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TIAA has concluded its in-house investigation following two November 2017 New York Times articles alleging improper sales practices at the financial services company, and has made some alterations to its sales materials, TIAA chief executive Roger Ferguson told Barron’s in an interview. While its internal probe didn’t find “any systemic support for the central allegations of those articles,” regulators still have ongoing reviews, Ferguson added.

“We did an internal review, and we completed that about a year later,” in late 2018, Ferguson said in an interview. However, regulators “are undertaking their own review and … may come to a different point of view. They continue to make inquiries of us. They ask for documents and to talk to our people. And we continue, most importantly, to give them our full cooperation.”

In November 2017, the New York Times reported that TIAA faced charges from former employees that it pushed clients into unsuitable products and services that generated higher fees and didn’t add value. Such practices would violate its fiduciary obligations. It reported that New York’s attorney general subpoenaed TIAA to seek information about its sales practices, while the SEC was also looking at a whistle-blower complaint filed by former TIAA employees. In addition, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was also reportedly, looking into the complaint. The SEC, New York Attorney General, and CFTC press offices all declined comment.

For example, the Times reported that TIAA had a saying about creating fear among clients: “If they cry, they buy.” It showed a headline on TIAA’s sales materials that read “Making the Client ‘Feel the Pain.’”

After its internal investigation, Ferguson said, TIAA updated some training materials for advisors. In addition, the firm clarified its policies to employees in the field “so that people wouldn’t bring in material and position that as formal training.”

“That material came from an outside book,” Ferguson said. “It doesn’t really reflect the way we want our advisors to act or to interact with our clients. That kind of phraseology, for example, has to be excised from the materials.” He added: “There were obviously places to improve, and we’re executing on that.”

In addition, the Times said the firm awarded bonuses to TIAA representatives for selling in-house products and services, and for putting them in complex offerings like annuities.

Said Ferguson: “We’re always going to look at our compensation practices and procedures to make sure they incent[ivize] the right kinds of things. But one has to recognize is that talking to, explaining to clients how some of the more complex products work takes more time and more effort and more energy. And so we have to reflect that as well.”

Ferguson described them as “one-off examples of things that had crept into the organization.”

The allegations raised concerns among the institutions that make up TIAA’s client base. TIAA, in a statement on its website, noted that it “acts in a fiduciary capacity for the investment advice provided to plan participants in accordance with our in-plan advice program for your retirement plan. We use an independent financial expert—Morningstar Investment Management, LLC (Morningstar)—to provide specific investment recommendations. Our advice program complies with the Department of Labor’s advisory opinion (2001-09A), also known as the SunAmerica opinion.”

The organization is “using this [these investigations] as a chance to review all the things that we’ve done, find opportunities to improve,” said Ferguson. “This is a chance for me to go out and personally reinforce the 100 year history and heritage of the organization. I looked at this was an opportunity to remind people of who we are and what we do and what makes us distinctive,” Ferguson said.

In a recent interview with Barron’s, Ferguson talked about the challenges facing retirees and offered some solutions.