WoodsFool, regarding #12490, I am glad to stand corrected. I am in the process of updating my will and talked with a TIAA representative about 2 weeks ago. Only annuities were mentioned, but that may well be because I was not asking the right questions.

I guess there are 2 lessons here:

1)We don't need no steenkin' gooroos (even though I am not one)
2)Better talk to someone, and not just read the literature, before leaping to a conclusion.