The TIAA lawsuit landscape as of mid-2026 includes three pending federal class actions in the Southern District of New York, each accusing the retirement giant of putting its own profits ahead of the participants whose savings it manages. One case targets fees TIAA charged its own employees. Another alleges a computer advice tool was rigged to steer participants into TIAA’s most lucrative annuities. A third accuses TIAA advisors of using high-pressure sales tactics to move retirement money into higher-fee managed accounts. Two TIAA subsidiaries have also paid millions in SEC penalties in recent years.
Byrne v. TIAA: Fees Charged to TIAA’s Own Employees
Former TIAA employee Bryan Byrne filed a class action on May 20, 2025, alleging that TIAA mismanaged the retirement plans of more than 28,000 of its own workers. The case, Byrne v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (No. 25-CV-4228), is before Judge Vernon S. Broderick.1PacerMonitor. Byrne v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America et al
The complaint makes two core claims. First, it alleges TIAA included higher-cost R3 share classes of its College Retirement Equity Fund (CREF) investments in the employee plans when cheaper R4 versions of the same funds were available. CREF held over $2 billion in plan assets, and the suit alleges TIAA “quietly pocketed millions of dollars” by charging five, ten, and even fifteen basis points more than necessary.2GlobeNewsWire. Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight Files ERISA Class Action Case Against TIAA Second, it alleges TIAA failed to remove the CREF Growth Fund from the plans despite sixteen years of underperformance, with the fund trailing its Russell 1000 Growth benchmark by more than 186% since 2009. Roughly $480 million in participant money was invested in that single fund at the end of 2023.3Sanford Heisler Sharp. TIAA ERISA Class Action
The proposed classes cover R3 share class participants going back to September 16, 2022, and Growth Fund participants going back to May 20, 2019.4PlanSponsor. AARP Joins Suit Against TIAA Alleging Mismanagement of Retirement Funds
On September 3, 2025, the AARP Foundation joined as co-counsel with lead firm Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, and an amended complaint added Charles David Sullivan and Sarah Johnson as named plaintiffs.5PlanAdviser. AARP Attorneys Join ERISA Lawsuit Against TIAA William Alvarado Rivera, the AARP Foundation’s senior vice president of litigation, said the alleged mismanagement “jeopardize[s] the retirement security of older adults, particularly harming low- and moderate-income workers.”6AARP. AARP Foundation TIAA Lawsuit TIAA, represented by Goodwin Procter LLP, has called the suit “without merit” and said it provides “quality products and services that deliver strong long-term performance at competitive costs.”4PlanSponsor. AARP Joins Suit Against TIAA Alleging Mismanagement of Retirement Funds The parties filed a joint status report in late May 2026, and the case remains in early stages.1PacerMonitor. Byrne v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America et al
Kelley v. TIAA: The Rigged Advice Tool Claim
Filed August 5, 2024, Kelley et al. v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America et al. (No. 1:24-cv-05945) names TIAA, two of its subsidiaries, and Morningstar, Inc. along with two Morningstar affiliates. The suit alleges the companies conspired to steer retirement plan participants into TIAA’s most profitable products through a biased software tool.7PlanAdviser. Lawsuit Alleges TIAA, Morningstar Pushed Participants Into Proprietary Annuities
The tool at the center of the case is called “Retirement Advisor Field View,” or RAFV. It powered the advice delivered through TIAA’s “Retirement Advisor” and “Retirement Plan Portfolio Manager” services, both marketed as independent and unbiased. The complaint alleges the software was hard-coded to recommend two specific TIAA products regardless of the participant’s individual circumstances: the TIAA Traditional Annuity and the TIAA Real Estate Account.8Kelley v. TIAA Complaint. Kelley et al. v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America et al., Complaint
According to the complaint, RAFV was programmed to include the Traditional Annuity in six of seven model portfolios and to allocate either 8% or 9% of every participant’s portfolio to the Real Estate Account. The complaint describes the Traditional Annuity as “the most illiquid fixed annuity on the market” and the Real Estate Account as TIAA’s “most expensive” variable annuity, with an 87 basis point expense ratio.8Kelley v. TIAA Complaint. Kelley et al. v. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America et al., Complaint9TIAA. TIAA Traditional Annuity Contract Rules10TIAA. Annuity Liquidity
The complaint further alleges that TIAA’s financial consultants had to hit quotas for persuading participants to implement RAFV’s recommended allocations in order to earn year-end bonuses.7PlanAdviser. Lawsuit Alleges TIAA, Morningstar Pushed Participants Into Proprietary Annuities The plaintiffs seek disgorgement of profits and restoration of losses. No total damages figure has been specified.
Carfora v. TIAA: The Rollover Cross-Selling Case
The oldest of the pending cases, Carfora et al. v. Teachers Insurance Annuity Association of America (No. 21 Civ. 8384), was filed in October 2021 by Schlichter Bogard & Denton on behalf of three university employees. It challenges TIAA’s practice of moving participants out of employer-sponsored plans and into “Portfolio Advisor,” a TIAA-managed account service that generated higher fees for the company.11PlanSponsor. New York Federal Judge Rules Against TIAA in Managed Account Suit
The complaint alleges that starting around 2011, in response to declining market share and billions in outflows to Vanguard and Fidelity, TIAA launched a “Consultative Sales Process.” Advisors cold-called high-balance participants (internally labeled “WHALES”) offering free financial planning, when the actual goal was to roll assets into Portfolio Advisor. Advisors were allegedly paid 0.10% commissions on rolled-over assets and penalized for missing sales targets.12Simpson Thacher. Carfora v. Teachers Insurance Annuity Association of America
Judge Katherine Polk Failla dismissed the case in September 2022, finding TIAA did not act as an ERISA fiduciary under the then-applicable test. After the plaintiffs amended their complaint, Judge Failla reversed course on May 31, 2024, denying TIAA’s renewed motion to dismiss. She wrote that the suit showed “in great detail the systematic efforts on TIAA’s part to drive members from their ERISA plans and into TIAA-sponsored offerings, with little upside to those participants.”11PlanSponsor. New York Federal Judge Rules Against TIAA in Managed Account Suit
The plaintiffs sought to represent participants across roughly 9,900 ERISA plans that used TIAA for recordkeeping and had at least one rollover to a TIAA product between January 2015 and December 2024. On March 4, 2026, Judge Failla granted TIAA’s motion to dismiss the class claims as to the thousands of plans in which the named plaintiffs did not personally participate. She found the plaintiffs lacked “class standing” under the Second Circuit’s test, noting that their own failed attempts to obtain broad third-party discovery undercut the argument that TIAA’s conduct was uniform enough for class treatment.13NAPA. Federal Judge Slashes Scope of Schlichter’s TIAA Rollover Case
The individual claims of the named plaintiffs remain alive. The court ordered a joint status letter by March 27, 2026, and the plaintiffs could seek to add new named plaintiffs from other plans or pursue appellate review of the class standing ruling.13NAPA. Federal Judge Slashes Scope of Schlichter’s TIAA Rollover Case
SEC Penalties Against TIAA Subsidiaries
Two TIAA subsidiaries have paid federal regulatory penalties in recent years.
In February 2024, TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services LLC (TC Services) agreed to pay more than $2.2 million to settle SEC charges that it violated Regulation Best Interest. The SEC found TC Services recommended customers open TIAA IRAs with a “core menu” of affiliated investments without disclosing that lower-cost share classes of the same funds were available through a “brokerage window” in the same account. Nearly 6,000 customers paid over $900,000 in avoidable expenses. The $2.2 million comprised $936,714 in disgorgement, roughly $103,000 in prejudgment interest, and a $1.25 million civil penalty. TC Services neither admitted nor denied the findings.14SEC. SEC Charges TIAA Subsidiary for Regulation Best Interest Violations
In September 2023, Nuveen Securities LLC, another TIAA subsidiary, paid $8.5 million to resolve SEC charges that it failed to preserve employee business communications. The SEC found that from at least 2019, Nuveen employees at all levels, including senior management, used personal devices for business-related text messages that the firm never retained. Nuveen admitted the facts, accepted a censure, and agreed to retain an independent compliance consultant.15SEC. SEC Charges Nuveen Securities for Recordkeeping Failures
An Earlier TIAA Settlement
The current wave is not TIAA’s first brush with class action claims. In 2014, TIAA-CREF paid $19.5 million, plus $3.3 million in legal fees, to settle allegations that it illegally retained approximately $40 million in investment gains that accrued on participant accounts between the time transfers or withdrawals were initiated and the time transactions completed. The settlement was divided among about 59,000 educators, and TIAA-CREF did not admit wrongdoing.16Inside Higher Ed. TIAA-CREF Agrees to Pay $19.5 Million to Settle Suit
Where the Cases Stand
Different firms brought the three suits and each targets different conduct, but the theme is the same: each alleges TIAA placed its financial interests ahead of the retirement savers it was supposed to serve. Byrne concerns fees TIAA charged its own employees. Kelley concerns advice software allegedly engineered to funnel money into two high-profit products. Carfora concerns sales tactics used to move money out of low-cost employer plans and into pricier managed accounts.
All three cases sit in federal court in Manhattan, and none has reached trial or settlement. TIAA has contested each one. It won a significant ruling in Carfora in March 2026 that sharply limited the proposed class. Kelley remains in earlier procedural stages. Byrne is in its opening phase. The outcomes will carry weight beyond TIAA’s own participants given the organization’s role as one of the largest retirement plan providers in higher education, managing hundreds of billions of dollars for workers at thousands of institutions.