Things I've heard:
I heard that the new CEO isn't planning on being there long. She wants to stay a year or two and then shop her resume around for a political appointment in Washington or perhaps bail for another firm and claim she didn't know the extent of all the problems at TIAA.
What problems you ask?
Preston Hollow Capital is suing Nuveen for anti-competitive market fixing in the muni-bond industry. A top Nuveen exec was caught on the phone telling big banks that if they did any muni bond brokerage business for Preston Hollow, Nuveen/TIAA would move hundreds of millions in deposits from them. It's true. Look it up.
TIAA Individual & Institutional Services, LLC disclosed in their last statement that they are going to take a $57.6 million charge against income and may have another $50 million contingent liability due to regulatory activity or litigation. Again, no rumor. It's a fact. The only question is why? Is it due to all these Universities getting sued? Did TIAA create record keeping contracts that made it impossible for Universities to ever get rid of them? Is it due to predatory sales & marketing activities within their broker-dealer? Were they sharing too much information on institutional participants with their broker dealer, who then targeted the wealthy participants for IRA rollovers?
Who knows? All I know is that TIAA is not what they claim to be. Even their claims of being named by magazines as the best employer for working mothers and minority women are bogus. They buy those accolades with soft dollar support for the publishers. Their claim of being one of the "Most Ethical Companies" according to Ethisphere Institute is completely bogus too. Ethisphere is a for profit business that sells reputational cover to companies that need it and are willing to pay for it. They hold "seminars" and charge companies up to five figures a seat. The companies buy a half dozen seats or so and ....VOILA!....they magically become one of the world's most ethical companies. Its a real scam. The LA times debunked them years ago.