We look forward to providing you with financial advisory and custom solutions.
Your University of Iowa retirement account may be one of your largest financial assets, but the choices inside it are only part of your retirement plan. When you work with Wealth Advisors Group, your University of Iowa retirement account stays at TIAA while you are employed and after you retire. TIAA continues to provide the retirement-plan platform and account access you already know, while we add independent fiduciary guidance around investment allocation, TIAA Traditional, liquidity, Social Security, taxes, and retirement income.
Wealth Advisors Group helps University of Iowa employees evaluate those moving parts without replacing TIAA or moving the account away from it. Our team has more than a decade of experience working with the University of Iowa retirement plan, TIAA accounts, and the broader planning questions that often arise as faculty and staff approach retirement. We view TIAA as an important long-term part of the relationship: TIAA holds and services the retirement account, and we help determine how its investments fit the client’s goals and complete financial picture.
A TIAA statement can show account balances and investment holdings, but it cannot show whether your entire financial life is coordinated. That requires looking beyond a single account. Your desired retirement date, expected spending, Social Security choices, taxes, outside investments, cash reserves, and a spouse’s accounts may all influence how the TIAA account should be invested and eventually used.
For example, an investment that adds stability inside TIAA may affect how much market risk makes sense in a Schwab IRA or taxable brokerage account. A future stream of retirement income may change the amount of liquid savings you need. The order in which you draw from taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts can also affect your tax situation over time. These decisions are connected, which is why our retirement planning process begins with the household rather than one product or account.
The University of Iowa currently offers mandatory retirement-plan choices based on employee eligibility and classification, along with voluntary savings opportunities. Current plan provisions can change, so eligibility, contribution, distribution, and retirement procedures should always be confirmed through University of Iowa Human Resources and your governing plan documents. Our role is to help you understand how the options available to you fit your personal financial plan.
Choosing investments is not simply a matter of finding the fund with the best recent return. A useful allocation reflects what the money needs to accomplish, when it may be needed, how much fluctuation you can tolerate, and how the account interacts with other assets. Two University of Iowa employees with similar balances can reasonably need different portfolios because their income needs, pensions, Social Security benefits, spouses’ accounts, and comfort with risk are different.
In September 2025, the University of Iowa modernized its TIAA-administered retirement plans. The University streamlined a menu that had included more than 50 fund options into a smaller core lineup, introduced new retirement-series choices, and added a Self-Directed Brokerage option. Account access remained with TIAA, but many participants had understandable questions about where their balances were going, whether they needed to take action, and how the new choices affected their allocation. During that transition, we heard from more University employees who wanted help understanding what had changed and what it meant for their own accounts.
The Self-Directed Brokerage option can provide access to thousands of additional investments beyond the plan’s core lineup. That added flexibility does not mean every available investment is appropriate for every participant. Available investment types, allocation limits, expenses, and other conditions depend on the specific University of Iowa plan and current governing materials. The account still remains within the TIAA retirement-plan structure.
Wealth Advisors Group can help a client evaluate whether the brokerage option fits the plan, navigate the access and setup process when appropriate, select investments, and coordinate the brokerage allocation with TIAA Traditional, the core lineup, outside accounts, risk needs, and retirement-income goals. This can preserve the benefits and continuity of the TIAA relationship while giving an experienced investor a broader investment menu when that flexibility supports the overall strategy.
A thoughtful review commonly includes questions such as:
Wealth Advisors Group’s investment management work considers both the individual holdings and their purpose within the broader portfolio. That helps turn a collection of accounts into one coordinated strategy instead of managing each statement in isolation.
TIAA Traditional deserves special attention because its terms can depend on the contract in which it is held. Crediting rates, guarantees, transfer provisions, withdrawal availability, and retirement-income options may differ. The name of the holding alone is not enough to determine how liquid it is or what choices are available. Before recommending a change, it is important to identify the contract, review its current terms, and understand the tradeoffs attached to each option.
A review should address practical questions: Is the balance liquid or subject to a transfer schedule? What rate is currently being credited, and what guarantees apply? Does the holding provide stability that complements the rest of the portfolio? Would using part of it for lifetime income support your plan, or would retaining flexibility be more important? How would a payout decision affect a spouse or survivor? The answers are specific to the contract and the household.
There is no universal answer to whether someone should keep, transfer, or annuitize a TIAA Traditional balance. The appropriate analysis depends on current contract provisions, other reliable income, spending needs, health and longevity considerations, liquidity, legacy goals, and comfort with market risk. We help clients organize those questions and compare available choices without treating one feature as automatically good or bad.
Retirement income rarely comes from one source. A University of Iowa employee may eventually draw from TIAA, Social Security, a spouse’s benefit, taxable savings, Roth accounts, and other retirement plans. The timing and order of those cash flows can matter as much as the investment selection.
Our planning process can model how much income is needed from investments before and after Social Security begins. It can compare withdrawal sequences across taxable, tax-deferred, and Roth accounts while considering the client’s tax bracket, required minimum distributions, and potential Roth conversions. Because tax rules and individual circumstances change, this is planning work rather than a promise of a particular tax result. Our tax planning service is designed to keep those considerations connected to the investment and retirement-income decisions.
For couples, coordination also means treating both partners’ assets and benefits as one balance sheet. Social Security survivor benefits, beneficiary choices, and any TIAA annuity elections can affect the income available to the surviving spouse. Reviewing those choices together can reveal gaps that are easy to miss when each account is evaluated separately.
Many people assume that because assets are held at TIAA, TIAA is making all of the ongoing investment and planning decisions for them. Custody, products, and advice are different functions. Wealth Advisors Group provides an independent fiduciary advice layer: we learn what matters to you, evaluate the available choices, make recommendations, and help manage the portfolio in the context of your full financial plan.
For clients who already hold University of Iowa retirement assets at TIAA, those assets can remain at TIAA. Working with an advisor does not automatically mean moving the account. Other accounts may be held at Schwab when that arrangement is appropriate for the client, but the planning work considers all of the accounts together. The custodian holds the assets; the advisory relationship is about coordinating decisions and providing ongoing guidance.
A typical conversation starts with information gathering rather than a product recommendation. Helpful materials may include recent TIAA statements, the names of applicable contracts, outside investment statements, Social Security estimates, current income and spending information, and any retirement timing questions. We then identify the decisions that matter most and the information that needs to be confirmed.
You do not need to arrive with every statement organized or every decision already defined. A useful first meeting can begin with the questions that have been difficult to answer: whether your allocation still fits, how TIAA Traditional works in your contract, how much income the account may need to provide, or how TIAA should coordinate with Social Security and outside investments.
Schedule a free introduction to ask any questions and see if we’re a good fit.
Wealth Advisors Group is an independent registered investment adviser and is not affiliated with or endorsed by TIAA or Charles Schwab. References to custodians and investment products are provided for educational purposes.
Made with ♥ by Aelieve.