XML 11 R6.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v2.4.0.6
Label Element Value
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Risk/Return [Heading] rr_RiskReturnHeading TIAA-CREF International Opportunities Fund
Objective [Heading] rr_ObjectiveHeading INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
Objective, Primary [Text Block] rr_ObjectivePrimaryTextBlock

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

Expense [Heading] rr_ExpenseHeading FEES AND EXPENSES
Expense Narrative [Text Block] rr_ExpenseNarrativeTextBlock

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

Shareholder Fees Caption [Text] rr_ShareholderFeesCaption SHAREHOLDER FEES (deducted directly from gross amount of transaction)
Operating Expenses Caption [Text] rr_OperatingExpensesCaption ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Fee Waiver or Reimbursement over Assets, Date of Termination rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssetsDateOfTermination 2014-04-11
Portfolio Turnover [Heading] rr_PortfolioTurnoverHeading PORTFOLIO TURNOVER
Portfolio Turnover [Text Block] rr_PortfolioTurnoverTextBlock

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. The Fund has no annual portfolio turnover rate because the Fund is newly operational.

Other Expenses, New Fund, Based on Estimates [Text] rr_OtherExpensesNewFundBasedOnEstimates Other Expenses (and, accordingly, Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses and Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement) are estimates for the current fiscal year because the Fund is newly operational.
Expense Example [Heading] rr_ExpenseExampleHeading Example
Expense Example Narrative [Text Block] rr_ExpenseExampleNarrativeTextBlock

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 11, 2014, 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:

Strategy [Heading] rr_StrategyHeading PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
Strategy Narrative [Text Block] rr_StrategyNarrativeTextBlock

The Fund primarily invests in equity securities of issuers in developed and emerging markets located around the world but outside the United States. The Fund anticipates investing in a number of foreign markets, but at a minimum it will invest in at least three countries outside the United States. The Fund’s investment manager, Teachers Advisors, Inc. (“Advisors”), selects individual stocks, and lets the Fund’s country and regional asset allocations evolve from this stock selection. The Fund may invest in companies of all sizes.


Advisors typically invests in companies that it believes can demonstrate positive and sustainable structural change. In addition, Advisors looks for companies in the early stages of a structural growth opportunity driven by differentiated products and/or services that maintain strong barriers to entry, continue to outgrow peers and demonstrate accelerating top-line growth with margin expansion. Advisors will typically invest in these types of companies when Advisors believes that their stock prices do not fully reflect the stock’s potential value, based on current earnings, assets and long-term growth prospects.


The Fund is actively-managed; however, Advisors regularly reviews the Fund’s sector and country exposure against the Fund’s benchmark index, the Morgan Stanley Capital International ACWI (All Country World Index) ex-USA Index (the “MSCI ACWI ex-USA® Index”), to seek to control risk.

Risk [Heading] rr_RiskHeading PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT RISKS
Risk Narrative [Text Block] rr_RiskNarrativeTextBlock

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.


· 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.


· 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.


· 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.


· Emerging Markets Risk—The risk of foreign investment often increases in countries with emerging markets. For example, these countries may have more unstable governments than developed countries, and their economies may be based on only a few industries. Because their financial markets may be very small, share prices of financial instruments in emerging markets countries may be volatile and difficult to determine. Financial instruments of issuers in these countries may be less liquid than those of issuers in more developed countries. In addition, foreign investors such as the Fund are subject to a variety of special restrictions in many emerging markets countries.

Risk Closing [Text Block] rr_RiskClosingTextBlock

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

Risk Lose Money [Text] rr_RiskLoseMoney You could lose money over short or long periods by investing in this Fund.
Bar Chart and Performance Table [Heading] rr_BarChartAndPerformanceTableHeading PAST PERFORMANCE
Performance Narrative [Text Block] rr_PerformanceNarrativeTextBlock

Performance information is not available for the Fund for the most recently-completed calendar year because the Fund is newly operational.


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

Performance One Year or Less [Text] rr_PerformanceOneYearOrLess Performance information is not available for the Fund for the most recently-completed calendar year because the Fund is newly operational.
Performance Availability Website Address [Text] rr_PerformanceAvailabilityWebSiteAddress www.tiaa-cref.org
Institutional Class
  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price) rr_MaximumSalesChargeImposedOnPurchasesOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge rr_MaximumDeferredSalesChargeOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions rr_MaximumSalesChargeOnReinvestedDividendsAndDistributionsOverOther none
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of Amount Redeemed) rr_RedemptionFeeOverRedemption (2.00%)
Account Maintenance Fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000) rr_ShareholderFeeOther none
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.60%
Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.15% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 0.75%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets (0.05%) [2]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 0.70%
Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 72
Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 235
Premier Class
  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price) rr_MaximumSalesChargeImposedOnPurchasesOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge rr_MaximumDeferredSalesChargeOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions rr_MaximumSalesChargeOnReinvestedDividendsAndDistributionsOverOther none
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of Amount Redeemed) rr_RedemptionFeeOverRedemption (2.00%)
Account Maintenance Fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000) rr_ShareholderFeeOther none
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.60%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets 0.15%
Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.15% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 0.90%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets (0.05%) [2]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 0.85%
Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 87
Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 282
Retail Class
  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price) rr_MaximumSalesChargeImposedOnPurchasesOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge rr_MaximumDeferredSalesChargeOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions rr_MaximumSalesChargeOnReinvestedDividendsAndDistributionsOverOther none
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of Amount Redeemed) rr_RedemptionFeeOverRedemption (2.00%)
Account Maintenance Fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000) rr_ShareholderFeeOther 15.00
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.60%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets 0.25%
Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.29% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 1.14%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets (0.05%) [2]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 1.09%
Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 111
Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 357
Retirement Class
  
Risk/Return: rr_RiskReturnAbstract  
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Purchases (percentage of offering price) rr_MaximumSalesChargeImposedOnPurchasesOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge rr_MaximumDeferredSalesChargeOverOfferingPrice none
Maximum Sales Charge Imposed on Reinvested Dividends and Other Distributions rr_MaximumSalesChargeOnReinvestedDividendsAndDistributionsOverOther none
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of Amount Redeemed) rr_RedemptionFeeOverRedemption (2.00%)
Account Maintenance Fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000) rr_ShareholderFeeOther none
Management Fees rr_ManagementFeesOverAssets 0.60%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) Fees rr_DistributionAndService12b1FeesOverAssets none
Other Expenses rr_OtherExpensesOverAssets 0.40% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses rr_ExpensesOverAssets 1.00%
Waivers and Expense Reimbursements rr_FeeWaiverOrReimbursementOverAssets (0.05%) [2]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement rr_NetExpensesOverAssets 0.95%
Expense Example, with Redemption, 1 Year rr_ExpenseExampleYear01 97
Expense Example, with Redemption, 3 Years rr_ExpenseExampleYear03 313
[1] Other Expenses (and, accordingly, Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses and Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement) are estimates for the current fiscal year because the Fund is newly operational.
[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 commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed: (i) 1.09% of average daily net assets for Retail Class shares; (ii) 0.95% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; (iii) 0.85% of average daily net assets for Premier Class shares; and (iv) 0.70% of average daily net assets for Institutional Class shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least April 11, 2014, unless changed with approval of the Board of Trustees.