June 2023 by L R.
This is about the parent company, not the local office. When you ask for information about rates on one of their web pages, like why are the historical rates of return quite a bit lower than the current rate, no one could answer the question, and no one knew where any managers were, so they shined me on with "A manager will call you within 48 hours." After 48 hours, no call. I called and they said, "Well, managers don't call people on the phone." So they're dishonest and ignorant. Then they put me on hold for a long time. Are these the traits of people where you want to keep your money? It also takes really long for them to say "I don't know" or to realize they don't know -- they just hem and haw and dance around your questions. They seemed to be understaffed and poorly trained.
February 2023 by Peter A.
I want to start by apologizing to any of the employees of this local office who actually try to help their clients. This is about the parent company and how they do business. I picked this location because Yelp doesn't seem to have a way to review the larger company, and this one is close to where my mother lived.My mother died in early December of 2022. It is now late February 2023. I have wrapped up the necessary business with all of my mother's other financial institutions - pensions, annuities, investment accounts, mutual funds, and banks - except for TIAA-CREF. Why? Because they make it really, really hard for you to get your money out of their sticky little hands.Here is how:1) It is hard to find the right office to contact on their website. I had to contact a couple before I got sent to the right place.2) They ask for more paperwork than other financial institutions. Not a horrible amount, just more. And you have to send that to them by snail mail or fax - no electronic sending.3) They take forever to respond. Like weeks, until I called them.4) Then they send you a really long, complex form. I think it was eight pages or so. And you have to fill that out and return it by snail mail or fax. No Docusign.5) Then they they tell you that they need a medallion signature guarantee. (Notary is not good enough.) Even though you are just trying to move $900 into a previously linked bank account, and their 8-page form didn't say you needed a medallion signature guarantee to do that.6) What next? Who knows - I'll get the damn medallion signature thing and send it in, 'cause I sure don't want to let them keep $900, but they will probably tell me I did it wrong and need to redo it.So my recommendation? Don't give these people any of your money, at least not if you want to get it back someday.
