Brokerages · Brokerage (retirement-focused) · Structural / no discrete incident
TIAA
Headline
TIAA's account agreement gives it a LIEN over your account for any debt you owe it — and lets TIAA UNILATERALLY DECIDE WHICH OF YOUR SECURITIES TO SELL to satisfy that debt, 'except where prohibited by law.'
Not independently verified. Verification status: Unverified - heuristic first draft. Publish state: draft unverified.
TIAA's account agreement gives it a LIEN over your account for any debt you owe it — and lets TIAA UNILATERALLY DECIDE WHICH OF YOUR SECURITIES TO SELL to satisfy that debt, 'except where prohibited by law.' TIAA can pick which of your investments in a covered brokerage account to liquidate on its own authority, not yours - though the same paragraph (¶33) excludes retirement accounts such as IRAs from the lien.
- Severity
- Evidence tierUnassigned
- Claims confirmed
- Last verified2026-08-04
Primary source. None recorded — Unverified - heuristic first draft.
Terms
Arbitration
Standard FINRA-mandated predispute arbitration clause (paragraph 13 of the Customer Account Agreement), must be brought before FINRA specifically; TIAA holds a LIEN against customer account assets for any debts/obligations owed to TIAA, and can unilaterally decide which securities to sell to satisfy that lien 'except where prohibited by law' — a notable degree of unilateral control worth flagging.
Data sharing
TIAA receives remuneration connected to the mutual funds/money market funds/ETFs customers invest in, INCLUDING 12b-1 FEES — a standard but disclosed revenue-sharing arrangement that creates an incentive to favor funds that pay TIAA more.
Fees and billing
Not itemized this pass.
Contacts
Privacy contact. Not recorded.
Legal notice. NON-PUBLIC ENTITY (TIAA is not publicly traded, so there is no parent-level 10-K address of record). Service route: c/o General Counsel / Corporate Secretary, New York, New York. Confirm the exact street address from TIAA's own legal notices, and check the state-of-incorporation registered agent (usually Delaware; most large filers use The Corporation Trust Company or Corporation Service Company) via the Secretary of State business-entity search. A registered agent MUST accept service, which is why it is the reliable channel when a company publishes no privacy address.
Mailing address. Not recorded.
Evidence
No claims have been itemized for this row yet.
No sources are on file for this row yet.
Source vault
Link status: Candidate - not yet fetched
| Document | Last fetch | |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy policy tiaa.org (privacy notice not individually located as direct URL this pass) | Not fetched yet | NOT CONFIRMED |
| Terms of service tiaa.org/public/pdf/BrokerageAccountCustomerAgreement.pdf | Not fetched yet | YES |
| Website tiaa.org | Not fetched yet | — |
| Primary source No URL recorded Verification: Unverified - heuristic first draft | Not fetched yet | — |
Enforcement
No enforcement actions are linked to this row.
State statute
No comprehensive state privacy statute on file for New York