What CREF Means
CREF stands for College Retirement Equities Fund and continues as a separate companion organization to TIAA.
CREF Is an Organization Name
TIAA’s public privacy notice identifies CREF as an investment company and the companion organization to TIAA. It is therefore more than a historical fragment inside the former TIAA-CREF brand.
CREF in the Historical Brand
The letters formed the second half of the public-facing TIAA-CREF brand used until 2016. The later brand change did not mean that the CREF organization ceased to exist.
What CREF Is Not
CREF is not another spelling of TIAA, not the name of every retirement plan and not the same category as TIAA Traditional. The latter is a product name; CREF is an organization.
Read the Surrounding Words
A full legal entity, product or contract name may include CREF. The surrounding wording identifies the context; this page does not determine what a particular document means for an individual.