It’s never too early to start thinking about life insurance coverage.
With an effective life insurance policy in place, you can rest easy knowing your family will be taken care of if you’re not around.
Still, choosing the best policy from the right company can seem overwhelming with so many carriers and policy options.
If TIAA is one of the providers you are considering, this review will cover everything you need to know to decide if TIAA life insurance is best for your needs.
In this review:
TIAA | Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association
The Carnegie Foundation created Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America-College Retirement Equities Fund, known as TIAA-CREF, in 1918 as a fully funded pension system for educators.
The idea was to provide them with a guaranteed income after retirement along with life insurance.
The company is now the primary financial services provider for medical, governmental, and cultural fields of academia and research.
Is TIAA a Good Insurance Company?
When you’re looking for a life insurance carrier, it’s imperative to assess the financial robustness of any company you consider.
Fortunately, insurer rating agencies dig deep, so you don’t have to.
TIAA Insurance is among only three insurance groups awarded with the highest rating possible from three of the main four rating agencies.
- A.M. Best: AA+,
- Fitch Ratings: AAA
- Standard and Poor’s: AA+
Moody’s Investor Services rates TIAA as Aa1, their second-highest rating.
Using these expert ratings, you can look beyond the company’s financial strength to the specific policy that best fits you and your family.
Life Insurance Products
TIAA has four main types of coverage available with multiple policy options to suit your needs and budget.
TIAA Term Life Insurance
With term life insurance, you’ll get death benefits but without the advantage of cash value accumulating. Due to the lack of investment features, you can expect far lower premiums than permanent life insurance policies.
With TIAA, guaranteed plans are offered for 10 to 30 years. The amount of coverage depends on the term.
These term policies are renewable, and you can also convert them to permanent plans if that becomes a more attractive option.
Death benefits with TIAA start at $100,000 and go up to $1 million. This remains level, just like the premiums for the term of your policy.
If you’re looking for affordable life insurance capable of paying off debts and providing a tax-free income to your survivors, term life coverage from TIAA is an option worth bearing in mind.
TIAA Universal Life
Universal life is one of 3 permanent policies offered by TIAA. With universal life coverage, you’ll get flexible premiums, ideal if your financial circumstances change.
As with all universal life policies, the cash value builds, and it will grow tax-deferred.
Although you’ll get flexible premiums, you will need to stay inside policy guidelines.
TIAA Variable Universal Life
With TIAA’s variable universal life policy, you get all of the benefits of standard universal life coverage for peace of mind throughout your lifetime.
The difference comes with the cash account side of your policy. You’ll have access to more than 60 investment options for the cash value component, which can help you gain added growth.
Obviously, this is not a guarantee, so variable universal life can be a risky choice.
TIAA Survivorship Universal Life
With both universal and variable universal life coverage, a survivorship option can cover both you and a partner for less than the price of two separate policies.
Is TIAA Life Insurance Best For You?
Deciding on the type of life insurance coverage you need is only one part of the equation.
Since everyone has different needs and varying budgets, it’s not practical to say whether TIAA Insurance would make the best fit for you without knowing these variables.
One thing is certain: there’s no one-size-fits-all life insurance solution. Still, with TIAA, you have a strong chance of finding something that will meet your requirements.
We can say for sure that millions of consumers worldwide place their trust in TIAA.
Other TIAA Products & Services
In addition to life insurance, TIAA offers permanent life insurance coverage combined with long-term care benefits.
This can safeguard against the costs of assisted living, any nursing home, or hospital expenses.
You can also approach TIAA for all your investment needs, from annuities and mutual funds to brokerage accounts, managed accounts, or 529 education savings.
TIAA also offers banking services and credit cards.
They also provide plenty of education, from preparing for retirement and investing to estate planning and general tax information.
TIAA-CREF Company History
After the Second World War, TIAA saw the need to start investing in equities to strengthen and diversify retirement funds.
Life expectancy was increasing at the same time that inflation skyrocketed.
The GI Bill also meant that the education sector started rapidly expanding. As a result, TIAA established the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF) in 1952.
The full name of TIAA-CREF stayed around until 2016.
BY 1967, Fortune Magazine named TIAA the leaders for growth, and in 1974 the Congressional Committee praised the way in which they managed pension funds.
TIAA Today
Shortly afterward, in 1979, TIAA began investing in New York Stock Exchange stocks.
Commendations kept coming, and in 2018, they were crowned by Lipper as Best Overall Large Fund Company for the sixth consecutive year.
Although TIAA was firmly rooted in education at its inception, today, the company provides life insurance and various financial products in 50 countries worldwide.
Acquisitions continued throughout the 2000s. In 2013, TIAA bought a 50% stake in a Las Vegas shopping center as part of a joint venture with General Growth Properties.
They acquired Nuveen Investments in 2014 and purchased EverBank Financial Corp in 2016 for $2.5 billion.
This bank is now known as TIAA, FSB. Still making history in 2018, TIAA granted parental leave regardless of gender, showing the company is still as progressive as when it was founded a century ago.
Get Started with TIAA Life Insurance
You alone can decide whether or not TIAA Insurance best matches your requirements in terms of life insurance coverage.
This review is intended to give you some valuable background, but it can only act as a guide without an awareness of your personal circumstances.
This is why we strongly recommend contacting us if you want to discuss the various policies offered by TIAA, as we can help answer any questions you might have.
Once you have a clear idea of which type of coverage would be most suitable, and you have at least some idea of your preferred carrier, our independent experts can guide you every step of the way, whether that’s with TIAA or another company.
Get in touch, and we can get started with your search for the best life insurance.
