William sent a message to Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. - President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA-CREF - Email Address that said:
Ms. Brenneman,
As I hope you know, the relationship between TIAA-CREF and me have not been the best during the past few weeks. During the first week of January I mailed a traditional IRA to Roth IRA conversion form to your Charlotte, NC office. After several telephone calls, I was told the form was never received. I completed and mailed a second form to Charlotte, NC. On the form I gave explicit instructions as to how I wanted the transaction to be processed. I am sure you are able to view the form. Specifically, I wanted to sell $36,000 worth of the TIAA-CREF Social Choice Bond-Retirement and put $15,000 each into the CREF Equity Index Fund and the TIAA-CREF Large Cap Growth Index Retirement Fund (both existing) in my Roth IRA account. I also indicated on the form that the remaining $6,000 was to be withheld for federal income taxes.
Yesterday (January 20, 2016) I discovered that my instructions were not followed. Apparently, the $30,000 was put into a new TIAA-CREF Social Choice Bond-Retirement line in my Roth IRA. I immediately called and spoke to a Mr. Greg Beck who explained that I had not completed the form correctly. He also admitted that my written instructions were ignored. When I asked Mr. Beck if the transaction could be backed out he said, No. When I asked him if I could speak to his manager Mr. Beck said, No, my manager is not in the office. We agreed that someone from TIAA-CREF should have called me before executing the transaction since my instructions were completely clear. I instructed Mr. Beck to conduct the transaction that I had indicated on the form. I also asked him to have his manager contact you and determine how this error on TIAA-CREF's part could result in no negative financial consequence to me. I explained to Mr. Beck that as a TIAA-CREF client for over 40 years and with nearly $2million worth of investments with your firm, I should have been called before the transaction was executed. He agreed with me.
It is now after 4pm on Thursday, January 21 and no one has gotten back to me. If I do not hear from TIAA-CREF before the weekend, I will be very disappointed and need to know what I need to do to move all of my assets out of TIAA-CREF. For many years I felt that I was a valuable client. I do not have that feeling anymore.
Dr. William
