March 2, 2015

CU names TIAA-CREF sole-service provider for retirement plans

Refreshed investment lineup will provide employees with a modernized retirement planning experience, including reduced fees and personalized financial advice

DENVER – The University of Colorado (CU) and TIAA-CREF today announced the financial services provider has been selected as sole-service provider of the university’s retirement plans, providing employees with a new menu of investment options, lower administrative fees, and personalized financial advice.

The move, effective in July, comes after a committee of faculty and staff, assisted by retirement plan consulting firm Innovest Portfolio Solutions, LLC, spent nearly a year assessing CU’s plans and considering industry best practices.

The committee issued a request for proposal that resulted in recommending TIAA-CREF. CU has had a relationship with TIAA-CREF since 1924.

The new model, with 18 funds, will replace CU’s current lineup of eight vendors offering more than 800 options. Additionally, TIAA-CREF will be the sole record keeper for CU’s 401(a) and 403(b) plans, which cover over $3.3 billion in assets for more than 12,600 employees (as of February, 2015).  Previously, the record-keeping function was distributed among eight vendors.

The plan’s new investment options include a menu featuring a select set of mutual funds and an annuity, as well as a brokerage window for employees who wish to make investments beyond those on the menu. The plans will reduce administrative fees and give employees a single point of contact for questions about their retirement plans.

“Our goal is for all University of Colorado employees to have access to the resources and services they need to plan for a secure retirement,” said Lisa Landis, CU’s associate vice president of Employee Services and chief human resources officer. “We believe this program offers the right elements to help employees think critically about their financial goals and plan for the future.”

University of Colorado employees will continue to have access to TIAA-CREF financial consultants, who provide personalized retirement advice tailored to individual goals at varying life stages.

By implementing a single service provider model, CU will give its employees a comprehensive view of all of the assets in their retirement plans, giving them the ability to make better decisions regarding their investment mix, risk profile and portfolio allocation. 

“We look forward to continuing our work with the University of Colorado, helping employees plan for retirement,” said Teresa Hassara, executive vice president of the Institutional Business at TIAA-CREF. “We are confident that the university is offering the right range of options, and we are committed to giving people all the support they need to make educated decisions.”

The new plans will streamline plan logistics and help the university satisfy fiduciary responsibilities. In addition, the single service provider model will help university benefits staff members monitor plan member enrollment, salary deferral agreements, contribution limits and savings rates for plan members. The move will boost administrative efficiencies by consolidating CU’s current eight-vendor retirement plan structure—three for the CU 401(a) Plan and eight for the CU 403(b) Plan—to one service provider.

Contribution rates, eligibility requirements and all other aspects of the plan’s design will remain the same.

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About the University of Colorado and TIAA-CREF

The University of Colorado is a premier public research university with four campuses: the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. With more than 59,700 students (and another 8,000 taking courses for credit), over 4,700 full-time instructional faculty members and an additional 1,200 research faculty across the four campuses, CU is the largest institution of higher education in Colorado. It has some 29,000 employees and a $3.3 billion annual budget. CU researchers attracted more than $861 million in sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2013-14. Academic prestige is marked by the university five Nobel laureates, eight MacArthur “Genius” Fellows, 20 astronauts and 19 Rhodes Scholars. For more information about the CU system and access to campus resources, visit www.cu.edu.

TIAA-CREF (www.tiaa-cref.org) is a national financial services organization with $851 billion in assets under management (as of 12/31/2014) and is the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields.