More than Three-quarters of TIAA-CREF Variable Annuities and Mutual Funds Outperform their Morningstar Median

TIAA-CREF, the financial services organization, today announced that newly released data from Morningstar shows that 76 percent of TIAA-CREF variable annuities and mutual funds within its fund complex1 rated by Morningstar exceeded their category median over the three-year period and 72 percent exceeded their category median over the five-year period ended December 31, 2008.2

In addition, data from Morningstar shows that 99 percent of TIAA-CREF’s mutual funds and variable annuity accounts within its fund complex rated by Morningstar had an overall rating of three, four or five stars across all asset classes (as of December 31, 2008). Morningstar ratings are based on risk-adjusted returns.3

“TIAA-CREF remains committed to providing investors low-cost, style-pure funds to help them build portfolios that will help them reach their long-term goals,” said Scott C. Evans, Executive Vice President and Head of Asset Management. “While 2008 was a difficult year for all fund investors, the performance of our funds and variable annuity accounts relative to our peers is attributable to the hard work of our investment managers and sober approach to risk management during a period of unprecedented market volatility.”

Morningstar Mutual Funds, a monthly publication of Morningstar, Inc., rates mutual funds by assessing each fund’s historical total returns and risk relative to other mutual funds in its category as defined by Morningstar (i.e., Large Value, Large Growth, Mid Cap Growth, etc.). The return and risk evaluations are then combined to produce a 1- to 5-star risk-adjusted rating, which measures a fund’s historical risk/return performance in any particular category.