497K 1 c59929_497k.htm

SUMMARY PROSPECTUS

FEBRUARY 1, 2010

TIAA-CREF INTERNATIONAL EQUITY
INDEX FUND

of the TIAA-CREF Funds

Class Ticker: Retirement TRIEX Premier TRIPX Institutional TCIEX

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/tcfxie. 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 February 1, 2010, and the audited financial statements on pages 114-190 of the Fund’s shareholder report dated September 30, 2009 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, by investing primarily in a portfolio of foreign equity investments.

FEES AND EXPENSES

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund:

SHAREHOLDER FEES (deducted directly from gross amount of transaction)


	Retirement Class		Premier Class		Institutional Class

Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price)		0%		0%		0%
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge		0%		0%		0%
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions		0%		0%		0%
Redemption or Exchange Fee (on shares held less than 60 days)		2.00%		2.00%		2.00%
Maximum Account Fee		0%		0%		0%


TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund § Summary Prospectus	1

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


	Retirement Class		Premier Class		Institutional Class

Management Fees		0.04%		0.04%		0.04%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Fees¹		—		0.15%		—
Other Expenses²		0.37%		0.12%		0.12%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses³		0.01%		0.01%		0.01%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.42%		0.32%		0.17%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements⁴		0.01%		0.01%		0.01%
Net Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.41%		0.31%		0.16%


¹	The Premier Class of the Fund has adopted a Distribution (12b-1) Plan that compensates the Fund’s distributor, Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. (“TPIS”), for providing distribution, promotional and shareholder services to the Premier Class shares at the annual rate of 0.15% of average daily net assets attributable to Premier Class shares.

²	For the Premier Class, Other Expenses are estimates for the current fiscal year due to the recent commencement of operations of the share class.

³	“Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are the Fund’s proportionate amount of the expenses of any investment companies or pools in which they invest. These expenses are not paid directly by Fund shareholders. Instead, Fund shareholders bear these expenses indirectly because they reduce Fund performance. 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 2009 annual report.

⁴	Under the Fund’s expense reimbursement arrangements, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, Inc. (“Advisors”) has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for any Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses (excluding Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed: (i) 0.40% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; (ii) 0.30% of average daily net assets for Premier Class shares; and (iii) 0.15% of average daily net assets for Institutional Class shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least January 31, 2011, 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 until January 31, 2011 but that there will be no waiver or expense reimbursement agreement in effect thereafter. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:


2	Summary Prospectus § TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund


	Retirement Class		Premier Class		Institutional Class

1 Year	$	42	$	32	$	16
3 Years	$	134	$	102	$	54
5 Years	$	234	$	179	$	95
10 Years	$	529	$	405	$	216

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 indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 31% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

The Fund seeks a favorable long-term total return from a diversified portfolio of equity securities selected to track the foreign markets of publicly-traded stocks, as represented by a particular market index. The Fund has a policy of investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets (net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in securities of its benchmark index (the MSCI EAFE^® Index). The Fund may use a sampling approach to create a portfolio that closely matches the overall investment characteristics (for example, market capitalization and industry weightings of securities) of its index without investing in all of the stocks in the index.

The Fund is designed to track foreign equity markets as a whole or a segment of these markets. The Fund primarily invests its assets in equity securities selected to track a designated stock market index. Because the return of an index is not reduced by investment and other operating expenses, the Fund’s ability to match its index is negatively affected by the costs of buying and selling securities as well as other expenses. The use of a particular index by the Fund is not a fundamental policy and may be changed without shareholder approval. The portfolio management team will attempt to build a portfolio that generally matches the market-weighted investment characteristics of the Fund’s benchmark index.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT RISKS

You could lose money over short or long periods by investing in this Fund. Accordingly, an investment in the Fund, or the Fund’s portfolio securities, typically is subject to the following principal investment risks:


	•	Market Risk—The risk that market prices of securities held by the Fund may fall rapidly or unpredictably due to a variety of factors, including changing economic, political or market conditions.


TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund § Summary Prospectus	3


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

	•	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 securities of U.S. issuers. This risk may be heightened in emerging or developing markets.

	•	Index Risk—The risk that the Fund’s performance will not correspond to its benchmark index for any period of time and may underperform such index or the overall stock market.

	•	Large-Cap Risk—The risk that large-capitalization companies are more mature and may grow more slowly than the economy as a whole and tend to go in and out of favor based on market and economic conditions.

	•	Mid-Cap Risk—The risk that the stocks of mid-capitalization companies often have greater price volatility, lower trading volume, and less liquidity than the stocks of larger, more established companies.

There can be no assurances that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. You should not consider the Fund to be a complete investment program. Please see page 9 of the prospectus for 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 the Institutional Class of the Fund, before taxes, in each full calendar year since inception of the class. Because the expenses vary across share classes, the performance of the Institutional Class will vary from the other share classes. Below the bar chart are the best and worst returns for a calendar quarter since inception of the Institutional Class. The performance table following the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns for the Institutional Class and Retirement Class over the one-year, five-year, ten year and since-inception periods (where applicable) ended December 31, 2009, and how those returns compare to those of the Fund’s benchmark index. The Premier Class does not have a full calendar year of performance and is not included in the table. After-tax performance is shown only for Institutional Class shares, and after-tax returns for the Retirement Class shares will vary from the after-tax returns presented for Institutional Class shares.


4	Summary Prospectus § TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund

The returns shown below reflect previous agreements by the Fund’s investment adviser 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 (before and after taxes) 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 index. The returns for the index reflect no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes. For current performance information of each share class, including performance to the most recent month-end, please visit www.tiaa-cref.org.

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL CLASS SHARES (%)

(BAR CHART)

Best quarter: 25.38%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. Worst quarter: -19.93%, for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2009


	One Year			Five Years			Since Inception

Institutional Class (Inception: October 1, 2002)
Return Before Taxes		29.59	%		3.56	%		10.72	%
Return After Taxes on Distributions		29.34	%		3.11	%		10.25	%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of
Fund Shares		19.94	%		3.07	%		9.47	%
MSCI EAFE^® Index		31.78	%		3.54	%		10.83	%
Retirement Class (Inception: October 1, 2002)
Return Before Taxes		29.25	%		3.29	%		10.40	%

Current performance of the Fund’s shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.

After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax-rates in effect during the periods shown and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on the investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(a), 401(k) or 403(b) plans or Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).


TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund § Summary Prospectus	5

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

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

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



Name:	Phillp James (Jim) Campagna, CFA	Anne Sapp, CFA
Title:	Director	Managing Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2005	since 2004

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

Retirement Class and Premier Class shares are generally available for purchase through employee benefit plans or other types of savings plans or accounts. Institutional Class shares are available for purchase directly from the Fund by certain eligible investors or through financial intermediaries.


	•	There is no minimum initial or subsequent investment for Retirement Class shares. Retirement Class shares are primarily offered through employer-sponsored employee benefit plans.

	•	There is a $100 million aggregate plan size and $5 million initial minimum plan-level investment requirement for Premier Class shares. Premier Class shares are offered through certain financial intermediaries and employer-sponsored employee benefit plans.

	•	The minimum initial investment is $10 million and the minimum subsequent investment is $1,000 for Institutional Class shares, unless an investor purchases shares by or through financial intermediaries that have entered into an appropriate agreement with the Fund or its affiliates.

Redeeming Shares. You can redeem (sell) your shares of the Fund at any time. If your shares are held through a third party, please contact that person for applicable redemption requirements. If your shares are held directly with the Fund, contact the Fund directly in writing or by telephone. Redemptions involving shares of the Fund held less than 60 calendar days may be subject to the Redemption Fee, addressed in “Fees and Expenses” above.

Exchanging Shares. You can exchange shares of the Fund for the same class of shares of any other funds offered by the TIAA-CREF Funds at any time, subject to the limitations described in the Market Timing/Excessive Trading Policy at page 52 of the prospectus or any limitations imposed by a third party when shares are held through a third party. Exchanges involving shares of the Fund held less than 60 calendar days may be subject to the Redemption Fee addressed in “Fees and Expenses” above.

TAX INFORMATION

The Fund intends to make distributions to shareholders that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains. Distributions made to tax-exempt


6	Summary Prospectus § TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund

shareholders or shareholders who hold Fund shares in a tax-deferred account are generally not subject to income tax in the current year.

PAYMENTS TO BROKER-DEALERS AND OTHER
FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY COMPENSATION

If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and/or its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.


TIAA-CREF International Equity Index Fund § Summary Prospectus	7


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