retirement income planner - tiaa · into account any specific objectives or circumstances ......

Retirement Income PlannerOverview and map

TIAA is committed to delivering the most innovative retirement income planning solutions to help you to feel confident about your decision on when to retire and how to receive your retirement income.

If you’re within 12 months of your desired retirement date, the Planner provides you with a close approximation of the amount of income you can expect to receive from your accounts with us under different income options. If you’re further away from retirement, the Planner offers an estimate of what your income might be, based on certain assumptions. Working together with our consultants, you can determine your retirement income needs and learn about the options available to you. You can create several different scenarios to compare how much income you might receive from the various income options available in your plans.

Entering the Retirement Income PlannerThe first page highlights key features and benefits of the Planner. When you access the Planner for the first time, you will be asked three general questions to get you started. These questions are designed to help you customize the initial illustration you’d like to see. If you would rather skip these questions, you can go directly to the Planner. The default initial illustration is based on your taking a single life annuity with a 10-year guaranteed period1 for all your holdings at TIAA. We assume your income start date to be age 66, or your current age if older than 66.

Understanding the main screenOn the right side of the main screen, you will see a table displaying your estimated future income. The amounts are based on information from our records and various assumptions about rates of return and other factors. You can change the view of this information by selecting the Graph View tab above the table.

If you would like to change the assumptions used to create your illustration, update the fields under the Your Customized Assumptions section on the left side of the screen. The changes you make will impact your estimated Initial Retirement Income amount and help you make decisions about your retirement income plans. It is important to remember that all actions you make in the Planner are hypothetical and for educational purposes only. They do not affect your actual accounts.

Look for important messages to appear at the top of your screen. These messages will let you know if any income options are not available to you or if there are any issues you should be aware of.

You can use the map on the following pages to help get you started using the Planner today.

To speak with a consultant, please call 800-842-2252, weekdays, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (ET).

1 Any guarantees under annuities issued by TIAA are subject to TIAA’s claims-paying ability. Payments under CREF and the TIAA Real Estate Account are variable and will rise or fall based on investment performance.

Retirement Income Planner overview and map | October 2017 2

Retirement Income Planner overview and map

Use Your Customized Assumptions to make changes to important variables that impact your retirement income amount. For example, you can change your income start date, income option and assumed rates of return for Estimate B. Click on More Assumptions to change current contributions, adjust the inflation rate, add Social Security payments to your income stream, or adjust the total amounts of fixed and variable income used in the illustration. Remember that you need to click on the Apply button at the bottom to implement your changes.

Total TIAA and CREF retirement assets as of the date the illustration was run.

We show you two scenarios in your illustration, which we call Estimate A and B. Estimate A assumes a 0% rate of return (less maximum published expense charges) for variable investments, and a 3% rate of return for fixed investments. Federal regulations require that we include this scenario.

Estimate B assumes a rate of return that was either preset in the Planner as an initial assumption, or one you selected (less maximum published expenses). This is the Initial Retirement Income amount that you would receive at your income start date based on that rate. You can always adjust the assumed rate by going to the Rate of Return section under Your Customized Assumptions.

Note: If you are within 12 months of your retirement date, the Planner uses current interest rates for TIAA Traditional. You will not be able to adjust this rate in your illustration scenario. You can adjust the rate of return for variable accounts.

In the table view, this is the 0% rate of return scenario referred to as Estimate A. In the graph view (on the next

page), income based on a 0% rate of return is shown in the blue box. It corresponds with your Estimate A income amount.

In the table view, this is the income scenario using the rate of return you selected or the rate preset in the Planner. It corresponds with your Estimate B income amount. In the graph, the green box that appears shows your Estimate B income.

Once you are satisfied with your choices and retirement income illustration, click Receive a Report to have a report sent to you electronically. The report will appear in your e-Statements folder under My Account. Be sure that you have signed up for eDelivery! If you haven’t, the Planner will prompt you to do so.

You can create and compare as many illustrations as you like. To save an illustration and create a new one, go to Create New Plan under the Save tab. You can save up to 10 different illustrations for easy access when you return to the Planner.

The TIAA Traditional Income Payout Rate reflected in this illustration is the annual percentage that you may receive from your fixed accumulation when you annuitize. Annuity payments from TIAA Traditional are based on a guaranteed minimum payment and include interest earnings plus return of principal. Additional amounts, which are amounts we credit you in excess of the guaranteed payment, may be declared annually by TIAA’s Board of Trustees and added to your payments. Such additional amounts are not guaranteed for future years and when declared, remain in effect for the “declaration year,” which for pay-out annuities is the calendar year.

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Keys to navigating the Retirement Income Planner

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Table view

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Income Test Drive optionThe Income Test Drive is a new option available to TIAA participants who have holdings in variable annuity accounts. The Income Test Drive allows you to receive payments as if you had taken a lifetime annuity for a period of two years, with the option to change your mind and stop receiving payments during that period of time. After the two years are over, your payments will automatically become permanent, or you can choose another income option.

Here’s where you would choose to illustrate the Income Test Drive.

When you check the Income Test Drive box, the option will be applied to your illustration.

Under Estimate B above, you will also see what your estimated income would be without the Income Test Drive for comparison purposes.

You’ll see what your estimated income might be using the Income Test Drive.



Graph view

View of Advanced Worksheet tabThe Advanced Worksheet is designed to allow you to better tailor your retirement income estimates and to help you get a more complete picture of how your retirement assets might generate income.

There are four tabs where you can make changes and additions: Future Contributions, Portfolio Details, Transfers and Rollovers. A Summary of Changes tab gives you an overview of your changes.

Choose the Future Contributions tab to view the impact on your future final accumulation if you were to increase your monthly contributions to your plan or IRA, or if you have a one-time amount you would like to see included in your portfolio balance to estimate income.

Fill in the requested contribution amounts and dates that reflect your situation.

Use the Portfolio Details tab to make adjustments to the investments being used to estimate your income.

Deselect the contracts, plans or specific investments that you want to exclude from your illustrations. Simply remove the check in the box on the left.

If you have any retirement plan holdings in mutual funds, the Planner automatically transfers these balances into the CREF Money Market Account in order to include them in your illustrations. You can exclude mutual funds by removing the check in the box to the left of Include Mutual Funds.


The Transfers tab allows you to view the impact on your retirement income if you were to transfer money between investments. Use the drop-down arrows to select an investment that you currently own, and then choose a different fund to move to. This is a hypothetical transfer; no money actually moves in your account.

If you have other assets outside of TIAA, you may find it helpful to see how much more income you could create when you combine them with your TIAA and CREF savings. Use the Rollovers tab to model the impact of consolidating your assets.1 Simply enter the amount of money you could roll over to TIAA and select the investment to which you want to allocate your monies. This is a hypothetical situation and you are not actually moving any assets.

You can view all your hypothetical changes by clicking on the Summary of Changes tab.


1 Prior to doing a transfer or roll over, consider your other options. You may also be able to leave money in your current plan, withdraw cash or roll over the assets to your new employer’s plan, if one is available and rollovers are permitted. Compare the differences in investment options, services, fees and expenses, withdrawal options, required minimum distributions, other plan features, and tax treatment. Speak with a TIAA consultant and your tax advisor regarding your situation. Learn more at TIAA.org/reviewyouroptions.

This material is for informational or educational purposes only and does not constitute a recommendation or investment advice in connection with a distribution, transfer or rollover, a purchase or sale of securities or other investment property, or the management of securities or other investments, including the development of an investment strategy or retention of an investment manager or advisor. This material does not take into account any specific objectives or circumstances of any particular investor, or suggest any specific course of action. Investment decisions should be made in consultation with an investor’s personal advisor based on the investor’s own objectives and circumstances.

The Retirement Income Planner creates hypothetical scenarios showing how much income might be expected after leaving full-time employment.

Note: Money must be held in an annuity account in order to select a lifetime annuity. Therefore, for purposes of creating a lifetime income illustration based on your portfolio holdings, Retirement Income Planner makes a hypothetical transfer of any mutual funds or self-directed brokerage window holdings into the CREF Money Market Annuity Account. Similarly, any TIAA Access funds are hypothetically transferred to the TIAA Access Lifecycle Retirement Income Account. If you choose not to include your mutual fund holdings in the illustration, only your annuity holdings will be used for these estimates.

IMPORTANT: Illustrations and other information generated through the Retirement Income Planner tool regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical, do not reflect actual investment results and are not a guarantee of future results. The estimates are dependent in part on subjective assumptions, including the rate of return for different asset classes. These rates are difficult to accurately predict. Changes to the law, financial markets or individual personal circumstances can cause substantial deviation from the estimates. This could result in declines in estimated income over short or even extended periods of time.

Guaranteed income provided by TIAA annuities is subject to TIAA’s claims-paying ability. Payments under CREF and the TIAA Real Estate Account are variable and will rise or fall based on investment performance.

Investment, insurance and annuity products are not FDIC insured, are not bank guaranteed, are not deposits, are not insured by any federal government agency, are not a condition to any banking service or activity, and may lose value.

An investment in the CREF Money Market Account is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Although the Account seeks to preserve the value of your investment, it is possible to lose money by investing in the Account.The purpose of the Retirement Income Planner is to show how the performance of the underlying investment accounts could affect your policy cash value and the resulting retirement income. The estimated retirement income is hypothetical and the illustration cannot be used to project or predict investment results.

You should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. Please call 877-518-9161 or log in to TIAA.org for product and fund prospectuses that contain this and other information. Please read the prospectuses carefully before investing.TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc., and Nuveen Securities, LLC, Members FINRA and SIPC, distribute securities products. Advisory services provided by Advice & Planning Services, a division of TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, a registered investment advisor. Annuity contracts and certificates are issued by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), New York, NY.

©2017 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund, 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

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retirement income planner - tiaa · into account any specific objectives or circumstances ......

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