In February of 2007, TIAA-CREF introduced a beta version of their retirement-focused online community, MyRetirement.org, to a select group of clients. Recently the firm rolled the site out to its broader client base through an email invitation.

MyRetirement.org provides a unique outlet for the firm’s clients to discuss a number of topics, including investment and saving strategies, travel and leisure plans, even health and fitness tips. This broad range of financial- and lifestyle-focused content should appeal to the interests of the firm’s unique customer base, i.e., those with backgrounds in the academic, research, medical and cultural fields.

To join the community, members must create a user profile by entering a screen name and password, uploading a picture and a brief statement about their personal retirement aspirations. Once completed, members are able to post ideas to any of the eight message boards, or comment on third-party financial commentary. Members can connect with other members via friend requests, similar to those found on popular social networking sites like Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com.

With nearly 10,000 active members and several hundred posts across a variety of topics, the new MyRetirement.org site seems to have actively engaged a sizable portion of the firm’s retirement-aged clients. This challenges the notion that such communities are not suited to older people, a subject we discussed in last year’s report Social Media: Trends and Tactics in the Financial Services Industry. Inviting a portion of the firm’s client base to experience the beta site before wider release was probably a smart move, allowing the firm to seed the site with content as well as gauge user interest and beta test the site’s functionality. The fact that many of the firm’s customers share the same professional interests also bodes well for the future success of the community.

While other annuity issuers have introduced retirement-focused sitelets, most notably the 2008 release of AXA Equitable’s MyRetirementShop.com, no annuity firm provides their clients with as strong a community as TIAA-CREF’s MyRetirement.org. It will be interesting to see how the community evolves now that the doors are being opened to a much larger membership.

If you are interested in reading more on Retirement please click here for an abstract to our latest Mutual Fund Monitor Report, In and Nearing Retirement.