The only way to pass a TIAA-CREF account beyond the current generation requires that you elect not to annuitize. You must instead elect the Minimum Distribution Option, because that avoids the conversion of the account into a premium. The first benefit, assuming that this comports with your values and resources, is that you will have responsibility for your own financial destiny. To underline the point, you have rejected the safety net of a lifetime annuity and have chosen instead to take distributions at your own pace, subject to the governmentally prescribed minimum. (more…)

Single life annuity—or “One-Life Annuity,” as it is called in TIAA-CREF’s documentation—guarantees that you will have income for the rest of your life. Given the size of the monthly payment, it benefits those who have not had an opportunity to accumulate large retirement accounts and run the risk of outliving their assets. The one-life alternative seems obviously appropriate for single people who either do not wish or are not in a position to pass retirement assets on to heirs or charity. They also do not have another person for whom they want to provide an income after their death. (more…)

This also apparently routine topic produces its share of confusion, and we would like to dispel as much of it as we can.

We tend to think of the Transfer Payout Annuity as a transfer of funds in the same way that we think of movement of money from one bank account to another. If we choose to make the transfer over a period of ten years in relatively equal payments, then a balance will remain in the old account until the final transfer is made. A Transfer Payout Annuity is not a regular account. As with any annuity, you use a sum of money, in this case the amount you wish to transfer, to purchase a cash flow that will take place over a period often years. (more…)