TIAA Chief Roger Ferguson on How to Solve the Retirement Crisis
May 7, 2019 by Leslie P. Norton
In many ways, Roger Ferguson, 67, was the perfect choice to head TIAA. Ferguson took over leadership of the big financial services provider—famous for managing pensions for college professors, including Albert Einstein—11 years ago, as the financial crisis was unfolding. As a trained economist and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, he has had a front-row view of America’s looming retirement crunch, given an aging population and a fraying safety net. What’s more, in overseeing TIAA’s more than $1 trillion of managed assets, he has been able to do something about it.
Under Ferguson, TIAA bought Nuveen in 2014, expanding its offerings in asset management and alternative investments. He argues that alternative assets are a critical component of retirement investing for middle-class Americans—so critical that TIAA rebranded its entire asset-management division under the Nuveen name.
In a recent conversation with Barron’s, Ferguson discussed how a 401(k) holder can replicate a defined-benefit pension; the “high calling” of nagging people about retirement; and why providing retirement plans for teachers and nurses makes him emotional. An edited transcript follows. For more on TIAA, see barrons.com.
