No commissions, no ads, no advice. This TIAA profile draws only on public records, each linked so you can confirm it yourself.

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The short answer: is TIAA a fiduciary?

It depends on your account: TIAA is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, and follows the Regulation Best Interest standard as a broker. Publicly, it files with the SEC as Tiaa-cref Individual & Institutional Services (CRD #20472). According to its latest Form ADV (filed July 6, 2026), the firm reported $37.9 billion in regulatory assets under management and 72,503 clients. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management and other.

TIAA is a dual registrant, so the standard of care changes with the type of account you hold. In its advisory programs it acts as an investment adviser with a fiduciary duty. In brokerage accounts it acts as a broker-dealer under Regulation Best Interest (a best-interest obligation at the time of a recommendation, not a continuous fiduciary relationship). Our recommendation: ask TIAA to state in writing whether each of your accounts is advisory or brokerage, because that one answer sets both the standard of care and the way you pay. Get started with Truthifi

What "fiduciary" means: a fiduciary is legally bound to place a client's interests above its own. (More on fiduciary duty)

TIAA at a glance

✅ Verified from public filings, last checked October 5, 2026. TIAA (SEC CRD #20472) is a fiduciary in its advisory programs, on a fee-based basis, with $37.9 billion in regulatory assets under management. Every figure below links to its primary source.

What	TIAA	Source
SEC CRD	#20472	IAPD
Registration	Investment adviser and broker-dealer (dual registrant)	IAPD
Registered since	September 24, 2004 (SEC)	IAPD
Fiduciary?	Yes in advisory programs, Reg BI in brokerage	SEC Reg BI
Fee model	Fee-based (commissions + advisory)	Form ADV Item 5.E
How it's paid	A percentage of assets under management and other	Form ADV Item 5.E
Regulatory Assets Under Management	$37.9 billion (Form ADV filed July 6, 2026)	IAPD
Client accounts	72,503 (all discretionary)	IAPD
Employees	1,293 (1,020 in advisory roles)	IAPD
Ownership	Parent-owned	Form ADV Schedule A
Disclosures	Records carry disclosure items (common at this size). Review them directly	IAPD
HQ	New York, NY	IAPD

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TIAA fees: what you'll pay

TIAA fees depend on the account type: commissions in a brokerage account, an asset-based fee in an advisory program. A brokerage account generally carries commissions and product costs, such as mutual fund sales loads, markups and annuity commissions. Hold an advisory account instead, and the cost shifts to an asset-based advisory fee rather than per-trade commissions, on top of the underlying fund expenses. Its Form ADV (Item 5.E) lists how it is paid: a percentage of assets under management and other.

Being fee-based means the cost you bear could be an advisory fee, a commission, or both, depending on which account applies. For a sense of whether a given fee is fair, see Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question. If you would rather avoid commissions entirely, our guide to fee-only financial advisors explains how that model differs.

Who owns TIAA, and what conflicts does it disclose?

TIAA is owned by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV. (Form ADV Schedule A)

Its Form ADV Part 2A describes the firm's conflicts of interest, including how it and its advisers are paid. Because the parent is an insurer and annuity commissions appear among brokerage costs, it is worth asking whether any annuity recommended to you is issued by an affiliate, and how your adviser is paid on it.

TIAA SEC record: disclosures

TIAA's regulatory records may carry disclosure items, as most large firms' records do. At that scale, the number of disclosures is not by itself a measure of wrongdoing or of the firm's quality. A higher count often reflects how many people are registered, though it can also reflect conduct, so read what each item actually describes. With 1,293 employees on its Form ADV (2026), TIAA will show more total items than a small practice simply because more people are registered under it. If any apply to you, review them directly at the source. Any TIAA disclosures sit on the public record, not on anyone's characterization of them.

On the record, according to its Form ADV [→https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/20472], the firm has been registered with the SEC since September 24, 2004, makes notice filings in 53 jurisdictions, and reports 1,293 employees, 1,020 of them (about 79%) in investment advisory roles. Some people search "is TIAA legit?" Registration is easy to confirm: it has a public CRD and public filings anyone can pull. Registration confirms it's a real, regulated adviser, though not whether it's the right fit for you.

Reading TIAA reviews against the public record

Star ratings and comments about TIAA capture what dealing with the firm felt like. They rarely show what TIAA reports to the SEC. Before you weigh TIAA reviews, check three things from its filings. First, which side of the dual registration a reviewer was on: an advisory client and a brokerage customer pay differently and are held to different standards. Second, the insurer parent and the conflicts Part 2A describes. Third, whether its Form ADV reports any disciplinary history. Read reviews alongside the record, not instead of it.

How to verify TIAA yourself

Here's how to confirm all of it in three steps:

1. Check the SEC adviser record (IAPD): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/20472.
2. Read the filings (Form ADV / Form CRS): linked from the IAPD page.
3. Confirm the entity: match TIAA (CRD #20472, legal name TIAA-CREF INDIVIDUAL & INSTITUTIONAL SERVICES, LLC) so you're reading the right firm.

What TIAA does and who it serves

On its Form ADV (2026), TIAA reports providing financial planning, portfolio management for individuals and small businesses, selection of other advisers, and educational seminars.

It reports providing financial planning to about 102,500 clients in its last fiscal year (Form ADV Item 5.H), a count the form keeps separate from the client totals below. A TIAA financial plan doesn't necessarily mean TIAA manages your money, since financial planning and portfolio management are reported as separate services.

Its Form ADV (Item 5.D) breaks its clients down by type, 72,503 in all:

Client type	Clients	Assets managed
Individuals	25,667	$8.35 billion
High-net-worth individuals	46,802	$29.56 billion
Charities	14	$6.2 million
Corporations or other businesses	20	$10.7 million

High-net-worth individuals make up about 65% of those clients but hold about 78% of the assets TIAA manages.

It reports 72,503 client accounts, all managed on a discretionary basis, meaning the firm can trade without seeking your approval first (Item 5.F). That account count matches the Item 5.D client total exactly. The form records the two in separate fields, so read the match as what the filing reports, not as proof that each client holds one account. Its main office is in New York, NY.

It reports that it or a related person has custody of certain client assets, which brings extra safeguards such as surprise examinations. The specifics are in its Form ADV.

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Great advice runs on the truth. Here's how to bring yours to the table.

Confirming TIAA is registered takes a few minutes, but registration only tells you so much. Even a great advisor can only act on what reaches them. The held-away 401(k), a spouse's accounts and fund costs that never reach a statement usually arrive in pieces, none of it reconciled. This is where Truthifi comes in.

What TIAA's filings can't show about your own accounts

Confirming TIAA is registered takes a few minutes, but the filing describes the firm, not your household. With high-net-worth clients holding about 78% of TIAA's managed assets, many of its clients likely keep money elsewhere too, and those held-away balances never appear on a TIAA statement. This is where Truthifi comes in.

How Truthifi can help

Truthifi links your accounts read-only and shows what you own, how it's allocated, how it's performing and where the risk sits, including single-stock exposure, returns next to a benchmark, a fee breakdown of the fees on each account, by type, and your Truthifi Score. You can share the accounts you choose with your advisor at TIAA.

Prefer your own AI? A paid Truthifi plan lets you connect an AI assistant that supports MCP sign-in, such as Claude. Truthifi Connect is the lighter membership for people who only want to use their own assistant. To ask your assistant about your fees, choose a Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ plan. See how Truthifi keeps your accounts secure

Ask AI about your TIAA accounts

Once your accounts are connected read-only, you can ask in plain English:

• "What do I own across my TIAA accounts and everything else, and how is it allocated?"
• "What am I paying in fees across all of these accounts?"

Try it with Truthifi: start for free at app.truthifi.com and run a Monitoring Checkup (limits apply).

No commissions, no ads, no advice: Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice. Its access to your bank and brokerage accounts is read-only. Start free (limits apply). Monitoring Checkup is free. Link up to 10 connections (per Truthifi's pricing page). Plans and limits are on the pricing page → truthifi.com.

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FAQ

Is TIAA a fiduciary? It depends on your account. In its advisory programs it acts as a fiduciary. In brokerage accounts it follows the SEC's Regulation Best Interest standard. Ask which type of account you have.

What are TIAA's fees? They depend on the account. Brokerage accounts generally pay commissions and product charges. Advisory programs charge an asset-based fee instead of per-trade commissions, plus underlying fund costs. See the Form CRS.

Who owns TIAA? TIAA is owned by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, as listed in Schedule A of its Form ADV.

Does TIAA have complaints or disclosures? Its regulatory records may carry disclosure items, as is common at its size. A disclosure is not proof of wrongdoing. Read any directly on BrokerCheck and the firm's Form ADV.

Is TIAA legit? TIAA is registered with the SEC (CRD #20472) and its filings are public on the SEC's IAPD site, which confirms it is a real, regulated firm. Registration doesn't tell you whether it's the right fit or what you'll pay, so read the fee and conflict sections of its Form ADV.

Can AI help me check whether I'm getting good value? Yes. Start free (limits apply): Monitoring Checkup is free and lets you link up to 10 connections. You can also connect an AI assistant you already use (such as Claude). On Monitoring or Monitoring Plus+ you can ask it, in plain English, about the fees on each of your accounts. Truthifi is not an investment adviser and doesn't give investment, tax or legal advice.

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About this profile

Truthifi built this profile from the firm's own SEC filings (Form ADV and, where filed, Form CRS). Every page is reviewed by the Truthifi Team before publishing. The Truthifi advisor fact packs are an ongoing series checking U.S. investment advisers against their public filings, one firm at a time; browse the Truthifi /advisors hub to compare firms.

One last point: a Form ADV describes TIAA as a whole, but the question that decides your costs is narrower, which of your own accounts sits on the advisory side and which on the brokerage side.

Read next from the Truthifi blog

• What is a fiduciary?
• Fee-only financial advisor: costs and how to find one
• Are you paying too much? Why that might be the wrong question
• How to ask AI about your real investment accounts
• Robo-advisor vs. human financial advisor: which is better?
• All advisor fact packs on Truthifi

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A note on sources. The facts on this page come from publicly available documents, TIAA's SEC and FINRA filings, each linked inline so you can verify it yourself (SEC data current as of October 5, 2026). This is general information, not financial or legal advice, and Truthifi is not affiliated with TIAA. Regulatory records change, so always confirm against the official sources linked above. Spot something that should be corrected? Email us at support@truthifi.com.