TIAA-CREF Funds Summary Prospectus

TIAA-CREF Short-Term Bond Index Fund

AUGUST 1, 2023

Class:	Institutional	Advisor	Premier	Retirement	Retail	Class W
Ticker:	TNSHX	TTBHX	TPSHX	TESHX	TRSHX	TTBWX

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, reports to shareholders and other information about the Fund online at www.tiaa.org/tcf_pro. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800-223-1200 or by sending an e-mail request to disclosure@tiaa.org. The Fund’s prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), each dated August 1, 2023, as subsequently supplemented, and the sections of the Fund’s shareholder report dated March 31, 2023 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 total return that corresponds with the total return of a short-term U.S. investment-grade bond market index.

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Fees and expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below.

SHAREHOLDER FEES (fees paid directly from your investment)

	Institutional Class	Advisor Class	Premier Class	Retirement Class	Retail Class	Class W
Maximum sales charge imposed on purchases (percentage of offering price)	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Maximum deferred sales charge	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Maximum sales charge imposed on reinvested dividends and other distributions	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Redemption or exchange fee	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Account maintenance fee (annual fee on accounts under $2,000)	0%	0%	0%	0%	$15.00	0%

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

	Institutional Class	Advisor Class	Premier Class	Retirement Class	Retail Class	Class W
Management fees	0.05%	0.05%	0.05%	0.05%	0.05%	0.05%
Distribution (Rule 12b-1) fees	—	—	0.15%	—	0.25%	—
Other expenses	0.03%	0.15%	0.04%	0.28%	0.07%	0.03%
Total annual Fund operating expenses	0.08%	0.20%	0.24%	0.33%	0.37%	0.08%
Waivers and expense reimbursements1	—	—	—	—	—	(0.08)%	2
Total annual Fund operating expenses after   fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement	0.08%	0.20%	0.24%	0.33%	0.37%	0.00%

1

Under the Fund’s expense reimbursement arrangements, the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC, 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) 0.10% of average daily net assets for Institutional Class shares; (ii) 0.25% of average daily net assets for Advisor Class shares; (iii) 0.25% of average daily net assets for Premier Class shares; (iv) 0.35% of average daily net assets for Retirement Class shares; (v) 0.45% of average daily net assets for Retail Class shares; and (vi) 0.10% of average daily net assets for Class W shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least July 31, 2024, unless changed with approval of the Board of Trustees.

2

Teachers Advisors, LLC has contractually agreed to waive and/or reimburse Class W’s Management fees and Other expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired fund fees and expenses, Trustee expenses and extraordinary expenses) in their entirety. Teachers Advisors, LLC expects these waiver and/or reimbursement arrangements to remain in effect indefinitely, unless changed or terminated 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

2Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Short-Term Bond Index Fund

assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses, before fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, remain the same. The example assumes that the Fund’s fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement arrangements will each remain in place for the durations noted in the table above. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

	Institutional Class		Advisor Class		Premier Class		Retirement Class		Retail Class		Class W
1 year	$	8	$	20	$	25	$	34	$	38	$	0
3 years	$	26	$	64	$	77	$	106	$	119	$	0
5 years	$	45	$	113	$	135	$	185	$	208	$	0
10 years	$	103	$	255	$	306	$	418	$	468	$	0

Portfolio turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs 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 fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 69% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal investment strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in bonds within its benchmark and portfolio tracking index, the Bloomberg U.S. 1–3 Year Government/Credit 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 the Index. At times the Fund may purchase securities not held in the Index, but which Teachers Advisors, LLC (“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 denominated in U.S. dollars including United States treasury debt, government-related debt, and corporate issues. The Fund has a policy of maintaining a dollar weighted average maturity of no more than three years. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term “assets” means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

The securities purchased by the Fund will mainly be high-quality instruments rated in the top four credit categories by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (“NRSRO”) 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 or have their ratings withdrawn by one or more rating agencies.

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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 fees and expenses. The use of this index by the Fund is not a fundamental policy of the Fund and may be changed without shareholder approval.

The Fund may also invest in foreign securities, including emerging markets fixed-income securities and non-dollar-denominated instruments. Under most circumstances, the Fund’s investments in fixed-income securities of foreign issuers constitute less than 20% of the Fund’s assets.

The Fund is classified as a diversified investment company, as defined under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”). However, the Fund may become non-diversified under the 1940 Act without the approval of Fund shareholders solely as a result of a change in relative market capitalization or index weighting of one or more constituents of its benchmark index, the Bloomberg U.S. 1–3 Year Government/Credit Bond Index, which the Fund seeks to track.

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:

·Income Volatility Risk—The risk that the level of current income from a portfolio of fixed-income investments may decline in certain interest rate environments.

·Credit Risk (a type of Issuer Risk)—The risk that the issuer of fixed-income investments may not be able or willing, or may be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as not able or willing, to meet interest or principal payments when the payments become due.

·Credit Spread Risk—The risk that credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between securities that is due to differences in each security’s respective credit quality) may increase when market participants believe that bonds generally have a greater risk of default, which could result in a decline in the market values of the Fund’s debt securities.

·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 its investments and that the Fund may not be able to purchase or sell an investment 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 investments to decline. This risk

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is heightened to the extent the Fund invests in longer duration fixed-income investments and during periods when prevailing interest rates are low or negative. Low interest rates may increase the Fund’s exposure to risks associated with rising interest rates, and the Fund may also be subject to heightened levels of interest rate risk due to rising interest rates (including a sharp rise in interest rates). In general, changing interest rates could have unpredictable effects on the markets and may expose fixed-income and related markets to heightened volatility.

·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.

·U.S. Government Securities Risk—Securities issued by the U.S. Government or one of its agencies or instrumentalities may receive varying levels of support from the U.S. Government, which could affect the Fund’s ability to recover should they default. To the extent the Fund invests significantly in securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities, any market movements, regulatory changes or changes in political or economic conditions that affect the securities of the U.S. Government or its agencies or instrumentalities in which the Fund invests may have a significant impact on the Fund’s performance.

·Illiquid Investments Risk—The risk that illiquid investments may be difficult to sell for the value at which they are carried, if at all, or at any price within the desired time frame.

·Downgrade Risk—The risk that securities are subsequently downgraded should Advisors and/or rating agencies believe the issuer’s business outlook or creditworthiness has deteriorated.

·Index Risk—The risk that the Fund’s performance may not correspond to its benchmark index for any period of time and may underperform such index or the overall financial market. Additionally, to the extent that the Fund’s investments vary from the composition of its benchmark index, the Fund’s performance could potentially vary from the index’s performance to a greater extent than if the Fund merely attempted to replicate the index.

·Fixed-Income Foreign Investment Risk—Investment in fixed-income securities or financial instruments of foreign issuers involves increased risks due to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, currency, market or economic developments as well as armed conflicts. These developments may impact the ability of a foreign debt issuer to make timely and ultimate payments on its debt obligations to the Fund or impair the Fund’s ability to enforce its rights against the foreign debt issuer. These risks are heightened in emerging or developing markets. Foreign investments may also have lower overall liquidity and be more difficult to value than investments in U.S. issuers. Foreign investments may also be subject to risk of loss because of more or less foreign government regulation, less public information, less

TIAA-CREF Short-Term Bond Index Fund ■Summary Prospectus 5

stringent investor protections, and less stringent accounting, corporate governance, financial reporting and disclosure standards. The imposition of sanctions, exchange controls (including repatriation restrictions), confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other restrictions by the United States or other governments may also negatively impact the Fund’s investments. Economic sanctions and other similar governmental actions or developments could, among other things, effectively restrict or eliminate the Fund’s ability to purchase or sell certain foreign securities or groups of foreign securities, and/or thus may make the Fund’s investments in such securities less liquid (or illiquid) or more difficult to value. The type and severity of sanctions and other measures that may be imposed could vary broadly in scope, and their impact is impossible to predict.

·Non-Diversification Risk—While the Fund is considered to be a diversified investment company under the 1940 Act, the Fund may become non-diversified under the 1940 Act without Fund shareholder approval when necessary to continue to track its benchmark index. Non-diversified status means that the Fund can invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer than a diversified fund. Investing in a non-diversified fund involves greater risk than investing in a diversified fund because a loss in value of a particular investment may have a greater effect on the fund’s return since that investment may represent a larger portion of the fund’s total portfolio assets.

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 Institutional Class. Because the expenses vary across share classes, the performance of the Institutional Class may vary from the other share classes. Below the bar chart are the best and worst returns of the Institutional Class for a calendar quarter during the full calendar-year periods covered by the bar chart. The performance table following the bar chart shows the Fund’s average annual total returns for the Institutional, Advisor, Premier, Retirement, Retail and Class W classes over the applicable one-year, five-year, ten-year and since-inception periods ended December 31, 2022, 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

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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 an 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.org.

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS FOR THE INSTITUTIONAL CLASS SHARES (%)^†

Short-Term Bond Index Fund

^†The year-to-date return as of the most recent calendar quarter, which ended on June 30, 2023, was 1.20%.

Best quarter: 1.71%, for the quarter ended March 31, 2020. Worst quarter: -2.47%, for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.

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AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2022

		Inception date	One year		Five years		Since inception
Institutional Class		8/7/2015
	Return before taxes		–3.78	%	0.82	%	0.77	%
	Return after taxes on distributions		–4.24	%	0.16	%	0.17	%
	Return after taxes on distributions and sale of
	Fund shares		–2.24	%	0.37	%	0.34	%
Advisor Class		12/4/2015
	Return before taxes		–3.90	%	0.67	%	0.65	%#
Premier Class		8/7/2015
	Return before taxes		–3.94	%	0.65	%	0.60	%
Retirement Class		8/7/2015
	Return before taxes		–4.02	%	0.57	%	0.52	%
Retail Class		8/7/2015
	Return before taxes		–4.14	%	0.47	%	0.43	%
Class W		9/28/2018
	Return before taxes		–3.70	%	0.91	%#	0.83	%#
Bloomberg U.S. 1-3 Year Government/Credit Bond Index
(reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)			–3.69	%	0.92	%	0.91	%†
Current performance of the Fund’s shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.
#	The performance shown for the Advisor Class and Class W that is prior to their respective inception dates is based on performance of the Institutional Class. The performance for these periods has not been restated to reflect the actual expenses of the Advisor Class and Class W. If these actual expenses had been reflected, the performance of these two classes shown for these periods would have been different because the Advisor Class and Class W have different expenses than the Institutional Class.
†	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.
For the Fund’s most current 30-day yield, please call the Fund at 800-842-2252.

Portfolio management

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

Portfolio Managers. The following persons are primarily responsible for the management of the Fund on a day-to-day basis:

Name:	James Tsang, CFA	Vivian Liu, CFA
Title:	Senior Director	Director
Experience on Fund:	since 2015	since 2023

8Summary Prospectus■TIAA-CREF Short-Term Bond Index Fund

Purchase and sale of Fund shares

Institutional Class shares are available for purchase directly from the Fund by certain eligible investors (which include employee benefit plans and financial intermediaries). Advisor Class shares are available for purchase through certain financial intermediaries, employee benefit plans and insurance company separate accounts. Premier Class and Retirement Class shares are generally available for purchase through employee benefit plans, other types of savings plans or accounts and certain financial intermediaries. Retail Class shares are available for purchase through certain financial intermediaries or by contacting the Fund directly at www.tiaa.org or 800-223-1200. Class W shares are available for purchase directly from the Fund only by funds advised by Advisors or its affiliates or other clients or accounts of Advisors or its affiliates that are subject to a contractual fee for advisory, management or other similar or related services provided by Advisors or its affiliates.

·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. Employee benefit plans, fee-based managed account programs (“wrap accounts”), state sponsored 529 college savings plans, collective trust funds, investment companies or other pooled investment vehicles, thrifts and bank and trust companies that have entered into agreements to offer Institutional Class shares held in omnibus accounts on the books of the Fund are exempt from initial and subsequent investment minimums.

·There are no minimum initial or subsequent investment requirements for Advisor Class, Premier Class, Retirement Class or Class W shares.

·The minimum initial investment for Retail Class shares is $2,000 per Fund account 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.

Redeeming or Exchanging Shares. You can redeem (sell) or exchange your shares of the Fund on any day that the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) or its affiliated exchanges, NYSE Arca Equities or NYSE American, are open for trading (each such day a “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.

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

TIAA-CREF Short-Term Bond Index Fund ■Summary Prospectus 9

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 shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and/or its related companies may pay the financial intermediary for providing investor services. The Fund’s related companies may also pay the financial 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 financial 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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