The TIAA hardship withdrawal form, Form F11270, is what you file to pull money from a TIAA-administered 403(b) or 401(a) plan to cover a serious, immediate financial need. You complete the form with your personal and plan information, the hardship category, the amount, and your tax withholding choices, then submit it with supporting documents online through TIAA’s secure message center, by fax to 800-914-8922, or by mail to TIAA at P.O. Box 1259, Charlotte, NC 28201-1259.
Whether Your Account Qualifies
Form F11270 is for participants in TIAA-administered retirement plans. Not every TIAA balance is eligible. Hardship withdrawals from the TIAA Traditional Annuity held inside Retirement Annuity, Group Retirement Annuity, and Retirement Choice contracts are not available.
Your plan may also require you to take all other available distributions first, and to exhaust any nontaxable loans from every plan your employer sponsors, before a hardship withdrawal is allowed.
Which Hardships Qualify
Federal rules list specific expense categories that count as an immediate and heavy financial need. Your situation has to fit one of them:
- Medical care for you, your spouse, dependents, or a plan beneficiary. There is no income threshold here. The 7.5%-of-AGI figure people sometimes cite applies to the itemized medical deduction, not to hardship withdrawals; the Treasury regulation explicitly says that limit does not apply.
- Costs directly tied to buying your principal residence, such as a down payment. Regular mortgage payments do not qualify.
- Tuition, related fees, and room and board for the next 12 months of post-secondary education for you, your spouse, children, dependents, or a plan beneficiary.
- Payments needed to avoid eviction from, or foreclosure on, your primary home.
- Funeral or burial expenses for a deceased parent, spouse, child, dependent, or plan beneficiary.
- Repairs to your principal residence for damage that would qualify as a casualty loss under the tax code.
- Expenses and lost income from a FEMA-declared disaster, if your principal residence or workplace was in the designated area.
Disaster losses have a parallel set of rules that let you take up to $22,000 free of the 10% early distribution tax, spread the income over three years, and repay the amount within three years. That is a separate track from a routine F11270 hardship request.
Documentation You Have To Attach
TIAA requires supporting proof for every category, and an incomplete submission is rejected outright rather than held for follow-up.
- Medical: itemized bills from the provider showing the balance due after insurance. An explanation of benefits by itself is not accepted.
- Home purchase: a signed purchase agreement or closing disclosure showing the required down payment or closing costs.
- Education: an actual tuition bill or invoice for the upcoming semester. Bills for semesters already attended, student loan statements, and estimated costs of attendance are not accepted.
- Eviction or foreclosure: a formal eviction notice or foreclosure summons.
- Funeral: invoices from the funeral home or related providers.
- Home repair: estimates or invoices for the work, along with documentation of the casualty event.
You also need your TIAA contract number or numbers, the plan name, and your full Social Security number. For direct deposit, have your bank’s routing and account numbers ready. Starter checks, deposit slips, third-party checks, and photocopies of checks are not accepted as banking verification.
How Much You Can Withdraw
The withdrawal cannot exceed your documented need. If you request more, TIAA reduces the payment to match the documentation, which can leave you short if you were counting on the full amount.
You are allowed to gross up the request to cover the income taxes and any penalties the distribution will trigger. That matters because two different 10% charges can apply. TIAA’s default federal withholding is 10% of the distribution, and if you are under 59½ a separate 10% additional tax on early distributions applies when you file. The withholding is a prepayment toward your tax bill; it does not offset the early-distribution penalty. Size your request with both in mind.
In a 401(k) plan, hardship amounts generally come only from your accumulated elective deferrals, not from earnings on those deferrals. And a hardship distribution cannot be rolled over into an IRA or another retirement plan. Once the money leaves, it is a permanent reduction in your retirement savings.
Filling Out Form F11270h2>
You can get the form through the TIAA online portal at tiaa.org, by calling 800-842-2252 weekdays from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern, or by downloading the PDF. The form is organized into numbered sections.
Section 1 collects personal information: full name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, and contact details. A full SSN is required; TIAA will not process the form without it.
Section 2 covers your contract and plan details: TIAA contract number, CREF number if applicable, plan number, sub-plan number, and the plan name as it appears on your account.
Section 3 is the withdrawal amount. Enter the dollar figure, and mark whether it is net (what you want to receive after withholding) or gross (the total before withholding). If you leave this blank, TIAA treats the amount as gross.
Next you select the hardship category that matches your documentation, then set your tax withholding. Federal withholding defaults to 10%; you can elect a higher rate and specify state withholding if you want. Choose your payment method, direct deposit or a physical check.
The final section is the certification and signature. You sign under penalty of perjury that your taxpayer identification number is correct and that you have an immediate and heavy financial need with insufficient cash or liquid assets to cover it.
Spousal Consent if You Are Married
If your plan is covered by ERISA and you are married, your spouse may need to sign a consent waiver. Sign your own section first, then have your spouse sign theirs. The spouse’s signature has to be witnessed by a notary public, or, if the spouse works for the plan’s sponsoring institution, by a designated plan representative. TIAA partners with Notarize.com for a digital option; notary fees for a single signature typically run $15 or less depending on state.
Where To Send It
TIAA accepts the completed form and documentation four ways:
- Online upload through the TIAA secure message center after you log in. This is the fastest option.
- Fax to 800-914-8922 within the U.S., or 704-595-5795 from outside the U.S.
- Standard mail to TIAA, P.O. Box 1259, Charlotte, NC 28201-1259.
- Overnight delivery to TIAA, 8500 Andrew Carnegie Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28262.
Send every supporting document with the form. A missing signature, blank contract number, or absent invoice does not delay the request; it kills it and forces a resubmission.
After You Submit
Once TIAA has your form and documents in good order, the review team verifies that everything matches. TIAA may reach out for identity verification, and if they cannot contact you within five days, the transaction can be canceled.
If approved, direct deposits typically land within two business days after final approval. A mailed check runs about eight to ten business days by standard U.S. mail. TIAA sends approval or denial notices through your preferred channel, usually email or a secure message on the website.
One security wrinkle: if you changed your mailing address within the last 14 days and asked for a check, TIAA may hold the payment. Update your address well before you file, or choose direct deposit.
Taxes and Continuing To Contribute
p>TIAA reports the distribution on Form 1099-R, sent by the end of January following the year of the withdrawal. The full amount counts as taxable income for the year received, unless it came from Roth contributions. If you are under 59½, the 10% early-distribution additional tax applies on top of regular income tax and is reported on Form 5329 with your return.
You can keep contributing to your plan right after the withdrawal. Plans used to have to suspend elective deferrals for six months after a hardship distribution, but that rule was eliminated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
Why Requests Get Rejected
Most rejections come from preventable paperwork problems:
- Wrong documentation, like an explanation of benefits instead of an invoice, a student loan statement instead of a tuition bill, or estimated costs of attendance instead of a real bill.
- Requesting more than the documented need. TIAA reduces the payout rather than paying the excess.
- Incomplete fields: missing Social Security number, unsigned certification, or blank contract number.
- Invalid banking documents. Starter checks, deposit slips, photocopies, and third-party checks are not accepted.
- A mailing address change within the last 14 days combined with a check request.
- Identity verification failure. If TIAA cannot reach you within five days, the transaction is canceled.
Gather every document before you open the form, make sure the amounts on your bills match what you enter in Section 3, and pick direct deposit if you need the money quickly.