If you have funds invested in TIAA Traditional (an annuity fund), you will want to decide if it is beneficial for you to trigger the annuity prior to the transition to Empower or not.
Since TIAA Traditional is a proprietary fund with TIAA, those monies will not be directly transferred to Empower, but will however be transferred to Empower over a 60-month time period (1/60 per month ending after 5 years). That is because of the type of investment TIAA traditional is. When these funds transfer, it shows up as a 'contribution' to your Empower account, but it is actually a transfer. Whatever monies are still at TIAA after the transfer has begun, you will be eligible to trigger the annuity with that balance at any time. And once the annuity is triggered, that amount will be essentially removed from the UU Plan and you will work with TIAA on that regular disbursement.