Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in equity securities of large-capitalization value companies. The Fund invests primarily in equity securities of large domestic companies, as defined by the Fund’s benchmark index, the Russell 1000®Value Index, that the Fund’s investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC (“Advisors”), believes appear undervalued by the market based on an evaluation of their potential worth. Large-capitalization companies are those that have market capitalizations within the range of the companies in the Russell 1000®Index. The market capitalization range is determined based on the companies in the index as of the last business day of the month in which the index was most recently reconstituted and may be updated to reflect any changes to the index composition and the market capitalization of companies in the index. Value companies are those that are constituents of at least one of the following indexes on the last business day of the month in which its most recent reconstitution was completed (as adjusted by changes to an index between reconstitutions): Russell 3000®Value Index, S&P Composite 1500®Value Index, MSCI World IMI Value Index.

Advisors uses a variety of comparative valuation criteria to determine whether shares of a particular company might be undervalued, including analyses of historical valuations of the same security; valuations of comparable securities in the same sector or the overall market; various financial ratios such as stock price-to-book value, stock price-to-earnings, and dividend yield; and free cash flow generated by the company. Advisors generally focuses on companies with normalized earnings and high operating leverage, which may cause the Fund to be more volatile in down markets than other large-cap value funds that have more defensive investment strategies.

The Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in foreign investments. The Fund may also purchase and sell futures, options, swaps and other equity derivatives to carry out the Fund’s investment strategies.