TIAA-CREF's Downward Spiral - Wealth Management Advisor TIAA Employee Review

2.0
Oct 19, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The pay and benefits are very fair. However, they now expect you to give up your nights and weekends for the greater good. They are now like every other Company where the executives are paid millions in bonus, but the rank and file may get nothing for their hard work. The Company became this way under the leadership of Herb Allison who ascribed to Jack Welchs philosphy. He instituted a rank and yank system that is still being used to this day. The system sounds fair since you would think that the best employees would be the best compensated, but their rating system is inherenty unfair and can be manipulated. Also, the members of the executive team are not subject to this system.

Cons

No set career path. Very few opportunities for advancement.

Explore other reviews about TIAA

5.0
Jun 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work life balance, good benefits, decent pay, ease of running your own practice as an “advisor”, and healthy work environment

Cons

Management styles can vary and affect your experience, upper management doesn’t seem to be well equipped to ensure the organization’s success but it is resilient nonetheless.

2.0
Jul 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work-life balance & nothing else.

Cons

Don’t make the same mistake I made…there’s a reason why this company’s job listings barely get any traction or applicants, even in the NY markets. Operations is a joke, and has been subpar for 10+ years. The lack of efficiency across all divisions is scary. The VSP (voluntary separation severance packages) that happened in 2021-2022 made things even worse. Because so many employees took the VSP, most roles were either backfilled with non-qualified or inexperienced people or not filled at all…like ever. Especially in Wealth Management leadership roles. This created a micromanagement culture that gets in the way of productivity & slows down money movement. Opening & funding accounts almost always takes 1-2 months here where at JP Morgan & other firms it takes less than 3-4 days. Back office & services associates constantly make mistakes, which impact the client experience and constantly jeopardizes your reputation. Turnover is scary high in operational & support roles, it is very typically for 1 or a very few operational associates to handle requests for an entire region. Constant turnover in the portfolio manager roles & advisor roles are directly related to all of the above. The company’s growth has been stagnant for years. Now that Trump defunded the education department, universities are laying people off because of lack of government funding…which will affect the company’s bottom line faster than they expect. You’ll strangely get the feeling that no one here ever knows what they’re truly doing.

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