TIAA-CREF Life Funds

05/01/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/01/2024 06:03

Summary Prospectus by Investment Company - Form 497K

Untitled Document

Nuveen
Life Funds

Summary Prospectus

Nuveen Life Stock Index Fund

(formerly TIAA-CREF Life Stock Index Fund)

MAY 1, 2024

Ticker: TLSTX

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund's prospectus, reports to shareholders and other information about the Fund online at www.tiaa.org/tclf_pro. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800-223-1200 or by sending an e-mail request to [email protected]. The Fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information ("SAI"), each dated May 1, 2024, as subsequently supplemented, and the sections of the Fund's shareholder report dated December 31, 2023 from "Portfolio of Investments" through "Notes to Financial Statements," are incorporated into this Summary Prospectus by reference and may be obtained free of charge at the website, phone number or e-mail address noted above.

Investment objective

The Fund seeks a favorable long-term total return, mainly through capital appreciation, by investing primarily in a portfolio of equity securities selected to track the overall U.S. equity markets.

Fees and expenses

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. The expenses shown do not reflect any separate account fees or expenses deducted under the variable annuity contracts or variable life insurance policies using the Fund as an underlying investment option.

SHAREHOLDER FEES(fees paid directly from your investment)

Maximum sales charge imposed on purchases (percentage of offering price)

0%

Maximum deferred sales charge

0%

Maximum sales charge imposed on reinvested dividends and other distributions

0%

Redemption fee

0%

Exchange fee

0%

Nuveen Life Funds ■ Stock Index Fund■Summary Prospectus 1

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Management fees

0.06%

Other expenses

0.02%

Total annual Fund operating expenses

0.08%

Waivers and expense reimbursements1

-

Total annual Fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement

0.08%

1

Under the Fund's expense reimbursement arrangements, the Fund's investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC, has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for any Total annual Fund operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions or other transactional expenses, Acquired fund fees and expenses and extraordinary expenses) that exceed 0.09% of average daily net assets for shares of the Fund. These expense reimbursement arrangements will continue through at least April 30, 2025, unless changed with approval of the Board of Trustees.

Example

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses, before fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, remain the same. The example assumes that the Fund's fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement arrangements will each remain in place for the duration noted in the table above. The example does not reflect the fees and expenses of any variable annuity contract or variable life insurance policy and the costs in the example would be higher if it did. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

1 year

$

8

3 years

$

26

5 years

$

45

10 years

$

103

Portfolio turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund's performance. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 1% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal investment strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its assets in equity securities of its benchmark index, the Russell 3000®Index. The Russell 3000 Index measures the performance of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies

2 Summary Prospectus■Nuveen Life Funds■ Stock Index Fund

representing approximately 96% of the investable U.S. equity market. The Fund buys most, but not necessarily all, of the stocks in its benchmark index, and will attempt to closely match the overall investment characteristics of its benchmark index. For purposes of the 80% investment policy, the term "assets" means net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes.

The Fund is designed to track various U.S. equity markets as a whole or a segment of these markets. The Fund primarily invests its assets in equity securities its investment adviser, Teachers Advisors, LLC ("Advisors"), has selected to track a designated stock market index. Because the return of an index is not reduced by investment and other operating expenses, the Fund's ability to match the returns of the Russell 3000 Index is negatively affected by the costs of buying and selling securities as well as the Fund's fees and other expenses. The use of a particular index by the Fund is not a fundamental policy and may be changed without shareholder approval. The portfolio management team of Advisors will attempt to build a portfolio that generally matches the market weighted investment characteristics of the Fund's benchmark index.

The Fund is classified as a diversified investment company, as defined under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the "1940 Act"). However, the Fund may become non-diversified under the 1940 Act without the approval of Fund shareholders solely as a result of a change in relative market capitalization or index weighting of one or more constituents of its benchmark index, the Russell 3000 Index, which the Fund seeks to track.

Principal investment risks

You could lose money over short or long periods by investing in this Fund. An investment in the Fund, due to the nature of the Fund's portfolio holdings, typically is subject to the following principal investment risks:

·Market Risk-The risk that market prices of portfolio investments held by the Fund may fall rapidly or unpredictably due to a variety of factors, including changing economic, political or market conditions. Market risk may affect a single issuer, industry or sector of the economy, or it may affect the market as a whole. Such conditions may add significantly to the risk of volatility in the net asset value ("NAV") of the Fund's shares and adversely affect the Fund and its investments. From time to time, the Fund may invest a significant portion of its assets in companies in one or more related sectors or industries, which would make the Fund more vulnerable to adverse developments affecting such sectors or industries. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in companies in the information technology sector, although this may change over time.

·Index Risk-The risk that the Fund's performance may not correspond to its benchmark index for any period of time and may underperform such index or the overall financial market. Additionally, to the extent that the Fund's investments vary from the composition of its benchmark index, the Fund's

Nuveen Life Funds ■ Stock Index Fund■Summary Prospectus 3

performance could potentially vary from the index's performance to a greater extent than if the Fund merely attempted to replicate the index.

·Issuer Risk (often called Financial Risk)-The risk that an issuer's earnings prospects, credit rating and overall financial position will deteriorate, causing a decline in the value of the issuer's financial instruments over short or extended periods of time.

·Large-Cap Risk-The risk that large-capitalization companies are more mature and may grow more slowly than the economy as a whole and tend to go in and out of favor based on market and economic conditions.

·Mid-Cap Risk-The risk that the stocks of mid-capitalization companies often experience greater price volatility, lower trading volume and lower overall liquidity than the stocks of larger, more established companies.

·Small-Cap Risk-The risk that the stocks of small-capitalization companies often experience greater price volatility than large- or mid-sized companies because small-cap companies are often newer or less established than larger companies and are likely to have more limited resources, products and markets. Securities of small-cap companies often have lower overall liquidity than securities of larger companies as a result of there being a smaller market for their securities, which can have an adverse effect on the pricing of these securities and on the ability to sell these securities when Advisors deems it appropriate.

·Non-Diversification Risk-The Fund is considered to be non-diversified under the 1940 Act. Non-diversified status means that the Fund can invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer than a diversified fund. Investing in a non-diversified fund involves greater risk than investing in a diversified fund because a loss in value of a particular investment may have a greater effect on the fund's return since that investment may represent a larger portion of the fund's total portfolio assets.

Please see the non-summary portion of the Prospectus for more detailed information about the risks described above.

Past performance

The following chart and table help illustrate some of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund's performance from year to year. The bar chart shows the annual total returns of shares of the Fund during the preceding ten-year period. Below the bar chart are the best and worst returns for a calendar quarter during the same period. The performance table following the bar chart shows the Fund's average annual total returns over the one-year, five-year, ten-year and since-inception periods (where applicable) ended December 31, 2023, and how those returns compare to those of the Fund's benchmark index. Returns do not reflect fees and expenses of any variable annuity or variable life insurance contract and would be lower if they did.

4 Summary Prospectus■Nuveen Life Funds■ Stock Index Fund

The returns shown below reflect previous agreements by Advisors to waive or reimburse the Fund for certain fees and expenses. Without these waivers and reimbursements, the returns of the Fund would have been lower. Past performance of the Fund is not necessarily an indication of how it will perform in the future. The benchmark index listed below is unmanaged, and you cannot invest directly in an index. The returns for the benchmark index reflect no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes.

For current performance information of the Fund, including performance to the most recent month-end, please visit www.tiaa.org.

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS (%)

Nuveen Life Stock Index Fund

Best quarter: 21.91%, for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. Worst quarter: -20.84%, for the quarter ended March 31, 2020.

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the Periods Ended December 31, 2023

Inception date

One year

Five years

Ten years

Nuveen Life Stock Index Fund

1/4/1999

25.91

%

15.09

%

11.41

%

Russell 3000® Index

(reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)

25.96

%

15.16

%

11.48

%

Current performance of the Fund's shares may be higher or lower than that shown above.

After-tax returns have not been shown because they are not relevant since Fund shares currently are held only through insurance company separate accounts.

A

A

Portfolio management

Investment Adviser. Teachers Advisors, LLC.

Portfolio Managers.

Name:

Philip James (Jim) Campagna, CFA

Lei Liao, CFA

Darren Tran, CFA

Title:

Managing Director

Managing Director

Managing Director

Experience on Fund:

since 2005

since 2014

since 2019

Nuveen Life Funds ■ Stock Index Fund■Summary Prospectus 5

Purchase and sale of Fund shares

Please contact the insurance company that issued your variable annuity or life insurance contract for more information on the purchase and sale of Fund shares.

Tax information

Because the only shareholders of the Fund are the insurance companies offering the contracts, no discussion is included here about the federal income tax consequences at the shareholder level. The federal income tax consequences for purchases of a variable annuity or life insurance contract are described in the prospectus for such contracts.

Payments to insurance companies and broker-dealers and other financial intermediary compensation

The Fund is only available as an underlying investment for the contracts. The Fund and its distributor (and their related companies) may make payments to the sponsoring insurance company (or its affiliates) and to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries for distribution and/or other services. These payments may be a factor that the insurance company considers in including the Fund as an underlying investment option in the variable contract. Payments to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary to recommend a variable product and the Fund over another investment. Ask your financial adviser or visit the website of the insurance company or the financial intermediary for more information. The disclosure document for your variable contract may contain additional information about these payments.

6 Summary Prospectus■Nuveen Life Funds■ Stock Index Fund

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