement year approaches.
In order to better serve our clients, TIAA-CREF currently operates offices in nearly 60 U.S. cities including Ann Arbor, Houston, Iowa City and Salt Lake City, with others planned.
© 2009 and prior years, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), New York, NY 10017
