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Privacy Policy

NOTICE OF TIAA-CREF PRIVACY POLICY

Please read this carefully. It provides information about the privacy policy of TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc., TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, and Teachers Personal Investors Services, Inc. (together referred to as "TIAA-CREF"). The TIAA-CREF privacy policy concerns nonpublic personal information ("personal information") that TIAA-CREF may have about current and former Account owners in the Michigan Education Savings Program (the "Program").

TIAA-CREF may collect personal information about you from various sources. That includes personal information that you give on: the Application; Program forms; and interactive tools. It may also include personal information about your participation in the Program, such as your investment options. TIAA-CREF may also obtain certain of your personal information from third parties, such as consumer reporting agencies.

We use your personal information to effect your investment in the Program and to effect related services. When you complete the Application, you may opt to receive information about other financial products and services offered by TIAA-CREF and its affiliates. If so, your personal information may be shared with these affiliates so that they can mail you their materials ("affiliate materials"). These affiliates include: insurance companies; broker-dealers; investment companies; investment advisors; and a trust company. Your personal information also is available to the State in its role as Administrator.

TIAA-CREF limits access to your personal information to those employees who must know it to provide Program-related services. TIAA-CREF may also give your personal information to service providers: who process your transactions; mail you Program documents and affiliate materials; or enhance your Program benefits.

We protect your personal information by physical, electronic and procedural safeguards as required by federal and state laws.

TIAA-CREF does not disclose your personal information to any other person outside of the Program, unless you consent or it is permitted under applicable federal and state laws. TIAA-CREF may also disclose your personal information if it is allowed or required by its contract with the State. With your consent or if allowed by law, we will provide your personal information to the financial advisor you designate.

NOTICE ABOUT ONLINE PRIVACY

Safeguarding your online personal information is something that MESP takes very seriously. Personal information provided to MESP is not sold or bartered. In addition, the personal information provided by you online through the MESP Web site is not revealed to any person or organization outside of TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc., its affiliates and subcontractors, its parent company, Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), and the Michigan State Treasurer (and staff) unless:

Proper authorization or direction from you to do so has been received,
It is permitted by law, or
It is necessary to do so in order to enable service providers to perform work on behalf of MESP.

Personal Information Provided By You Through
Online Enrollment, Account Access, and Online Transactions

When you visit the MESP Web site, you can go to pages that are open to the general public or log onto secure pages in the My Account section of the site to enroll in MESP, access information about your Account, or conduct certain transactions on the Account. Once you have opened an Account in MESP, access to these secure pages of the MESP Web site is permitted only after you have supplied your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and Personal Identification Number (PIN). This information serves to verify your identity, so that only you can access your Account and initiate transactions through the MESP Web site.

The following categories of personal information will be requested from you if you choose to enroll in MESP or access your Account online: (1) your name and your Beneficiary's name; (2) complete physical address information; (3) telephone numbers; (4) your gender; (5) Social Security Numbers or Taxpayer Identification Numbers for yourself and your Beneficiary; (6) your date of birth and your Beneficiary's date of birth; (7) depending on your method of contribution, certain banking information; and (8) at your option, your relationship to the Beneficiary and your e-mail address.

MESP is committed to protecting your privacy online. When you enter personal data into the MESP Web site (including your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number and your PIN) to enroll or access your Account online, you will log into secure pages where we use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for protecting information. SSL has been universally accepted on the Internet for authenticated and encrypted communication between clients and servers. In addition, all online enrollment or Account transaction data that you send to us and we confirm back to you, is sent over an encrypted SSL connection protected with a mechanism for detecting tampering -- that is, for automatically determining whether the data has been altered in transit. This generally means that the data sent is encrypted and can only be decrypted by our Web server. Your data is stored on a secure server behind our firewall, which works to restrict access to your data from outside the server.

To use this section of the MESP Web site you need a browser that supports encryption and dynamic Web page construction. We strongly recommend Netscape navigator version 4.0 or higher, or Microsoft Internet version 4.0 or higher.

To help ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your information:

Do not share your PIN, Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number with anyone.
Call MESP's toll-free number at 1 (877) 861-MESP(6377) if you suspect any willful misuse of this site.

If you provide personal information to effect transactions on MESP's Web site, a record of the transactions that you have performed while on the site is retained by MESP.

Other Personal Information Provided By You On The MESP Web Site

If you decide not to enroll online and you want to request MESP materials to be mailed to you, or you want to subscribe to the MESP e-mail newsletter, you can click on another section of the MESP Web site (i.e., the Request Enrollment Kit page of the Enroll Today section) to provide your name, mailing address and e-mail address, respectively. The personal information that you provide on that page of the site will be stored and used to market MESP more effectively. Although that page of the MESP Web site does not use SSL encryption protocol, your information will be safeguarded in accordance with federal and state privacy laws and industry norms.

How to Change Personal Information That You Provide Online

If you need to inform us of changes or corrections to personal information that you have provided through online enrollment or online Account transactions, please follow the instructions in the Access Your Account section of the MESP Web site, or download and complete an Account Services form and mail it to the address provided on the form.

If you have provided us with mailing or e-mail information in order to request mailing of an enrollment kit or to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter, you will not be able to review and correct that information online. However, if you want to request another enrollment kit or re-subscribe to the e-mail newsletter, and your mailing or e-mail information has changed, you can go to the Enroll Today section of the MESP Web site and click on the Request Enrollment Kit link to enter your new e-mail and/or mailing address.

MESP Cares About Your Privacy

We use cookies on the MESP Web site to measure marketing results for MESP. This process renders all visitors to the MESP Web site anonymous and will not personally identify you. Please read the notice below about the limited way that cookies are used on this site:

Because your privacy is important to us, we are advising you that a cookie may be placed on your browser that (1) identifies a particular Internet advertisement that brought you to the MESP Web site and tracks the pages visited on this site; (2) counts your computer as it enters the MESP Web site and tracks the pages visited on this site; or (3) facilitates your navigation and use of this site The sole purpose of this cookie, which you may delete at any time, is to count the number of visitors to the MESP Web site so that marketing results for MESP can be measured and navigation of the site can be enhanced. Absolutely no personally identifiable information about you will be collected, used, or stored through this process. We do not track or record information about individuals who visit this site. If you provide personal information on this Web site, such as by enrolling online, or requesting MESP materials or the e-mail newsletter, that information will be collected, stored and used (as discussed above) in accordance with federal and state privacy laws.

Changes To Our Privacy Policy

MESP periodically reviews its privacy policies and procedures and reserves the right to amend them. If we amend some portion of our privacy policies, we will continue our commitment to keeping your personal information secure. We will notify you of any changes to our privacy policies by posting them on the MESP Web site and, if a material change affecting Account Owners is made, we will give Account Owners written notice of that change.

Effective date: 7/1/04

The tax information contained on the Michigan Education Savings Program (MESP) Web site is not intended to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer. It was written to support the promotion of the products and services addressed in the Web site. Taxpayers should seek advice based on their own particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor.

Consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing in the Michigan Education Savings Program. Please call toll-free 1(877) 861-6377 for a Disclosure Booklet containing this information. Read it carefully.

Before investing in a 529 plan, you should consider whether the state you or your designated beneficiary reside in or have taxable income in has a 529 plan that offers favorable state income tax or other benefits that are only available if you invest in that state's 529 plan.

TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC, distributes MESP. The State of Michigan, its agencies, TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc., Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America and its affiliates do not insure any account or guarantee its principal or investment return except for TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Company's guarantee to MESP under the funding agreement for the Principal Plus Interest Option. Account value will fluctuate based upon a number of factors, including general market conditions.

Investment management, program administration and distribution of The Michigan Education Trust (MET) program is provided solely by the Michigan Department of Treasury. MET is not managed by TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. nor is it distributed by TIAA-CREF Individual & Institutional Services, LLC.

The MESP Web site contains links to other Web sites. Neither MESP nor TIAA-CREF Tuition Financing, Inc. and its affiliates are responsible for the content of those other Web sites. The accuracy of information on those sites cannot be confirmed.