Do you really believe this leadership can make us competitive? Or, God forbid, come up with a strategy and ideas that would make us solid for the foreseeable future? The writing has been on the wall for a long time. The only lesson from all the layoffs is that each of us needs to make sure we have other options.
8 replies (most recent on top)
@qe thank you for ruining my Sunday morning by reminding me of the Herb days at TIAA.
What a clown show that was having Mr Burns at the helm.
I say bring back Weyrauch and Conn. also cannon training, what’s old is new!!
Additionally, the quality of Wealth Management advisors TIAA was hiring from the outside was not great. If you had a descent book at another firm or had potential to go independent, TIAA was a last choice not a first choice.
@qb Excellent summary. We are where we are today due to a 28 years of missteps by four CEOs. John Biggs was not the right person to steer the company after losing the tax exemption and didn't have a credible successor after Thomas W. Jones left. This brought us the calamity of Herb Allison. Roger Ferguson first tried to start an in-house bank and then purchased EverBank. TBD sold the bank (at a huge loss) but what else should she have done in the last four years to right the ship?
I would say that Roger did his best to transition the company. TIAA lost tax exempt status back in like 1997, and that was a very big deal. Not only did it effect the finances of the company, it took down the natural barrier TIAA had in it's core market by allowing other companies to compete on even footing for the University business. Roger took over after Herb Allison, who had a decidedly Wall Street approach. It was Herb's big idea to go into wealth management. It was Herb's people who pushed wealth management so hard and so fast. It was one of Herb's execs who put a really unscrupulous career TIAA guy in charge of IAS. That's when they started pushing advisors to step over the line of fiduciary duty to clients. That guy, Not Roger, made sure all senior manager in IAS were either just as unscrupulous as he was or just too chicken to do/say anything that might interrupt their salary, bonus and retirement accounts. Roger was the one who bought Nuveen. He at least tried to steward TIAA through to new revenue paths. The stuff that went down in the New York Times and with the SEC was all stuff that was hidden from Roger by Allison's exec hire and the managers they put in place in IAS. They did not understand or respect fiduciary duty and they didn't want it slowing down the growth of their division, so they cut some ethical corners and found ways to do the bare minimum regarding SEC and FINRA regs regarding rollovers. They promoted and rewarded advisors most willing and able to play fast and loose with their fiduciary duty. They fired or PIP'd everyone else, especially anyone who even hinted to them that they knew the aggressive sales approach in IAS was a disservice to the clients right to full and accurate disclosure of ALL their options. We just jammed them into managed accounts no matter what, and those who didn't were pushed out. Roger didn't create that culture. I'm not sure he was fully aware of how bad it was. This regulatory debacle in IAS is what accelerated the downfall of TIAA because the clients found out about it. My point is that IAS and its leadership was Herb Allison's baby. They reflected his Wall Street approach. They sought maximum profit as quickly as possible. They ground through advisors like their career family and well-being didn't matter and treated client rights like an afterthought. All that was eventually exposed, investigated and rectified after they poked the wrong bear/s. But it wasn't Roger. It was a small group of dirty, greedy cowboys who thought they owned IAS and treated people like dogs.
Too funny that 4 years into TBD being the CEO and still trying to blame Roger. 4 years at the helm of a company is like 10 years in dog years. It’s time to step up, stop kicking excuses or just get out of the way.
Sure Roger had his problems but you can’t blame him anymore as most of what is wrong with tiaa today is solely on TBD whose been here long enough to clean it up but evidently cares more about herself and social media than the company or its associates.
Talks a big game but backs it up with manure. Walks around with an entourage of security and mindless yesmen and yeswomen.
At least under Roger I got a raise EVERY YEAR. Have not had one raise since this new greedy self absorbed narcissistic regime at the top was installed.
@OP all the lawsuits and scandals happening under Ferguson are k-illing the company .