497K 1 c59964_497k.htm

SUMMARY PROSPECTUS

FEBRUARY 1, 2010

TIAA-CREF BOND INDEX FUND

of the TIAA-CREF Funds

Class Ticker: Retail TBILX Retirement TBIRX Premier TBIPX Institutional TBIIX

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/tcfxb. 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 from current income, by primarily investing in a portfolio of fixed-income securities that is designed to produce a return that corresponds with the total return of the U.S. investment-grade bond market based on a broad bond index.

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)


	Retail Class		Retirement Class		Premier Class		Institutional Class

Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price)		0%		0%		0%		0%
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge		0%		0%		0%		0%
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions		0%		0%		0%		0%
Redemption or Exchange Fee		0%		0%		0%		0%
Account Maintenance Fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000)		$15.00		0%		0%		0%


TIAA-CREF Bond Index Fund § Summary Prospectus	1

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


	Retail Class		Retirement Class		Premier Class		Institutional Class

Management Fees		0.10%		0.10%		0.10%		0.10%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Fees¹		0.25%		—		0.15%		—
Other Expenses²		0.23%		0.38%		0.13%		0.13%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.58%		0.48%		0.38%		0.23%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements³		0.10%		0.10%		0.10%		0.10%
Net Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.48%		0.38%		0.28%		0.13%


¹	The Retail and Premier Classes of the Fund have each 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 Retail and Premier Class shares at the annual rate of 0.25% and 0.15% of average daily net assets attributable to Retail and Premier Class shares, respectively.

²	Other Expenses are estimates for the current fiscal year due to the recent commencement of operations of the Fund.

³	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) 0.48% of average daily net assets for Retail Class shares; (ii) 0.38% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; (iii) 0.28% of average daily net assets for Premier Class shares; and (iv) 0.13% 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:


	Retail Class		Retirement Class		Premier Class		Institutional Class

1 Year	$	49	$	39	$	29	$	13
3 Years	$	176	$	144	$	112	$	64
5 Years	$	314	$	259	$	203	$	119
10 Years	$	716	$	594	$	471	$	283

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


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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 rate was 279% (non-annualized) of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets (net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in bonds within its benchmark and portfolio tracking index, the Barclays Capital U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (the “Index”). The Fund uses a sampling technique to create a portfolio that closely matches the overall investment characteristics of the Index (for, example, duration, sector diversification and credit quality) without investing in all of the securities in its index. At times the Fund may purchase securities not held in the Index, but which Advisors, believes have similar investment characteristics to securities held in its index. Generally, the Fund intends to invest in a wide spectrum of public, investment-grade, taxable debt securities in the United States—including government, corporate, and international dollar-denominated bonds, as well as mortgage-backed, commercial mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. The Fund’s investments in mortgage-backed securities may include pass-through securities sold by private, governmental and government-related organizations and collateralized mortgage obligations, to the extent that such instruments are held by the Index. The Fund generally will invest in foreign securities only to the extent they are held in the Index.

The securities purchased by the Fund will mainly be high-quality instruments rated in the top four credit categories by Moody’s or S&P or deemed to be of the same quality by Advisors using its own credit quality analysis. The Fund may continue to hold instruments that were rated as high-quality when purchased, but which subsequently are downgraded to below-investment-grade status.

Because the return of the Index is not reduced by investment and other operating expenses, the Fund’s ability to match the Index is negatively affected by the costs of buying and selling securities, as well as other expenses. The use of this index by the Fund is not a fundamental policy of the Fund and may be changed without shareholder approval.

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:


	•	Income Volatility Risk—The risk that the level of current income from a portfolio of fixed-income securities declines in certain interest rate environments.


TIAA-CREF Bond Index Fund § Summary Prospectus	3


	•	Credit Risk (a type of Company Risk)—The risk that the issuer of bonds may not be able to meet interest or principal payments when the bonds become due.

	•	Call Risk—The risk that, during periods of falling interest rates, an issuer may call (or repay) a fixed-income security prior to maturity, resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income.

	•	Market Volatility, Liquidity and Valuation Risk (types of Market Risk)—The risk that volatile or dramatic reductions in trading activity make it difficult for the Fund to properly value the portfolio securities in which it invests and that the Fund may not be able to purchase or sell a security at an attractive price, if at all.

	•	Interest Rate Risk (a type of Market Risk)—The risk that increases in interest rates can cause the prices of fixed-income securities to decline.

	•	Prepayment Risk—The risk that during periods of falling interest rates, borrowers pay off their mortgage loans sooner than expected, forcing the Fund to reinvest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates and resulting in a decline in income.

	•	Extension Risk—The risk that during periods of rising interest rates, borrowers pay off their mortgage loans later than expected, preventing the Fund from reinvesting principal proceeds at higher interest rates and resulting in less income than potentially available.

	•	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.

	•	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.

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 8 of the prospectus for detailed information about the risks described above.

PAST PERFORMANCE

Performance information is not available for the Fund because the Fund has recently commenced operations. Once the Fund has completed one calendar year of operations, its performance information will become available.

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:


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Name:	Elizabeth (Lisa) D. Black, CFA	Steven Sterman, CFA
Title:	Managing Director	Managing Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2009	since 2009

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

Retail Class shares are available for purchase through financial intermediaries or by contacting the Fund directly at 800 223-1200 or www.tiaa-cref.org. 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.


	•	The minimum initial investment for Retail Class shares is $2,000 for Traditional IRA, Roth IRA and Coverdell accounts and $2,500 for all other account types. Subsequent investments for all account types must be at least $100.

	•	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.

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 60 of the prospectus or any limitations imposed by a third party when shares are held through a third party.

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


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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.


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