Summary Prospectus

MAY 1, 2014

Small-Cap Equity Fund

of the TIAA-CREF Life Funds

Ticker: TLEQX

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and other information about the Fund online at www.tiaa-cref.org/lfsmce. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800 223-1200 or by sending an e-mail request to disclosure@tiaa-cref.org. The Fund’s prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), each dated May 1, 2014, as subsequently supplemented, and the sections of the Fund’s shareholder report dated December 31, 2013 from “Portfolio of Investments” through “Notes to Financial Statements,” are incorporated into this Summary Prospectus by reference and may be obtained free of charge at the website, phone number or e-mail address noted above.

Investment objective

The Fund seeks a favorable long-term total return, mainly through capital appreciation, primarily from equity securities of smaller domestic companies.

Fees and expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. The expenses shown do not reflect any separate account fees or expenses deducted under the variable annuity contracts or variable life insurance policies using the Fund as an underlying investment option.

SHAREHOLDER FEES (deducted directly from gross amount of transaction)

Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price)	0%
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge	0%
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions	0%
Redemption Fee	0%
Exchange Fee	0%

TIAA-CREF Life Funds ■ Small-Cap Equity Fund■Summary Prospectus     1

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) ¹

Management Fees		0.46%
Other Expenses		0.25%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses2		0.08%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.79%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements3		(0.18)%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement		0.61%
1	Expense information has been restated to reflect the Fund’s new advisory agreement effective May 1, 2014.
2	“Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are the Fund’s proportionate amount of the expenses of any investment companies or pools in which the Fund invests. These expenses are not paid directly by Fund shareholders. Instead, Fund shareholders bear these expenses indirectly as a result of the Fund’s investments. Because “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are included in the chart above, the Fund’s operating expenses here will not correlate with the expenses included in the Financial Highlights in this Prospectus and the Fund’s annual report.
3	Under the Fund’s expense reimbursement arrangements, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, Inc., has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for any Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed 0.53% of average daily net assets for shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least April 30, 2015, unless changed with approval of the Board of Trustees.

Example

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses, before expense reimbursements, remain the same. The example assumes that the Fund’s expense reimbursement agreement will remain in place through April 30, 2015, but that there will be no waiver or expense reimbursement agreement in effect thereafter. The example does not reflect the fees and expenses of any variable annuity contract or variable life insurance policy and the costs in the example would be higher if they did. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

1 Year	$	62
3 Years	$	234
5 Years	$	421
10 Years	$	961

Portfolio turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may

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indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2013 the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 87% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal investment strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in small-cap equity securities. A small-cap equity security is a security within the capitalization range of the companies included in the Fund’s benchmark index, the Russell 2000^®Index, at the time of purchase. The Fund invests primarily in equity securities of smaller domestic companies across a wide range of sectors, growth rates and valuations that appear to have favorable prospects for significant long-term capital appreciation. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term “assets” means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

The Fund seeks to add incremental return over its stated benchmark index, while also managing the relative risk of the Fund versus its benchmark index. The Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, Inc. (“Advisors”), uses proprietary quantitative models based on financial and investment theories to evaluate and score a broad universe of stocks in which the Fund invests. These models typically weigh many different variables, including the valuation of the individual stock versus the market or its peers, future earnings and sustainable growth prospects, and the price and volume trends of the stock. The score is used to form the portfolio, along with the following additional inputs: weightings of the stock and its corresponding sector in the benchmark, correlations between the performance of the stocks in the universe, and trading costs. The Fund may purchase foreign securities and securities issued in connection with reorganizations and other special situations.

The overall goal is to build a portfolio of stocks that outperform the Fund’s stated benchmark index, while also managing the relative risk of the Fund versus its benchmark index. The Fund’s strategy is based upon Advisors’ understanding of the interplay of market factors and does not assure successful investment. The markets or the prices of individual securities may be affected by factors not taken into account in Advisors’ analysis.

Principal investment risks

You could lose money over short or long periods by investing in this Fund. An investment in the Fund, due to the nature of the Fund’s portfolio holdings, typically is subject to the following principal investment risks:

·Market Risk—The risk that market prices of portfolio investments held by the Fund may fall rapidly or unpredictably due to a variety of factors, including changing economic, political or market conditions. Market risk may affect a single issuer, industry or sector of the economy, or it may affect the market as a whole.

TIAA-CREF Life Funds ■ Small-Cap Equity Fund■Summary Prospectus     3

·Issuer Risk (often called Financial Risk)—The risk that an issuer’s earnings prospects and overall financial position will deteriorate, causing a decline in the value of the issuer’s financial instruments over short or extended periods of time.

·Small-Cap Risk—The risk that the stocks of small-capitalization companies often experience greater price volatility than large- or mid-sized companies because small-cap companies are often newer or less established than larger companies and are likely to have more limited resources, products and markets. Securities of small-cap companies are often less liquid than securities of larger companies as a result of there being a smaller market for their securities.

·Active Management Risk—The risk that Advisors’ strategy, investment selection or trading execution may cause the Fund to underperform relative to the benchmark index or mutual funds with similar investment objectives.

·Quantitative Analysis Risk—The risk that stocks selected using quantitative modeling and analysis could perform differently from the market as a whole.

·Foreign Investment Risk—Foreign markets can be more volatile than the U.S. market due to increased risks of adverse issuer, political, regulatory, currency, market or economic developments and can result in greater price volatility and perform differently from financial instruments of U.S. issuers. This risk may be heightened in emerging or developing markets. Foreign investments may also be less liquid and more difficult to value than investments in U.S. issuers.

Please see the non-summary portion of the Prospectus for more detailed information about the risks described above.

Past performance

The following chart and table help illustrate some of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year. The bar chart shows the annual total returns of shares of the Fund during the preceding 10-year period. Below the bar chart are the best and worst returns for a calendar quarter during the same period. The performance table following the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns over the one-year, five-year, ten-year and since-inception periods (where applicable) ended December 31, 2013, and how those returns compare to those of the Fund’s benchmark index. Returns do not reflect fees and expenses of any variable annuity or variable life insurance contract and would be lower if they did.

The returns shown below reflect previous agreements by Advisors to waive or reimburse the Fund for certain fees and expenses. Without these waivers and reimbursements, the returns of the Fund would have been lower. Past performance of the Fund is not necessarily an indication of how it will perform in the future. The benchmark index listed below is unmanaged, and you cannot invest directly in the benchmark index. The returns for the benchmark index reflect no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes.

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For current performance information of the Fund, including performance to the most recent month-end, please visit www.tiaa-cref.org.

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (%)

Best quarter: 20.50%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. Worst quarter: -24.75%, for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2013

		Inception Date	One Year		Five Years		Ten Years
Small-Cap Equity Fund		10/28/2002	39.87	%	20.00	%	8.89	%
Russell 2000® Index
(reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)			38.82	%	20.08	%	9.07	%
Current performance of the Fund’s shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.
After-tax returns have not been shown because they are not relevant since Fund shares currently are held only through insurance company separate accounts.
A	A

Portfolio management

Investment Adviser. The Fund’s investment adviser is Teachers Advisors, Inc.

Portfolio Managers. The following persons manage the Fund on a day-to-day basis:

Name:	Adam Cao, CFA	Michael S. Shing, CFA
Title:	Managing Director	Managing Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2006	since 2004

Purchase and sale of Fund shares

Please contact the insurance company that issued your variable annuity or life insurance contract for more information on the purchase and sale of Fund shares.

TIAA-CREF Life Funds ■ Small-Cap Equity Fund■Summary Prospectus     5

Tax information

Because the only shareholders of the Fund are the insurance companies offering the contracts, no discussion is included here about the federal income tax consequences at the shareholder level. The federal income tax consequences for purchases of a variable annuity or life insurance contract are described in the prospectus for such contracts.

Payments to insurance companies and broker-dealers and other financial intermediary compensation

The Fund is only available as an underlying investment for the contracts. The Fund and its distributor (and their related companies) may make payments to the sponsoring insurance company (or its affiliates) and to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries for distribution and/or other services. These payments may be a factor that the insurance company considers in including the Fund as an underlying investment option in the variable contract. Payments to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary to recommend a variable product and the Fund over another investment. Ask your financial adviser or visit the website of the insurance company or the financial intermediary for more information. The disclosure document for your variable contract may contain additional information about these payments.

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Printed on paper containing recycled fiber A12159 (5/14)

A12159 (5/14)