Welcome to the webinar. I'm Heidi Tennant, NAPFA's Senior Coordinator of Membership and Continuing Ed. Thanks for joining NAPFA for this program on TIAA Advisor Services, Why Third Party Advisors are Important and How We Support Them with Dennis S. Rupp, Senior Director in TIAA's Advisor Services Division. He's responsible for developing strategic relationships and positioning TIAA's value proposition on retirement plans, annuities, and lifetime income solutions to help fiduciaries maximize the value of TIAA products and services for their clients. Dennis joined TIAA in 2005 and has 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. More than 21 of those 30 years have been spent working directly with RIAs to help them differentiate, grow, and expand their businesses. Thank you, Dennis, for joining us today. Thank you, Heidi, I appreciate that introduction. And welcome to everybody and thank you so much for attending today. We appreciate your time and interest. Today I want to get started by sharing an experience with you that really has impacted the way I think about a lot of things in my life. And it's this story of when I met my nemesis, the Lindt chocolate truffle. I know they look cute and friendly, but those things are deadly to your waistline. So I was living in New Hampshire at the time, and this is when I first encountered the Lindt chocolate truffle. It's where I had my first one, and it's also where I learned that Lindt chocolate has factory outlet stores where they sell seconds and overruns at a discount price. Now, I have four boys and I went there a lot, probably more than I should have. I was actually obsessed. I guess the best way to describe it might be, my name is Dennis and I have a problem. But these outlet stores were really neat because what would happen is you'd go into the outlet store and when you walk in, the clerk would hand you a plastic bag. And they would tell you, you can take your plastic bag and you can put as much chocolate as you can put into that plastic bag for $10. And so I would go there a lot and I would get my bag from the clerk and I would meticulously start filling it up with the chocolates and trying to place them as best as I could inside that bag. And on one of the times when I'm in the store, I'm filling my bag up and I hear behind me, hey, mister, you're doing it all wrong. And I look around and behind me is a group of college students. And I'm like, yeah, they're like, you're doing it all wrong. What should I be doing different? And they said, here's what you do. When you walk into the store, get your bag from the clerk. And then the first thing that you do is you take your hands and you put them inside the plastic bag and you stretch it out and you start expanding the bag and expanding them. You don't rip it, but expand it as big as you possibly can. So you can get as much chocolate as you possibly can. And so then I was curious. I was like, how big a difference is this really going to make? So I said, let's have a little competition. So I'm going to fill my bag up and you guys fill your bag up and let's go up to the front and then we'll weigh them and we'll see the difference. And they said, OK, sounds like fun. So I'm filling my bag. I'm putting as much as I can in. I finished. They're ready. We both go up to the counter. I weigh my bag. They weigh their bag and I'm blown away. They actually had over three pounds more chocolate in their bag because they had expanded their bag and made room for more. Now here's why I think this applies so well today. TIA's mission is to be the leader in lifetime income, to make sure that everyone has a secure retirement, to reach that scale, to make a bigger difference, have a greater impact. We understand we're not going to be able to do that alone. We need to expand our reach so we can help more clients. And we do that by expanding our partnership with fee-only fiduciary advisors whose focus is solely on aligning with their clients' interests and needs. My other goal today is to expand what you know about TIAA and increase your interest in partnering with us to help people have a secure retirement. So with that as the backdrop, let's talk about the agenda today. First, we're hoping you can get to better know us by sharing TIAA's mission, who we serve, how we're different, and what makes us uniquely qualified to be the leader in lifetime income. Next, we want to discuss the importance for us of working closely with financial advisors. Then we'll walk through a case study together. After that, we'll cover our commitment to the advisor channel, how we support advisors, and how we're continuing to make investments in that partnership. Using that, we'll wrap up and talk about next sessions. And finally, we'll check back in to see if there's any questions on the material that's been covered. Now, one thing I got to warn you about is when I give these presentations, I probably overshare about personal details about myself. And one of the things that I'll tell you today is that I absolutely love movies. And in movies, an origin story is often used. It's where a character's backstory becomes the bedrock or the foundation of how they became, how that character came to be the hero of that story. The origin story helps the audience understand the character on a much, much deeper level. Really helps them start to connect to that character and want to cheer for them and hope that they're successful in whatever endeavor they're trying to accomplish. For example, Tony Stark is a brilliant, talented, successful industrialist and weapons manufacturer. But as fate would have it, while consulting on a weapons contract overseas in enemy territory, he is attacked by his own company's weapons and taken hostage by a group of terrorists who demand that he build weapons for them. Instead, he builds an armor suit to escape and goes on to become Iron Man, now dedicating his life and resources to fighting threats throughout the world. Gives you chills, right? Well, likewise, a company's origin story is hugely important. It defines the company. It tells others what the company is good at. It builds trust and confidence. It hints at the company's character, shows the company's direction, and explains how and why a company is doing what it's doing. It gives people, both clients and partners, a reason to choose that company over working with others. Today, I want to share with you TI's origin story, because I think it's important that you get to know a little bit about TIAA. So for us, it all started in 1890. Andrew Carnegie became a trustee at Cornell University, and one of the very first things they did is gave him a tour of the campus. Now, when I think about this, I like to picture, go back in time and think about what Cornell looked like in 1890, and think about them walking Andrew Carnegie around and showing him the facilities, the amenities, the grounds, any historical facts or unique features at the campus, talking about what it was like for the students living on campus at the time, what courses they taught, what specialties they had, what were their challenges, what were they trying to accomplish. So Andrew Carnegie goes through, has his tour, and after they say, Mr. Carnegie, what did you think? And he says, that was amazing, I'm very, very impressed, but I do have one question for you. Who are all of the old gentlemen with the long white beards running around campus? He was told that these were the professors, and that most of them would have to continue teaching until they were too feeble to do so. Now, this was a time before Social Security, and he quickly realized that saving for retirement for professors was not an option. And he was even more shocked to find out that many of the professors were earning much less than his entry-level clerks in his company. He wanted to do something to help, so he started by giving $10 million to start a free pension system for professors. But by 1915, he realized that providing free pensions would exceed the original endowment, so they had to close the program to new entrants. However, he realized that he hadn't solved the problem, and that the need still remained. So in 1918, the Carnegie Corporation set up TIAA, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, with a $1 million grant, to help teachers retire with confidence. That mission expanded and grew to include those in health care and more, creating retireable income in retirement while those teachers worked to make a difference in the world. Now, this really pioneered a new approach in security and retirement, since in this case, the employees, here professors, and the employers, the universities, jointly were contributing to the employees' retirement savings. The savings were also portable, which was a huge distinction from the few portable plans or few pension plans that existed at the time. By the end of the first year, 30 public and private institutions had signed on. In the beginning, it was conservative investing that allowed TIAA-CREF to survive the 1929 stock market crash and also the Great Depression. But as time went on, clients started facing additional challenges. During the 1940s, inflation averaged more than 7% per year, with the high being 18.2% in 1946. In addition, increased actuarial problems were happening because longevity was radically increasing. In just 50 years, the average life expectancy in the United States had increased from 48 years to 70 years. This was the catalyst for the next innovation at TIAA. In 1952, TIAA set up CREF, College Retirement Equities Fund, and CREF is our country's first variable annuity, because people were starting to live so much longer, inflation was going crazy, and TIAA realized that clients needed access to equities. This is part one of the story, and it's really important. It talks to you about how TIAA and CREF were established. The other really important part of this story is the structure of TIAA-CREF, how we're set up as a company, and the charters under which we must operate. So basically, TIAA is an insurance company started in 1918. It is also a not-for-profit stock company. The stock is held by a board of overseers. TIAA issues guaranteed annuities to clients, and its charter has a restriction to only sell to these clients in the most favorable terms possible. Again, under our charter, we have to sell to clients in the most favorable terms possible. So what does that mean? Well, TIAA does aim to generate income above expenses, but any of this operating income, which is basically profit for a not-for-profit, is invested back into the company, held as a surplus, or eventually returned back to participants in the form of increased rates or higher payout rates during retirement. We call it our sharing-the-profit approach, and it's a very unique distinction, and you'll hear more about that in the upcoming sessions, our profit-sharing approach. You see, other companies, when they have a profit, they either retain it for themselves or they pay it out to shareholders. For TIAA, the profit we have of the surplus under charter, we're giving that back to the clients to help them with their retirement. Now, CREP, on the other hand, issues variable annuities to clients and also has its own board of overseers, has a very similar charter to TIAA as far as defining the population it can serve, and its charter requires an at-cost management style, an at-cost management style, meaning we need to keep the expenses as low as possible so that more of the earnings flow back to the clients. TIAA and CREP accounts are only available to participants in TIAA retirement plans or have been available if someone could meet the eligibility requirements to open up a TIAA IRA. That's a mouthful. I want you to know that today, TIAA is still innovating. We are now bringing our retirement expertise to the 401k marketplace, and actually hot off the presses, just today, we're announcing that the eligibility requirements to open up a TIAA IRA have been removed, and anyone in the general public, anybody, can now open up a TIAA IRA and have access to our retirement expertise, our TIAA and CREP accounts, and that just happened today. Of note also is that the parent company can also make investments in other businesses that are for-profit and serve the general public. A good example of that would be Nuveen. TIAA, a few years back, purchased Nuveen. But all of the capital revenues that those companies generate flow back to the parent to benefit clients through lower pricing, increased rates of return, or higher payouts in retirement. As this slide shows, we've been pretty good stewards over the money originally entrusted to us. And I intentionally say stewards and entrusted because really that's how we think about it. We think about operating the company to generate profits that then can be returned back to clients to enhance their retirement. Now, we've grown that $1 million to $1.2 trillion, and all while paying out $545 billion in benefits to clients since 1918. We've grown from supporting 30 institutional clients at the beginning of year one to now serving over 15,000 institutional clients, and now helping more than 5 million clients achieve a secure retirement. And just as important, because we're in the promises business or promise-keeping business, I should say, for stability, claims paying, and overall financial strength, TIAA is one of only three insurance groups in the United States to currently hold the highest possible rating from three of the four leading insurance company rating agencies, and TIAA also has a 99 COMDEX rating. And this is important because I like to say there are no guarantees, only guarantors. And what I mean by that is look, anybody can make a promise, but that promise is only as good as the person or company backing that promise. And we want our clients and partners to know that TIAA will be here to fulfill our promises and commitments for the next 100 years and beyond. As we move into the partnership with TIAA-PREP, I am always amazed at what a force multiplier a great partnership can be. I think about draft horses. Now for those of you like me who weren't raised on a farm or grew up on a farm, I had the look up what a draft horse was, I didn't know. But draft horses are large, heavy breeds of horses, characterized by tall stature, heavy muscular build, and large body size, and are called draft horses because they are especially fit to pull heavy loads. And maybe it might have been just the beginning for me to say big, wide scales, or that type of horse. But a single draft horse can pull a load of 8,000 pounds. That's four tons, they can pull four tons. That's amazing. When I think about the strength involved in that, it's hard to imagine. So then you wonder what happens if you hook two draft horses together, they pull together, how much weight can they pull? Well, you logically think, well, if one horse can pull 8,000, then two horses should be able to pull 16,000 pounds. But you'd have to guess again, because those two horses pulling together can actually pull 24,000 pounds, or three times as much as one horse can pull alone. These horses are teaching us a really clear lesson, a valuable lesson about teamwork. But there's still more we can learn from them. You see, if those same two horses that you've got hooked together, have trained together in the past, and have worked together before in the past, they can't just pull 24,000 pounds, they can actually pull 32,000 pounds or four times as much as one horse can pull alone. The powerful lesson that these forces teach us involves not only teamwork but coordinated collaboration and I really like that term coordinated collaboration. I like to envision working with advisors in that coordinated collaboration that we're working with each other, we're partnering, we understand the firms. In fact a lot of times when advisors call in they're talking to the same consultant or the same relationship manager or the same operation person. We get to know each other and really start to build our rapport and so you're not always constantly explaining kind of who you are in your firm but as we work together with that coordinated collaboration our goal would be that we are working so closely with advisors that the advisors actually start to consider advisor services, TI advisor services an extension of their firm that we're working that close together and when I think about that what a real force multiplier that is how much how many clients we could touch and lives we can impact working that closely together. So now let's let's take a look at what partnership looks like for some of the advisors who are working with us closely. So again this is our advisor services by the numbers and we look at this and we think the number of assets under advisement, the number of advisors that have at least one client that's authorized them to work on behalf with TI craft to help them with their account but the number that I think surprises advisors the most and this may be just me is the last one at 20 plus. We hear all the time that advisors say they had no idea that TIAA had a department set up that was dedicated to working with advisors let alone that it was there for 20 plus years. Some people say it's one of the best kept secrets and hopefully by doing presentations like this today we're changing that. Now I do think these numbers tell a really nice story about the power of TIAA advisors working together but for me the real power in these numbers is the fact that there are people behind them. People who are getting the oftentimes life-changing help and support they and their families need to achieve their financial goals and feel confident that they will be able to have a secure retirement. I can't tell you the number of times I've heard from clients about how great their advisor is and what a great job and how lucky they are to have an advisor that's helping them with these accounts. So as we transition here now let's take a look at the impact for one advisory firm and the clients as we move into the case study. So I wish that there was some really cool story I could tell you about how this advisor found out about working with clients that have TIAA-CREF accounts. But as the case is a lot of times the advisory firm started to have their clients ask them if they could also help them with their retirement accounts with TIAA. The advisory firm said that's a great question. We don't know. We don't know if TIAA-CREF's in that business. But let us let us go ahead and find out because we'd love to help you. We'd love to support you with these accounts as well. So next the firm reached out to TIAA and was directed to advisor services to see how TIAA works with advisors and what level of support they could give. If this was a good fit or a way they'd be able to help these clients with these accounts. As the advisors were deciding whether or not it would be a good fit to work with TIAA, they had the following questions. Is this new for TIAA to work with advisors? Why does TIAA want to work with advisors? Is TIAA committed to the RA channel? And then there were a lot of questions about how we would work together. They were like okay you want to work with advisors. You've been doing this for a while. How do you help me? What do I see? Is there what access? Is there a portal? Can I see the client's accounts? Is there access to forms? What tools and resources I'm seeing? So what access is available for me to be able to help my clients? Next was I want to talk about what you can do to help me with data feeds and data aggregation so I can have this part of my business model and seamlessly be able to help these clients as I do with their other investments. Then they talked about do you have trading abilities? Can we trade? Is there fee billing available on these accounts? What tools, information, and resources are available? What support and training will be provided? How can I get help? As we answered all these questions, we went through this together. They were like okay this is great. You have a platform and a service and people that are here to support. What's the catch? And by that they meant you're providing all these resources to help us. What are the charges and will I have additional costs to bear? How much is it going to cost me to be on your platform to work with advisors? And advisors are always blown away when we tell them TIAA does not charge you anything. We set up this platform because we realize that clients want to work with their own independent third-party advisors. And one of our tenants is to delight our clients and we do that by making we know they want to work with advisors. So make it as easy as possible for those advisors to assist those clients in maximizing their TI accounts and securing their retirement. So there's no charge for that. After answering all these questions, the firm kind of looked and said well why wouldn't we do this? It's a win for our clients. It's a win for us and you're telling us that you believe this is a big win for TIAA which we do. So how do we get started? So then we talked them through. We kind of have a three-step process for bringing an advisor on our platform. The first part is an introduction which consists of education sessions on TIAA and really kind of talking with each other about how we fit into their business model and then setting up expectations. What we expect from advisors and what advisors can expect from us. We then start to talk to advisors about if you want to work with your clients then you need to talk to your clients about a client authorization form. The client will sign a client authorization form which sets you up as an authorized party on their accounts and then allows us to work directly with you as you work on behalf of your client. So we can share information and you can have access. The third part is getting you set up on our platform in a formalized manner which is done through a master agreement. So we help the advisors submit a master agreement to get them set up on our platform so they can have access to the portal, online access, data feeds, fee billing forms, all the things that we have to support advisors. The next step is once that master agreement's processed we reach out and get the advisor set up on the platform. So then we set up a training session because we want to make sure that the advisor gets set up, knows how to access the site, knows how to find information, knows how to trade, knows where forms are, knows how to find beneficiary, all the information we need. We want to make sure they know how to navigate that site, maybe add additional users. Whatever it might be we want to make sure that we're setting them up for success in using the system. And then following that the next part is we set up a relationship meeting where we talk to them about how we work together, what additional support and training needs might be required, and how we can help them get off to a fast start. So once the firm went through that process they basically started as most people do they said hey we want to kind of build this out we want to go slow to go fast. So they basically started with just a couple clients and sometimes it's family members or friends, sometimes it's a really good client that they feel they can test things with. So they got client authorizations, they got access to those clients, they had access to the portal, they started moving around looking to how it works. Once they felt comfortable that they were that this was scalable and something that they could do they started bringing on more and more and more of their clients through client authorization. I will tell you that this firm started slow in the first couple of months but as of today that firm is working with nearly 600 clients that have TIAA accounts. Their assets under management are 170 million and what to us was very very impressive as that advisory firm learned more about TIAA and the unique products and services the way we support advisors how they can have clients. They actually of that 170 million, 55 million was money they helped roll in from other carriers because they wanted to take advantage of the unique product and features and help their clients have a secure retirement. Now that firm is in regular conversations with their relationship manager, our advisor services desk and the operations team is needed. And the great part of this story is really again it's winning outcomes for all three parties. It's a win for clients, they're getting what they need, the help they need. It's a win for advisors, they're helping their clients maybe be able to find new clients and again it's another revenue source or way for them to generate revenue and for us it's a win as well. So now let's take a look at TIAA advisor services and how we are supporting advisors and what we're doing to make future enhancements and investments in the partnership. So if I think about advisor services I'm going to share just kind of what we consider to be our value proposition. Advisor services is a team of dedicated professionals that work exclusively with third-party advisors to help them maximize the value of TI products and services for their clients all while making it easier for them to work with TIAA and grow their business. And I think there's a couple key points right. So first is dedicated professionals. I will tell you we are committed to having the best of the best of our employees work in TIAA advisor services and we're constantly as we hire trying to upscale who we have and who we're working with to make sure they're the best of the best. Another important part of that is exclusively with the third-party advisors. This is not a part-time thing for us. We're not working over in other parts of the company or taking calls from other areas and then taking advisor calls. We are 100 focused and dedicated to working with advisors to make them successful. And then again providing training, education, everything you might need to make it easier to help you grow your business. And we're and when I talk about advisor services I really am talking about four things and I call the four P's. So the first is for our people and we probably like you we really consider people our greatest asset. And our team is set up in the following kind of functional areas. First we've got advisor service consultants and they operate on our support desk. They're set up to help advisors on when the phone phones ring to help. They're set up from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. eastern time to help advisors and it may be anything from fund lineups, plan level details, helping make trades and accounts, whatever it may be they're set up. And the other great part is if they don't know an answer and it's going to take some help to resolve it they'll own that. They'll take that on they'll solve it for you and they will get back to you with a response. The next the next role is an operations team and we have that team they're dedicated to helping advisors with fee billing, trading, data feeds, reports, website issues, getting on anything that might make you operationally more effective. We've got a dedicated group to work with that. And then the last is a relationship management group that's set up to partner with advisors to understand their business, provide updates, regular contact and communication to understand issues and again set them up to be successful. The next area is our platform and I'm just going to jump ahead to that slide just to show you because this is an important part of what advisors can self-serve so they don't have to take their time calling. If they need an answer to a question there's a portal they can go to open up with lots of items and information that can help them be self-sufficient. Again we're more than happy to help but we also want to make it easier for advisors to get information on their own. And these are just a list of some of the things that are found and available on our advisor portal to help advisors. The next is P is for processes and again we talked about making advisors more effective and efficient for managing their business and the last is for our business and the last is for our products and the unique products that we have that really bring value in helping clients grow assets and achieve lifetime income and an income that they cannot live. A lot of the next sessions are really focused in on the products and we'll go into much more detail so I really encourage you to look at attending those next products because we are going to go into great detail about what those products are, how they work, how they're different and we know a lot of people have questions about those. Now as you can see on the bottom half of the slide this is where we're making enhancements and improvements but I am not here today to tell you by any means that we're perfect because we still have improvements that we need to make but what I can tell you is that we are very committed to the RA channel and we know the impact that we can have if we actually do a good job in helping you help your clients and the bottom half of the slide really starts to show you the continuing improvements that we're making on a regular basis and also the areas for future investments and enhancements that we're making. So this slide was really put up to set up our next session which is on TI traditional and because I told you originally that I really love movies I just thought it might be fun if I kind of wrote like a little promo type movie script type teaser to share with you and again I apologize I'll try to read it a little dramatic I'm probably not the best person to do this I definitely wouldn't hire myself to do the dramatic reading of this but then I thought I'd share this with you just for fun. So in a world where defined benefit plans have been driven into extinction a dark cloud begins to hover over all humanity panic and despair begin to set in as the future looks bleak for retirement security but out of the darkness one company will arise to meet the challenge and embark on an epic journey to become the leader in providing guaranteed lifetime income and to make sure that every person has a secure retirement. Don't miss TIAA traditional the zoom meeting. All right thanks for letting me do that but seriously you will not want to miss the next session on TI traditional. It's very popular a lot of our clients actually have TI traditional as one of their holdings in their account there's a lot of questions around on that and in the next section a session we're going to go into a lot of detail about the product and really focus on giving you a much deeper understanding of TIAA how it works with our unique sharing the profit approach that we talked about earlier to help people with guaranteed growth potential if they want a guaranteed lifetime income that they cannot live and more opportunity for growth and income during retirement. So again I encourage you all to make time to attend that session it'll be well worth it. So as I conclude I hope that I conveyed the following things to you. First I hope that I was able to expand the way you view TIAA that you now know us better understand our mission who we serve how we're different and get some sense as to why we're uniquely qualified to be the leaders in lifetime income. I also hope I stress the importance we have for us in partnering and working closely with financial advisors as I said before we can't do it without you can't reach enough people without you and you now know our commitment to the RA channel how we're supporting advisors and how we're investing in our partnership and finally I hope you'll all be interested in attending the following sessions the follow-up sessions that we have again the next one is January 30th again you're not going to want to miss that one. Heidi that's that's the end of my kind of prepared remarks should we check back in to see if there are any questions? Yeah let's give everybody a minute to type any questions in the Q&A tab we've been answering them as we go but we'll wait a little bit for those. And again, the upcoming sessions are next Monday, the traditional fixed annuity, the following Monday, CREF, the variable annuity accounts, Monday the 13th, the real estate accounts, and then Tuesday, February 21st, because we're off the 20th, for a holiday, a look at partnering. Okay, we have a question from Deva, who asks, with an authorization, do advisors get access to current employers' plan accounts as well? So thank you for the question. I'm going to try to answer that. So that's a really good question. So if you look at the authorization form, the first thing I would tell you about the authorization form is it is set up at the social security number. So when that client signs that authorization form, authorizing the advisor or firm as an authorized party, they are granting access to all of the accounts that TIA or that client owns at TIAA, the IRA accounts, and also the pension plans they own through institutions. I think I answered the question, but if I didn't, please let me know. Okay, somebody asked if the recording will be available. Yes, I'll have it in the NEPFA Learning Center by tomorrow. What is the process for fee processing? Another great question. So with fee processing, there's a couple of things that I want to touch on with the availability of fee billing. So for any individual accounts that the client owns, fee billing is not a problem because those are individual accounts and the client can authorize fee billing from those accounts. When it comes to the pension plans, it gets a little more complicated because the institutions themselves or each plan itself has to determine or decide whether or not they will allow fee billing directly from those accounts. Now, that's something that TIAA on our consultant desk or your relationship managers can help you know whether or not a plan will allow for fee billing. As far as the process goes, the process, you log in through the portal. There's a fee billing tab. You click on that tab. You fill out the spreadsheet with the amount of fees you'd like deducted and you upload that spreadsheet back into the system. The fees are then paid via electronic deposit into your bank account. I'm sorry, I was still on mute. What is the best way to get more information on plan specific offerings like brokerage windows in client plans? Can advisors have access to trading, etc. on a platform like this? Yes, so thanks for that prompt, because I should have moved to the next slide. So the best way to get information on specific plan information to find out what's available through a plan, like whether or not a brokerage window is available through that plan, is you can either email advisorretirement at TIAA.org, or you can call our advisor services desk at 888-842-0318, and they're happy to go into detail on the specific plans that you have an interest in. Great. Are the TIAA advisor support staff available to an advisor who does not manage client investments, who works on an hourly or project basis? Yes, they are. As long as that advisor has the client sign a client authorization, our advisor services desk can help any advisor, no matter how they charge or bill, to answer any questions on the TIAA contracts. Okay, and we had a couple of questions very similar to that. And can you talk again about where to download the authorization form, and how to access a master agreement, and how long does the onboarding process take? Okay, so initially, to get a client authorization form, before you have access to the portal, you would contact our advisor services desk, or again, email in and let them know that you had an interest in getting a client authorization form. As far as a master agreement, we typically go through that process. So once an advisor contacts us, says they would like to set up a master agreement, we go through that kind of process we talked about, where we'll set up some small education session. But if I talk about, oh, sorry, once you're on the portal, the forms are available there through a form section on the portal where you'll have access to the client authorization form to add additional clients, as well as other commonly used forms that are available for advisors to just pull from a form section. As far as the time for the whole onboarding process, depending on how quickly we can work with an advisor to schedule the educational session. Once that's done, a master agreement submitted, the typical turnaround is 10 to 15 days for that to be processed, 10 to 15 business days for that to be processed. And then once that's done, emails are automatically generated for the advisors, letting them know that the master agreement has been processed, and another email with a registration link for them to register for the site. And at that same time, someone will reach out to schedule that training session to go over the website with them. Thank you. Mark asks, if an employer plan does not allow fee billing, can you help us get that changed? We can help, and Mark, thank you for the question. We can work to help get that changed. I'm not going to pretend it's easy. It basically takes us working with the plan itself. And if that plan will be willing to change their plan documents to allow for fee billing, I will tell you that typically if an advisor has a relationship with somebody that has some authority or some influence at that institution, it makes it easier. We then share that information with our relationship managers on an institutional level, and they talk and we work through trying to get advisor fee billing set up on that plan. So yes, we will work with you. I will tell you it's a complicated process, but we do work with you to try to get it done. Okay. And we have a couple of questions about promotions. Does TIA have a process where a plan participant can find RIA advisors in their area that is on your advisor platform? Well, you're reading our mind as far as enhancements that we're working on. We currently do not have that. We are actually trying to work through that right now to find a way where we can have something like that. We do not currently have it, but it is something and a future enhancement we are currently working at and trying to do. Okay. And I'm not sure if this is asked from a compliance viewpoint, but can an advisor promote the partnership on their website? So, as far as promoting on their website, we do allow advisors to have our logo up. And as long as we review the information that's being posted beforehand and give approval, we do allow that. The one thing that we typically stress to advisors is that where their real value comes in is that they're independent. And so, it's important when an advisor is positioning themselves that they are not positioning themselves as they're an employee of TIA or have a special relationship or that they've been assigned by an institution or TIA to work with clients, but really that they have an operational relationship with TIAA where they can serve as TIAA clients and help them with all their retirement needs. I hope that helps. Great, thank you. And we have a couple of questions about IRAs. Is it best that I have those folks reach out individually, Dennis? That would, yeah, why don't we do that? Why don't we have them reach out individually for those if that's okay? Sure. And then someone asked just for a little more information on, like I asked you, is CREF still part of TIAA? How are you organized? Yeah, so that's interesting because if you look at our corporate name, it would still be TIAA CREF. But as far as branding purposes and marketing purposes, we are now going by TIAA. Okay, Michelle asks, how do I find a list of schools and universities in my area that would have TIA managed retirement assets? So, Michelle, thank you for the question. I would say the best way is to contact us at Advisor Services, talk about where you're located, and if there are schools or institutions that you have an interest in working with, and we can give you detail and talk about other schools or institutions in that area that you want to focus on. All right, that looks like it's it for the questions right now. Do you want to give us a preview of the next session, and then any closing comments? Okay, so I already kind of did a little preview of the next session. But again, I would just emphasize that it is our flagship product, TI Traditional. Most of the clients own it. There's a lot to know about the way that it works and functions. And in that next section, we are going to get into the nitty gritty details and actually explain how that contract works and how it really can benefit the clients, both during the accumulation and the distribution phase. And for those that want, we'll provide a lifetime guaranteed income that they can outlive. So again, I would please mark your calendars. You're not going to want to miss that one. It's very, very interesting. And again, a lot of details on that contract. Again, I would just say, please consider today that this is an invitation to explore a partnership with TI anymore. We really want to work with advisors. And again, as I've stressed, we can't do this alone. And we really think that partnering with advisors is the perfect way to help more clients obtain a secure retirement. And lastly, I just want to thank everybody for their attendance today. I know you're all busy. You've got a ton of things to do. So I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. And please take note of the contact information and don't hesitate to reach out to us at all. We're here to help. So please let us help. So thanks, Heidi. Great. And this program has been recorded. I'll make a commitment to get it up onto NAPFA's Learning Center by tomorrow, since there's a lot of interest. Anyone in your firm can watch it. They just need to create an account with an email and password at NAPFA.org. Then they can access the Learning Center and also register for the upcoming sessions, which are all complimentary to advisors. Thanks for a great program, Dennis. Thanks for attending, everybody. We hope to see you next Monday. And please do complete the survey that pops up when I close Zoom. Have a great afternoon. Bye now.

Dennis S. Rupp

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