SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION FORM N-CSRS Certified semi-annual shareholder report of registered management investment companies filed on Form N-CSR Filing Date: 2013-08-28 | Period of Report: 2013-06-30 SEC Accession No. 0000930413-13-004414 (HTML Version on secdatabase.com) FILER COLLEGE RETIREMENT EQUITIES FUND Mailing Address Business Address 730 THIRD AVE 730 THIRD AVE CIK:777535| IRS No.: 136022042 | State of Incorp.:NY | Fiscal Year End: 1231 NEW YORK NY 10017 NEW YORK NY 10017 Type: N-CSRS | Act: 40 | File No.: 811-04415 | Film No.: 131065229 2129164905 Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 FORM N-CSR CERTIFIED SHAREHOLDER REPORT OF REGISTERED MANAGEMENT INVESTMENT COMPANIES Investment Company Act file number File No. 811-4415 COLLEGE RETIREMENT EQUITIES FUND (Exact name of Registrant as specified in charter) 730 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10017-3206 (Address of principal executive offices) (Zip code) Stewart P. Greene, Esq. c/o TIAA-CREF 730 Third Avenue New York, New York 10017-3206 (Name and address of agent for service) Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: 212-490-9000 Date of fiscal year end: December 31 Date of reporting period: June 30, 2013 Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document Item 1. Reports to Stockholders. 2013 Semiannual Report College Retirement Equities Fund June 30, 2013 Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document Understanding your CREF report This semiannual report contains information about the eight CREF accounts and describes the accounts’ results for the six months ended June 30, 2013. The report contains three main sections: • The account performance section compares each account’s investment returns with those of its benchmark index. The summary portfolios of investments list the industries and types of securities in which each account had investments as of June • 30, 2013. • The financial statements provide detailed information about the operations and financial condition of each account. The views and opinions expressed in this report are through the end of the period, as stated on the cover of this report. They are subject to change at any time based on a variety of factors. As such, they are not guarantees of future performance or investment results and should not be taken as investment advice. The risks of investing in the CREF accounts vary from account to account; to see the risks of investing in an individual account, please refer to the latest CREF prospectus. As always, you should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any account before investing. For a prospectus that contains this and other important information, please visit our website at tiaa-cref.org, or call 877 518-9161. We urge you to read the prospectus carefully before investing. 2 2013 Semiannual Report ■ College Retirement Equities Fund Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document Information for CREF participants Portfolio holdings Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules allow investment companies to list the top holdings of each account in their annual and semiannual reports, instead of providing complete portfolio listings. CREF also files complete portfolio listings with the SEC, and they are available to the public. You can obtain a complete list of CREF’s portfolio holdings (Schedules of Investments) as of the most recently completed fiscal quarter in the following ways: • By visiting our website at tiaa-cref.org; or • By calling us at 800 842-2252 to request a copy, which will be provided free of charge. You can also obtain a complete list of CREF’s portfolio holdings as of the most recently completed fiscal quarter, and for prior quarter- ends, from our SEC Form N-CSR and Form N-Q filings. Form N-CSR filings are as of December 31 or June 30; Form N-Q filings are as of March 31 or September 30. Copies of these forms are available: • Through the Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval System (EDGAR) on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov; or • From the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy. (Call 202 551-8090 for more information.) Proxy voting CREF’s ownership of stock gives it the right to vote on proxy issues of companies in which it invests. A description of our proxy voting policies and procedures can be found on our website at tiaa-cref.org or on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. You can also call us at 800 842-2252 to request a free copy. A report of how the accounts voted during the most recently completed twelve-month period ended June 30 can be found on our website or on Form N-PX at www.sec.gov. Contacting TIAA-CREF There are three easy ways to contact us: by email, using the Contact Us link at the top of our home page; by mail at TIAA-CREF, 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017–3206; or by phone at 800 842-2252. Account management The CREF accounts are managed by the portfolio management teams of TIAA-CREF Investment Management, LLC. The members of these teams are responsible for the day-to-day investment management of the accounts. College Retirement Equities Fund ■ 2013 Semiannual Report 3 Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document About the accounts’ benchmarks CREF Stock Account The account’s composite benchmark is a weighted average of two indexes: the Russell 3000® Index, which measures the performance of the broad U.S. stock market, and the MSCI All Country World ex USA Investable Market Index, which measures the performance of large-, mid- and small-cap stocks in 44 developed and emerging market nations throughout the world, excluding the United States. CREF Global Equities Account The account’s benchmark is the MSCI World Index, an aggregate of 24 country indexes in developed market nations, including the United States. CREF Growth Account The account’s benchmark is the Russell 1000® Growth Index, a subset of the Russell 1000 Index, which measures the performance of the stocks of the 1,000 largest companies in the Russell 3000 Index, based on market capitalization. The Russell 1000 Growth Index measures the performance of those stocks of the Russell 1000 Index with higher relative forecasted growth rates and price/book ratios. CREF Equity Index Account The account’s benchmark is the Russell 3000 Index, which measures the performance of the stocks of the 3,000 largest publicly traded U.S. companies, based on market capitalization. The index measures the performance of about 98% of the total market capitalization of the publicly traded U.S. equity market. CREF Bond Market Account The account’s benchmark is the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which measures the performance of the domestic investment- grade, fixed-rate bond market, including government and corporate securities, agency mortgage pass-through securities, asset-backed securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities. CREF Inflation-Linked Bond Account The account’s benchmark is the Barclays U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) Index (Series-L), which measures the performance of fixed-income securities with fixed-rate coupon payments that are adjusted for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). 4 2013 Semiannual Report ■ College Retirement Equities Fund Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document About the accounts’ benchmarks CREF Social Choice Account The account’s composite benchmark is a weighted average of three indexes: the Russell 3000 Index, which measures the performance of the broad U.S. stock market; the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which measures the performance of the domestic investment- grade, fixed-rate bond market; and the MSCI EAFE+Canada Index, which measures stock performance in 23 developed market nations, excluding the United States. You cannot invest directly in any index. Index returns do not include a deduction for fees or expenses. Russell 1000 and Russell 3000 are trademarks and service marks of Russell Investments. TIAA-CREF products are not promoted or sponsored by, or affiliated with, Russell Investments. MSCI makes no express or implied warranties or representations and shall have no liability whatsoever with respect to any MSCI data contained herein. This report is not approved, reviewed or produced by MSCI. EAFE stands for Europe, Australasia, Far East. College Retirement Equities Fund ■ 2013 Semiannual Report 5 Copyright © 2013 www.secdatabase.com. All Rights Reserved. Please Consider the Environment Before Printing This Document Important information about expenses All participants in the CREF accounts incur ongoing costs, including management fees and other account expenses. The expense examples that appear on the performance pages are intended to help you understand your ongoing costs (in U.S. dollars) and do not reflect transactional costs incurred by the account for buying and selling securities. The examples are designed to help you compare these ongoing costs with the ongoing costs of investing in other variable annuity accounts and mutual funds. Participants in the CREF accounts do not incur a sales charge for purchases or other distributions. The examples are based on an investment of $1,000 invested at the beginning of the six-month period and held for the entire period (January 1, 2013–June 30, 2013). Actual expenses The first line in each table uses the account’s actual expenses and its actual rate of return.