How to Fill Out and Submit a TIAA Rollover Form: Sections, RMDs, Delays

The TIAA rollover form authorizes moving money out of a TIAA employer retirement plan into an IRA or another employer’s plan. You can complete it online at tiaa.org, by phone at 800-842-2252, or by downloading the paper form that matches your specific contract. Which version you need, and how quickly the money can actually move, depends on the type of TIAA plan you hold.

Find the Form That Matches Your Plan

TIAA uses different rollover forms for different plan types. A 403(b) at a university follows different rules than a 401(k) at a hospital, and submitting the wrong form sends the whole request back. Log in at tiaa.org and open the withdrawals or “take money out” section, or browse the forms library at tiaa.org/public/support/forms.¹

Confirm your plan number and contract type before downloading anything. Both appear on your TIAA statements and on the dashboard once you log in. Large universities often set up more than one TIAA contract, and each contract may need its own form. For rollovers out of an employer plan, the ERISA rollover form is the standard document.² Moving outside money into a TIAA IRA uses a different form, the TIAA IRA transfer or rollover authorization.³

Check for TIAA Traditional Annuity Restrictions First

If any of your balance sits in the TIAA Traditional Annuity, the guaranteed-rate option in many employer plans, you probably cannot move that money in a single lump sum. The rules depend on which contract your employer chose:⁴

Retirement Annuity (RA): transfers and withdrawals pay out in 10 annual installments over nine years. No lump sum.
Group Retirement Annuity (GRA): lump sum available within 120 days of leaving your employer with a 2.5% surrender charge; otherwise 10 annual installments.
Retirement Choice (RC): same 120-day lump-sum window and 2.5% surrender charge; otherwise 84 monthly installments.
Retirement Choice Plus (RCP), Supplemental Retirement Annuity (SRA), and Group Supplemental Retirement Annuity (GSRA): lump-sum transfers at any time, no surrender charge.

A full rollover of TIAA Traditional money in an RA takes nearly a decade to complete. CREF accounts and TIAA-CREF mutual funds generally don’t face these restrictions; the installment rules apply specifically to the Traditional Annuity.⁴ Some participants leave Traditional money in place and roll over only the mutual fund portion for that reason. Partial rollovers are allowed.

What to Gather Before You Start Filling It Out

Missing a single piece of information is the most common reason TIAA sends paperwork back. Have all of the following ready:

Your TIAA contract or account number from your statement or dashboard.
The receiving institution’s exact legal name and mailing address. “Fidelity Management Trust Company,” not just “Fidelity.”
Your account number at the receiving institution. Open that account first, because “to be established” won’t work.
A contact phone number for the receiving institution, in case TIAA needs to verify the account can accept the funds.²

Decide whether you’re moving the entire balance or a specific dollar amount before you start writing.

Filling Out the Key Sections

Direct or Indirect Rollover

The form asks you to choose. Pick direct unless you have a specific reason not to. In a direct rollover, TIAA sends the money straight to the receiving institution, no tax is withheld, and the funds never touch your bank account.⁵

An indirect rollover means TIAA writes the check to you. Federal law requires TIAA to withhold 20% for income taxes before sending it.⁶ You then have 60 days to deposit the full original amount, including the withheld 20%, into a new retirement account, making up the withheld portion out of your own pocket and recovering it at tax time. Miss the 60-day deadline and the whole distribution becomes taxable, with an additional 10% early distribution penalty if you’re under 59½.⁵

Tax Withholding

p>Even a direct rollover form has a withholding section. For a direct rollover to a qualified plan or IRA, the default is no withholding, which is correct for most people since the money isn’t being distributed to you. If you’re taking a cash amount alongside the rollover, the withholding section governs that cash portion. Check the state withholding options below the federal section, since some states require withholding of their own.

Spousal Consent

If your plan is subject to ERISA’s qualified joint and survivor annuity rules, which covers most employer pension and 403(b) plans, and you’re married, your spouse may need to sign a waiver consenting to the rollover. The waiver has to be signed in front of a notary public or your employer’s plan representative, and it’s valid for 180 days from the notarization date. Your spouse must sign on or after the date you signed the distribution form; if the signatures are in the wrong order, TIAA will reject the packet. Unmarried participants who have separated from employment can self-certify their marital status without a plan representative signature.⁷

Employer Authorization

Your employer may need to approve the rollover before TIAA processes it. Not all plans require this; many do. Ask your HR benefits office or call TIAA at 800-842-2252 to confirm whether your employer needs to complete an authorization section.⁸ When approval is required, your employer has five business days to review the pending transaction, with the option to request a five-day extension.⁹

Handle Your RMD Before Rolling Over

If you’re 73 or older and subject to required minimum distributions, you cannot roll over the RMD amount. The IRS treats RMDs as mandatory taxable distributions that are not eligible for rollover.¹⁰ The form asks you to confirm your RMD status. If you haven’t taken this year’s RMD, TIAA will typically distribute it separately before rolling over the rest. Attempting to roll over the full balance without addressing the RMD first is a routine cause of delay.

How to Submit the Completed Form

TIAA accepts rollover forms through several channels, and the options depend on the direction of the rollover:

Online: log in at tiaa.org and use the withdrawals tool to start certain rollovers digitally. Completed paper forms can also be uploaded through the secure message center’s Shared Files tab.¹¹
Fax: rollovers out of TIAA can be faxed to 314-244-5012 as listed on the ERISA rollover form. Rollovers into TIAA cannot be faxed and must be mailed.²¹¹
Mail: P.O. Box 1259, Charlotte, NC 28201.¹¹
Overnight or courier: 8500 Andrew Carnegie, Charlotte, NC 28262.¹¹

Mutual fund account forms use a separate address: TIAA-CREF Funds, PO Box 219227, Kansas City, MO 64121-9227.¹¹ If you hold both annuity contracts and mutual fund accounts, confirm which address matches your transaction before you seal the envelope.

What Happens After You Submit

TIAA sends the rollover amount within four to seven business days of receiving a completed form, or from a later start date if you requested one.¹² That timing assumes the form is complete and no employer approval is pending. If your employer needs to authorize the distribution, add at least five to ten business days.⁹

Once approved, TIAA liquidates the specified holdings and issues a check payable to the receiving institution for a direct rollover. You can track the debit through your online account activity, and TIAA sends email or letter confirmations when the distribution processes. If nothing has moved after two weeks, call 800-842-2252 rather than waiting. A missing signature, an unsigned spousal waiver, or an incorrect account number can hold up the request without triggering an automatic alert.¹¹

Common Reasons TIAA Rejects or Delays a Rollover

Wrong form for your plan type, such as a 401(a) form submitted for a 403(b) account.
Missing spousal waiver, or one that is incorrectly notarized or signed before the participant signed the main form.
Receiving account not yet open. TIAA needs a real account number at the destination.
Outstanding RMD when you’ve tried to roll over the full balance.
Lump-sum request from a TIAA Traditional contract that only permits installment payouts.
Employer approval still pending in the queue.
Incomplete or illegible information, especially the receiving institution’s legal name and mailing address.

When TIAA rejects a form, they typically mail a letter explaining the deficiency rather than calling. Check your secure messages and your physical mailbox if the timeline stretches past two weeks without any account activity.

1
TIAA. Search Forms and Manage Transactions
2
TIAA. Rollover From Your Retirement Plan (ERISA)
3
TIAA. TIAA IRA Transfer or Rollover Authorization
4
TIAA. TIAA Traditional Annuity Contract Rules and Payout Options
5
Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 3405 – Special Rules for Pensions, Annuities, and Certain Other Deferred Income
7
TIAA. Important Information – TIAA Plan Document
8
TIAA. Moving Funds to an Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plan
9
TIAA. TIAA-CREF Guide to Online Withdrawals
10
TIAA. Request for Recurring Required Minimum Distributions
11
TIAA. TIAA Customer Service Contact
12
TIAA. TIAA Retirement Rollover Form