How to Fill Out and Submit the TIAA Spousal Waiver Form

To name someone other than your spouse as the primary beneficiary of a TIAA retirement account, you complete the spousal consent section built into TIAA’s Designation of Beneficiary form (Form F11468), have your spouse sign that section in front of a notary public or an authorized plan representative on the same date as your signature or later, and return the form to TIAA. Without a properly witnessed TIAA spousal waiver form on file, federal law requires TIAA to pay at least 50 percent of the preretirement death benefit to your surviving spouse, no matter what your beneficiary designation says.

Why the Waiver Is Required

Under 26 U.S.C. § 417, qualified retirement plans must pay a surviving spouse a minimum share of the participant’s benefit unless the spouse formally agrees otherwise in writing.¹ For TIAA accounts held under an ERISA-governed plan, including most employer-sponsored 403(b) and 401(k) arrangements, that minimum is 50 percent of the preretirement death benefit.²

The rule applies any time you are legally married, even if you and your spouse are separated. It does not lift until a final divorce decree is entered or the spouse signs a valid waiver. Skip the waiver and TIAA’s plan administrator will pay the spouse regardless of what your designation says.³

Where to Get the Form

TIAA does not have a separate spousal waiver document. The waiver is a section inside the Designation of Beneficiary form, Form F11468, which combines beneficiary designation fields and the spousal consent section in one packet.² You can get it three ways:

Log into your account at tiaa.org and download it from the forms library.
Call TIAA at 800-842-2252 and ask for a physical copy by mail.
Ask your employer’s plan administrator or HR department, who can also confirm the correct plan-specific version.

Before you write anything on it, confirm the plan name printed on the form matches your employer’s plan exactly as it appears on your TIAA statements. A mismatch is one of the fastest ways to get the document kicked back.

Filling Out the Participant Sections

Start with your own information: full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and your TIAA contract or account numbers. Those numbers appear on your quarterly statements and in your online account. If you hold multiple TIAA contracts under the same employer plan, list each one so the change covers every account.

Then designate your beneficiaries. For each person or entity, provide the full legal name, relationship to you, date of birth, and the percentage of the benefit they should receive. Primary beneficiary percentages must total exactly 100 percent. You can also name contingent beneficiaries, who receive the benefit only if all primary beneficiaries predecease you.

Sign and date the form after your beneficiary selections. The date matters. Your spouse’s signature on the waiver section must carry the same date as yours or a later one; if your spouse signs first, TIAA will reject the form.²

Completing the Spousal Consent Section

The section titled “Consent by Spouse” is where your spouse formally waives the right to the preretirement death benefit. By signing, the spouse acknowledges giving up that right voluntarily and irrevocably, agreeing that the benefit will instead be paid to the beneficiaries you named.² Your spouse writes their first and last name, signs, and dates the form. That is the full extent of what the spouse writes. The signing must happen in front of a witness, which is the step most people trip over.

Witnessing: Notary or Plan Representative

Federal law requires that the spouse’s signature be witnessed by either a notary public or an authorized plan representative.¹ A signature without a proper witness is invalid, and TIAA will reject it.

If you use a notary, the notary verifies the spouse’s identity with government-issued photo ID, watches the spouse sign, and then completes the certification section with the state, county, notary signature, and expiration date. Florida notaries must also indicate whether the notarization was performed in person or online. If you use an authorized plan representative, that person witnesses the signature and completes the certification with printed name, title, signature, and date.

Remote Online Notarization

You do not have to visit a notary in person. TIAA accepts remote online notarization and directs participants to Notarize.com/TIAA as one option for getting the spousal consent witnessed by live video.² The IRS has issued proposed regulations permitting remote witnessing of spousal consent through live audio-video technology, both by notaries and by plan representatives, provided the spouse presents a valid photo ID on camera and transmits the signed document to the witness on the same day it is signed.⁴ Plans may rely on these proposed rules now, before final regulations are issued.

Submitting the Completed Form

Once the form is signed, witnessed, and dated, you can send it to TIAA any of these ways:

Upload at tiaa.org/upload by selecting “Upload files” and submitting a scanned PDF or photo. The TIAA mobile app also accepts uploads through the Profile icon.²
Standard mail: TIAA, P.O. Box 1259, Charlotte, NC 28201.⁵
Overnight or express mail: TIAA, 8500 Andrew Carnegie Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28262.⁶
Fax: 800-914-8922.⁵

Digital uploads and faxes are generally faster than mail. After you submit, log into your TIAA account periodically to verify the beneficiary records have been updated. TIAA should send a written or electronic confirmation once processing is complete. If you do not see the update in your online profile within a couple of weeks, call 800-842-2252 to confirm receipt.

Common Reasons Forms Get Rejected

TIAA reviews every waiver for compliance with federal witnessing standards and plan rules. The form comes back if any of these problems appear:

The notary or plan representative certification is blank, unsigned, or missing the notary seal or expiration date.
The spouse’s signature is dated earlier than the participant’s signature.²
The plan name on the form does not match the plan name in TIAA’s records.
Primary beneficiary percentages do not add up to 100.
The participant is married, names a non-spouse for more than 50 percent, and left the consent section blank.

Each rejection means another round of signatures and another trip to the notary. Getting every detail right the first time saves real time.

When a Waiver Is Not Needed

A few situations remove the consent requirement:

You are legally unmarried, including after a final divorce.
You can demonstrate to a plan representative that your spouse cannot be located after reasonable efforts. The statute allows this exception, though the plan may require documentation of your search.¹
A Qualified Domestic Relations Order directs a portion of the benefit to a former spouse or other alternate payee. A QDRO is the only court order a plan administrator is required to honor when it conflicts with the plan document.⁷

Outside these situations there is no workaround. A spouse who refuses to sign keeps the right to at least 50 percent of the death benefit.

Why a Prenup Does Not Replace the Waiver

A prenuptial agreement that says your spouse waives all rights to your retirement accounts is not enforceable for ERISA-governed plan benefits. Federal regulations are explicit that an agreement signed before the marriage does not satisfy the spousal consent requirements, even if it was signed during the applicable election period.⁸ The person was not yet a “spouse” when they signed it, so the consent does not count under the statute.

If your prenuptial agreement contemplates a retirement benefit waiver, your spouse still has to sign the plan’s beneficiary designation form after the marriage with proper witnessing. Some couples handle this through a postnuptial agreement that ratifies the prenuptial terms, followed by the plan-specific waiver form. Either way, the plan will not honor anything signed before the wedding day.

Changing the Beneficiary Later

Once the spouse signs the consent section, the waiver language on the TIAA form describes that consent as irrevocable.⁹ You, as the account holder, can still change your beneficiary designation by submitting a new form. If the original waiver expressly permits future designations without further spousal consent, you can name new beneficiaries freely. If it does not, any new designation that reduces the spouse’s share below the plan threshold requires a fresh waiver with a new witnessed signature.¹

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 417 – Definitions and Special Rules for Purposes of Minimum Survivor Annuity Requirements
2
TIAA. Beneficiary Designation Form F11468
3
U.S. Department of Labor. FAQs About Retirement Plans and ERISA
4
Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Bulletin 2023-4 – Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
5
TIAA. TIAA Customer Service Contact
6
TIAA. FAQs About Forms to Take Money Out
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Qualified Domestic Relations Orders Under ERISA – A Practical Guide to Dividing Retirement Benefits
8
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.401(a)-20 – Requirements of Qualified Joint and Survivor Annuity
9
TIAA. TIAA Enrollment Form