It retains an Average Parent rating.
Nuveen is the asset-management arm of TIAA. TIAA purchased Nuveen in October 2014 and in January 2017 announced that Nuveen would become the umbrella brand for all its asset-management capabilities, including the legacy Nuveen and TIAA investment teams and their affiliates.
Since then, a dramatic transformation has taken place. This includes merging all but one affiliated investment team into centralized equity and fixed-income groups, which are now among the industry’s largest. All operations, technology, and sales functions were centralized and modernized; in 2019, the firm rolled out a comprehensive long-term incentive plan that has helped attract and retain talent, and the previously expansive investment lineup has been mostly cleaned up.
Nuveen’s investment strengths are predominantly in fixed income and real assets. While its municipal team is among the industry’s more ubiquitous, its aggressive approach has been a sticking point for several years. Its experienced equity team hasn’t distinguished its performance from peers’. Finally, CEO Jose Minaya has built a robust management team, but several of them are recent outside hires and so it will take time to see how they integrate with Minaya’s modernized vision for the firm.