A Letter to Our Institutional Partners

Dear Institutional Partner:

I am writing to update you on TIAA-CREF's plan reporting and compliance initiatives, including the information that we provide to help you fulfill your obligations as plan sponsors.

An article that appears today on the website of The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses a decision by one plan sponsor to end its relationship with TIAA-CREF following plan reporting difficulties that date back several years.

The Chronicle story overlooks TIAA-CREF's financial strength and stability, consistent performance, good value for money, objectivity, trust and integrity, all of which has enabled us to attract nearly a quarter of a million new participants and dozens of new institutional clients in these challenging times.

Significantly, the story also overlooks enhancements to our plan reporting capabilities and how we have redefined the plan sponsor services, including enhanced financial reporting, we provide to you and your plan's auditors.

Last year we completed our transition to a new record-keeping platform, which has enhanced our reporting capabilities significantly. In 2008 we achieved 100% of on-time delivery of plan reports that enable those of you who have ERISA reporting obligations to fulfill them in a timely manner.  These improvements reflect over 200 new industry-standard validations and controls and our overall commitment to operational excellence. 

This year we enhanced the reporting package with state-of-the-industry annual financial reports, reduced report production and delivery time, and management workflow and status tracking and still delivered plan reports weeks ahead of schedule. We anticipate that our auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, will release our 2008 SAS 70 (Statement of Auditing Standards No. 70) report on or about May 1, 2009 for those plans that require a SAS 70.  We will post the report on the administrator section of the tiaa-cref.org website.

There you can also find a number of resources we have developed to prepare you and help you take advantage of our enhanced recordkeeping and reporting services. They include:

• A 403(b) Resource Center which you can access via our Plan Administrator website
  
• A series of administrator webinars
  
• Plan reporting webinars are offered at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET on each of the dates listed: View the Upcoming Webinar Schedule.

We also have created webinars on 403(b) changes for use by your auditors to streamline that process. This summer we will certify your 12/31/08 ending balances to assist in plan audits.  Also, if you haven't seen our new Plan Sponsor Audit Guide I encourage you to review it — it is available on our secure site.

My team of Institutional Liaisons and I are here to answer questions and resolve issues involving your day-to-day tasks related to recordkeeping and to be your point of contact for information on your ERISA 5500 reporting package and support material.  Please do not hesitate to contact your managing consultant, institutional liaison or our Administrator Telephone Center at 1 888 842-7782.

Sincerely,

Ray Bellucci
Vice President
Plan Sponsor Services