Commons Capital

If you are retiring from a college or university and your retirement savings sit with TIAA-CREF, you have probably been told you have two options. Leave everything where it is. Or roll the whole balance out to an IRA.

Both options miss the better answer.

A new piece from our team on what makes TIAA contracts actually distinctive, where most rollover advice goes wrong, and the third path our retirement transition practice uses: building sustainable income that covers RMDs and lifestyle expenses without spending down principal, so the portfolio continues to grow and a meaningful legacy is preserved.

Read it: https://www.commonsllc.com/insights/tiaa-cref-in-retirement

TIAA-CREF in Retirement: Income, Growth, and Legacy Without Spending Down Principal For a retiring academic with TIAA-CREF, the decision usually arrives framed as a binary. Leave everything at TIAA and draw it down across retirement, the way most colleagues do. Or roll the whole balance out to an IRA and start over with a new advisor. Both options miss the better answer.

There's a brand-new option for families saving for their kids in 2026: the Trump account (the new §530A account). It offers tax-advantaged growth, no income limits on contributors, and a one-time $1,000 federal contribution for eligible children born between 2025 and 2028.

How does it stack up against the Coverdell ESA and the 529 plan? We made a clear, one-page comparison covering contributions, taxes, qualified uses, and more.

Read it here: https://www.commonsllc.com/insights/three-ways-to-build-a-childs-financial-foundation

Wondering which fits your family? Send us a message — we're glad to help.

Three ways to build a child's financial foundation Signed into law on July 4, 2025 as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Trump account (the new §530A account) is a tax-advantaged retirement account opened in a child's name. Any child under 18 with a Social Security number is eligible — there are no income limits on contributors and no ea...

Part III of our Fiduciary Reckoning series is published. This installment walks the public regulatory record of Merrill Lynch and Bank of America from 2014 to 2026.

The July 2023 enforcement record alone illustrates the structural pattern the series identifies. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director called Bank of America "a repeat offender" in announcing $250 million in coordinated CFPB and OCC actions for opening credit card accounts without consumer consent since at least 2012, double-dipping non-sufficient funds fees, and withholding promised credit card reward bonuses.

The Merrill Lynch wealth management record runs in parallel. A June 2016 SEC settlement characterized at the time as the largest customer protection settlement in agency history. Merrill paid $415 million, admitted wrongdoing, and acknowledged that from 2009 to 2015 the firm held up to $58 billion per day of fully paid customer securities in accounts subject to liens by its clearing bank.

By Part III, the series has documented enforcement against three of the five firms it is covering.

Read the full piece: https://www.commonsllc.com/insights/the-fiduciary-reckoning-part-iii-the-public-record-on-merrill-lynch-and-bank-of-america

Fiduciary rhetoric is a marketing layer. The structure is what governs.