TIAA Kaspick

TIAA Kaspick manages planned-giving assets through TIAA's broader institutional investment platform rather than operating a separate investment committee. The firm's Managing Director, Kathleen Kelly, oversees client relationships and trust administration, while asset allocation and manager selection are executed within TIAA's centralized investment management structure. This means Kaspick clients access the same investment capabilities as TIAA's retirement and endowment accounts.

TIAA acquired Kaspick & Company in 2006 and integrated it as a wholly-owned subsidiary operating under the TIAA Kaspick brand. The unit reports through TIAA's institutional services division and benefits from TIAA's balance sheet, distribution relationships, and investment platform. It remains legally distinct for trust-administration purposes but is not an independent fiduciary — ultimate governance runs through TIAA's corporate structure in New York.

The firm specializes in split-interest gifts: charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, charitable gift annuities, and pooled income funds. More recently, TIAA Kaspick has expanded into donor-advised fund administration. These vehicles serve donors who want to transfer assets charity while retaining an income stream, and the nonprofit clients that ultimately receive the remaining principal.

TIAA Kaspick primarily contracts with nonprofit institutions, which engage the firm as an outsourced administrator for their planned-giving programs. Individual donors interact with the nonprofit's development office, not directly with Kaspick. The firm handles back-office trust accounting, tax reporting, investment management, and beneficiary distributions — but the relationship and gift solicitation remain with the charity.

The firm's embedded position within TIAA gives it a distribution advantage that independent trust companies lack. TIAA already serves over 15,000 institutional clients for retirement plans; Kaspick's planned-giving services are cross-sold to the same finance and development offices. No standalone planned-giving manager can match that institutional footprint. The trade-off is that Kaspick clients are tied to TIAA's investment platform, limiting open-architecture flexibility relative to independent trust providers.

TIAA Kaspick does not serve a single family or wealth creator. Its assets come from charitable gifts made by thousands of individual donors to approximately 180 nonprofit institutions — universities, hospitals, and foundations — that use Kaspick as their planned-giving administrator. The wealth origin is diffuse, typically high-net-worth donors over age 65 structuring charitable remainder trusts or gift annuities as part of estate planning.

The firm itself is the philanthropic structure — it exists solely to administer charitable vehicles. Donor assets are segregated by trust and by charitable beneficiary, with TIAA Kaspick acting as trustee or co-trustee for each vehicle. The parent company, TIAA, operates as a not-for-profit insurance company, though various subsidiaries including Kaspick operate in taxable and tax-exempt capacities depending on the vehicle structure.