SUMMARY PROSPECTUS

AUGUST 1, 2012

TIAA-CREF REAL ESTATE SECURITIES FUND

of the TIAA-CREF Funds

Class Ticker: Retail TCREX Retirement TRRSX Premier TRRPX Institutional TIREX

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/tcfres. 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 August 1, 2012, as subsequently supplemented, and the sections of the Fund’s shareholder report dated March 31, 2012 from “Summary 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 to obtain a favorable long-term total return through both capital appreciation and current income, by investing primarily in equity securities of companies principally engaged in or related to the real estate industry.

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 Real Estate Securities 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		0.50%	0.50%	0.50%	0.50%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Fees1		0.25%	—	0.15%	—
Other Expenses		0.14%	0.28%	0.03%	0.04%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses		0.89%	0.78%	0.68%	0.54%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements2		—	—	—	—
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement		0.89%	0.78%	0.68%	0.54%
1	The Retail Class of the Fund has adopted a Distribution (12b-1) Plan that reimburses the Fund’s distributor, Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. (“TPIS”), for its expenses in providing distribution, promotional and shareholder services with respect to the Retail Class shares at the annual rate of up to 0.25% of average daily net assets attributable to Retail Class shares. The fees shown in the chart for the Retail Plan are estimated reimbursements for the current year.
2	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 and other transactional expenses, Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed: (i) 0.96% of average daily net assets for Retail Class shares; (ii) 0.82% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; (iii) 0.72% of average daily net assets for Premier Class shares; and (iv) 0.57% of average daily net assets for Institutional Class shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least July 31, 2013, 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 July 31, 2013 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	$	91	$	80	$	69	$	55
3 Years	$	284	$	249	$	218	$	173
5 Years	$	493	$	433	$	379	$	302
10 Years	$	1,096	$	966	$	847	$	677

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

2     Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Real Estate Securities Fund

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 fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 75% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in the securities of companies that are principally engaged in or related to the real estate industry (“real estate securities”), including those that own significant real estate assets, such as real estate investment trusts (“REITs”). The Fund will invest primarily in equity securities of such companies. The Fund is actively managed using a research-oriented process with a focus on cash flows, asset values and Teachers Advisors, Inc.’s (“Advisors”) belief in management’s ability to increase shareholder value. The Fund does not invest directly in real estate. The Fund concentrates its investments in the real estate industry. From time to time, the Fund may also invest in debt securities of companies principally engaged in or related to the real estate industry. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term “assets” means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

An issuer is principally “engaged in” or principally “related to” the real estate industry if at least 50% of its assets, gross income or net profits are attributable to ownership, construction, management or sale of residential, commercial or industrial real estate, or to products or services related to the real estate industry. The Fund typically invests in securities issued by equity REITs (which directly own real estate), mortgage REITs (which make short-term construction or real estate development loans or invest in long-term mortgages or mortgage pools), real estate brokers and developers, homebuilders, companies that manage real estate and companies that own substantial amounts of real estate. Businesses related to the real estate industry include manufacturers and distributors of building supplies and financial institutions that make or service mortgage loans.

The Fund also may invest up to 15% of its assets in real estate securities of foreign issuers and up to 20% of its assets in equity (including preferred stock) and debt securities of issuers that are not engaged in or related to the real estate industry. The benchmark index for the Fund is the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index.

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:

·Real Estate Investing Risk—As a result of the Fund’s investment objective, the Fund is subject to all of the risks associated with the

TIAA-CREF Real Estate Securities Fund■Summary Prospectus     3

ownership of real estate. These risks include, among others, declines in the value of real estate, negative changes in the climate for real estate, risks related to general and local economic conditions, decreases in property revenues, increases in prevailing interest rates, property taxes and operating expenses, changes in zoning laws and costs resulting from the cleanup of environmental problems.

·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.

·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.

·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.

·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.

·Interest Rate Risk (a type of Market Risk)—The risk that increases in interest rates can cause the prices of fixed-income investments to decline. This risk is heightened to the extent the Fund invests in longer duration fixed-income investments.

·Industry Concentration Risk—Because the Fund concentrates its investments in only one industry and holds securities of relatively few issuers, the value of its portfolio is likely to experience greater fluctuations and may be subject to greater risk than those of other funds.

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

·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.

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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 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 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, Retirement Class, Premier Class and Retail Class over the one-year, five-year, ten-year and since-inception periods (where applicable) ended December 31, 2011, and how those returns compare to those of the Fund’s benchmark index. After-tax performance is shown only for Institutional Class shares, and after-tax returns for the other Classes of shares will vary from the after-tax returns presented for Institutional Class shares.

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 (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 benchmark index. The returns for the benchmark 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 (%)^†

^†The year-to-date return as of the most recent calendar quarter, which ended on June 30, 2012, was 15.98%.

Best quarter: 31.84%, for the quarter ended September 30, 2009. Worst quarter: -37.54%, for the quarter ended December 31, 2008.

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AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2011

		Inception Date	One Year			Five Years			Since Inception
Institutional Class		10/1/02			$			$
	Return Before Taxes		6.97	%		–2.22	%		10.29	%
	Return After Taxes on Distributions		6.45	%		–3.43	%		7.64	%
	Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of
	Fund Shares		4.52	%		–2.38	%		7.63	%
Retail Class		10/1/02
	Return Before Taxes		6.62	%		–2.37	%		10.11	%
Retirement Class		10/1/02
	Return Before Taxes		6.68	%		–2.42	%		10.09	%
Premier Class		9/30/09
	Return Before Taxes		6.70	%		–2.28	%*		10.25	%*
FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index
(reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)			8.28	%		–1.42	%		10.70	%†
Current performance of the Fund’s shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.
*	The performance shown for the Premier Class that is prior to its inception date is based on performance of the Fund’s Institutional Class. The performance for these periods has not been restated to reflect higher expenses of the Premier Class. If those expenses had been reflected, the performance would have been lower.
†	Performance is calculated from the inception date of the Institutional Class.
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). After-tax returns are shown for only one class and after-tax returns for other classes will vary.

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:	David Copp	Brendan W. Lee
Title:	Managing Director	Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2005	since 2006

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

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

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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 $1 million initial minimum plan-level investment requirement for Premier Class shares. Premier Class shares are primarily offered through certain financial intermediaries and employer-sponsored employee benefit plans.

·The minimum initial investment is $2 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 or Exchanging Shares. You can redeem (sell) or exchange your shares of the Fund on any business day. Exchanges may be made for shares of the same share class of other funds offered by the Trust. If your shares are held through a third party, please contact that entity for applicable redemption or exchange requirements. If your shares are held directly with the Fund, contact the Fund directly in writing or by telephone.

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, but redemptions made from tax-deferred accounts may be subject to income tax.

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, or for other investor 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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