Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association of America history

The policyholders voted in 1921 to implement policyholder representation on the TIAA board so that educators would have a role in running the organization.

Having won a Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1930, he was a trustee in the Rockefeller Institute, Carnegie Corporation, New York Public Library, and a fellow of Harvard University.

By 1935, 105 of 117 colleges that did require joint contributions participated in TIAA. Henry James, the president of TIAA in 1935, urged institutions to act as guiding forces in providing for the security of their employees.

In 1938 TIAA was given corporate independence.

Retirement benefits were first paid in 1940.

TIAA retirement plans increased by 45 in 1945.

By 1947, in a substantial number of colleges, 15% of the individual’s salary was contributed to the pension fund, with the staff member and the college each paying half this amount.

By 1950, TIAA had $299.6 million in assets.

TIAA created the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), a variable annuity, for that purpose, in 1952.

In 1956, TIAA received a $5 million grant from the Ford Foundation to develop group total disability and major medical insurance coverages.

In 1972 TIAA-CREF joined with colleges and other organizations to establish the Investor Responsibility Research Center, for the study of social-responsibility issues and portfolio investments.

As early as 1983, CREF’s performance was criticized as being 54% poorer than most pension funds, by one analyst, Pensions & Investment Age, June 13, 1983, reported.

In 1988 consummation of an agreement with the SEC opened the door for introduction of the new CREF Money Market Account.

On March 1, 1990, TIAA-CREF announced the introduction of two additional funds—the CREF Bond Market Account and the CREF Social Choice Account.