Education Center

Get answers to your TIAA Safe Estate questions, more information about our topics and access to helpful resources.

Resource library

Learn more about what it means to be organized with articles, videos, factsheets and more from TIAA professionals

Dig deeper

Dig a little deeper into TIAA Safe Estate topics

Select a topic from one of our four categories to learn more.

Faqs
Frequently asked questions

Browse our topics for answers to common questions.

Delegate Access

A delegate can be a spouse, child (18 years or older), a best friend or anyone TIAA Safe Estate users trust with their information, which could include contacts, files and personal notes. We recommend that users have at least one delegate so that someone can access their information if the unexpected occurs. TIAA Safe Estate users control how much information they share with their delegates and can change or revoke delegate access any time.

A TIAA Safe Estate user must invite you to become a delegate. You'll receive an email notification with a link to learn more about TIAA Safe Estate. If you accept the invitation, you'll be asked to create a delegate account as well as your own login ID and password, which you'll use every time you log in to see your TIAA Safe Estate delegate information.

No. You aren't required to have an existing TIAA account to become a delegate for a TIAA Safe Estate user.

Contact the TIAA Safe Estate user who has chosen you to be their delegate. They can delete you from their My Delegates section.

Only TIAA clients are eligible to get a TIAA Safe Estate account.

About TIAA Safe Estate

TIAA Safe Estate is an online service that provides personalized guidance and education to help you organize life's most important documents, like your will, power of attorney, and life insurance information. You can also keep things you need close at hand, like employment information, insurance policies, and tax records.

In addition to storing and organizing copies of important files, you can add key contacts and determine who will have access to your most important documents.

TIAA Safe Estate is available only to TIAA clients and their delegates.

There is no fee for using TIAA Safe Estate.

Accessing TIAA Safe Estate

Windows: Microsoft Internet Explorer 11.0, Mozilla Firefox 45 and Google Chrome 49.

Mac OS X 10.4: Safari 9, Mozilla Firefox 45.

Note: Web TV's customized browser is not currently compatible when logged in to TIAA.org.

Yes. TIAA Safe Estate supports mobile devices running iOS 3.2, Android 2.2, and BlackBerry 6 or later.

No. An internet connection is required to use TIAA Safe Estate.

Privacy and security

You have the option to share as much or as little information as you'd like with your trusted delegates. We restrict all others from accessing any content you enter in TIAA Safe Estate, including uploaded files. Your account will not be accessed, used or shared by TIAA except at your direction or as required or permitted by law. To learn how we protect your information, see our privacy policy.

If you have any concerns about the security of your account, call us at 800-842-2252.

Yes. Please see the Uploading files section for more information.

TIAA Safe Estate definitions

TIAA Safe Estate topics are broken into four categories: Finances, Health, Legacy and Life & Family. They represent the most important documents, policies, instructions and other information in your life.

There are four topics we consider essential for being prepared: last will and testament, general power of attorney, healthcare power of attorney and tax records. If you indicate that you don't have supporting documentation for these, we'll list them as "not started." This is our way of reminding you how important these topics are for being prepared. When you've made progress on these, you can come back and complete the topics.

The My Contacts section shows all of the contacts you've added to TIAA Safe Estate. Contacts include trusted family members, friends, colleagues or professionals (for example, your attorney, insurance agent or physician). To add a new contact, simply select Add Contact.

The My Files section shows all of the files you've uploaded as you've completed your topics. From here you can view, rename or delete files you've uploaded. To add a new file, you must go to your Topic Library and choose a topic. See Uploading files for more information.

Uploading files

No. Files must be saved to your personal computer before uploading to TIAA Safe Estate.

  • PDF (Adobe portable document format)
  • TIFF/TIF (Tagged Image File Format)
  • JPEG/JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
  • PCX (PC Paintbrush bitmap format)
  • PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
  • BMP (Windows bitmap)
  • TXT (Text File)
  • Microsoft Word (DOC, DOCX)
  • Microsoft Excel (XLS, XLSX, CSV)
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX)

You can upload up to six files at one time. Individual files can't exceed 7 MB, and the total upload can't exceed 42 MB.

There is no storage limit. You can save as many files as you like.

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