TIAA

THE SITUATION

TIAA had a serious customer and asset retention problem. Three life events pushed customers to close their accounts, take their money, and leave: job changes, retirement, and the death of an account holder. A 1% improvement in retention was worth more than $300 million in assets under management (AUM) every year.

OUR CONTRIBUTION

TIAA had already invested in a smooth retirement experience, and retirement was what the money was for. So we focused on job changes and death events. We learned how differently people feel about finding a better job (voluntary) and losing one (involuntary). We heard about the emotional rollercoaster of losing a loved one, and how differently each family recovers. From those findings we built customer journey maps, experience design principles, and service innovation concepts that aligned teams across TIAA around these life event experiences.

THE BENEFITS

TIAA beat the +1% retention goal and cleared an obstacle to growth. Since our project ended, AUM has grown 1.6x, from about $930 billion in 2018 to $1.5 trillion in 2026.