Retirement Investments & IRAs: Morningstar Ratings

Morningstar, Inc., December 31, 2011. Morningstar is an independent service that rates mutual funds and variable annuities.

For each fund/account with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar RatingTM based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's/account's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. Where applicable, Morningstar's performance rankings are based on linked performance that considers the differences in expense ratios, while actual performance data shown does not reflect such differences.

The top 10 percent of funds/accounts in a category receive five stars, the next 22.5 percent receive four stars, and the next 35 percent receive three stars, the next 22.5 percent receive two stars and the bottom 10 percent receive one star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund/account within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) Morningstar proprietary ratings on U.S.-domiciled funds/accounts reflect historical risk-adjusted performance, are subject to change every month. They are derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. Please note, Morningstar now rates group variable annuities within the open-end mutual fund universe.

Although Morningstar data are gathered from reliable sources, neither Morningstar nor TIAA-CREF can guarantee its completeness and accuracy. Morningstar does not rate money market funds/accounts and the other TIAA-CREF Funds are too new to be rated. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Accumulation net asset values and returns will vary.

The information contained in these reports is the proprietary information of Morningstar, Inc., may not be copied or redistributed for any purpose and may only be used for non-commercial, personal purposes. Additionally, Morningstar, Inc. shall not be responsible for investment decisions, damages or other losses resulting from use of this information. Morningstar, Inc. has not granted consent for it to be considered or deemed an "expert" under the Securities Act of 1933.