Beginning in 2012 and extending into 2018, the New York attorney general said, TIAA sales representatives "employed a fraudulent and misleading marketing pitch to convince its clients to roll over assets from low-cost, employer-sponsored retirement plans to higher-cost, individually managed accounts in TIAA's Portfolio Advisor program."

On 7/13/2021, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, Inc. — a subsidiary of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA) — has agreed to pay $97 million in restitution to tens of thousands of customers who were fraudulently misled into moving their retirement investments into higher-fee accounts offered by the company.