Voya Financial, Inc. is a combination of insurance, retirement, and investment product and services conglomerate. The company serves the financial needs of approximately 13 million customers – both business and consumer – throughout the U.S.
The vision of Voya is to become America’s Retirement Company – and it is well on its way, as the firm helps its customers to meet the challenges of saving for retirement through its more than 7,000 dedicated employees.
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The principal businesses of Voya include Insurance Solutions, Investment Management, and Retirement Solutions. Each component has a very specific focus. These are broken out as follows:
- Insurance Solutions: The Insurance Solutions component of Voya is considered to be a top-tier provider of term policies, as well as a top-ten provider of medical stop-loss insurance coverage in the United States. On the individual life insurance side, Voya currently has more than $2 billion in gross premium via its term, universal, and variable life insurance products. This component of the business also consists of Employee Benefits whereby Voya currently serves nearly 4.5 million individuals.
- Investment Management: On the investment management side, Voya holds in excess of $207 billion in assets under management for both external and affiliated institutions and for individual investors. The company has a focus on investment solutions, with a clear emphasis on fixed income, equities, and multi-asset income strategies.
- Retirement Solutions: Retirement Solutions is a leading provider of retirement products and services in the United States. This section of Voya’s business has roughly $375 billion in assets under management and administration and it serves approximately 47,000 institutional clients, and more than 5 million individual retirement plan investors. In addition, more than 2,300 financial advisors are also served in this area, as well as more than 417,000 retail fixed annuity product customers.
History of Voya Life Insurance Company
In the scope of financial services companies, Voya is quite new. It actually made its debut in April 2014 – and completed its overall re-branding in September. The company’s name originated as an abstract name that was coined from the word “voyage,” and it reflects both momentum and optimism.
The company actually came from the former ING US – and after two years of transforming the strategy, the financial profile, and the culture of the company, ING began to trade as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol VOYA in 2014.
While it has only a short history, Voya has strived to impress. In 2014, the company was named one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere Institute, as well as a top-five retirement plan provider based on number of plans, participants, and assets. In addition, the company is also a top-tier independent broker dealer network in the U.S. a top-tier provider of life insurance, and a top-10 medical stop-loss coverage provider in the United States.
Products Offered By Voya
Voya offers a wide range of insurance and financial products. For individuals, the choices include life insurance, annuities, IRAs, workplace retirement plans, employee benefits, and college savings options.
On the life insurance side, options include the following:
- Term Life – Term life is the most basic of all coverage options. This is because term provides just pure death benefit protection only, with no cash value or investment build up. Term life is also typically the most economical form of life insurance protection, especially for those that are needing a larger death benefit amount such as a 1 million dollar life insurance policy. This can especially be the case when the applicant for coverage is young and in good health at the time of application. If you are not in the best of health and feel a no exam life insurance policy would be best for you, we can help find the carrier to best suit your needs. Term coverage is sold for a set period of time – typically a certain number of years. Voya offers several term life options, including the Voya TermSmart, and the Voya ROP (Return of Premium) Endowment Term.
- Universal Life – Universal policies are a type of permanent life insurance protection. This means that the policy is not sold for a set period of time but rather, it will last for the entirety of the insured’s life – provided that the premium is paid. Universal coverage offers both a death benefit and a cash value. Cash value growth is tax deferred, meaning that the policy holder does not have to pay any income tax on the cash while it accumulates inside of the policy. Universal policies are also quite flexible in that the policy holder is allowed to adjust the frequency of premium payments in order to meet his or her changing needs. The death benefit of the policy can also be adjusted up or down, within certain guidelines, as well.
- Indexed Universal Life – Indexed universal policies provide death benefit protection, as well as the ability to build funds inside of the policy based upon increases in underlying market indexes. Even if the indexes perform poorly, however, the policy holder is safe based on the policy’s guaranteed minimum interest rate. Like other types of permanent coverage, the funds that are inside of the policy are allowed to grow tax deferred. For indexed universal life insurance, Voya offers the Voya Indexed Universal Life – Global Choice, and the Voya Indexed Universal Life – Guaranteed Death Benefit products.
- Variable Universal Life – Variable universal coverage provides death benefit protection and the flexibility of universal life insurance plans. Policy holders also have the ability to build funds in their policy using variable investment options from the market. Funds in these policies can also grow on a tax deferred basis. Voya offers the Voya Variable Universal Life – CV, and the Voya Variable Universal Life – DB plans in the area of variable universal life insurance.
- Survivorship Life – A survivorship policy insures the lives of two people – and the death benefit is paid out when the second person passes away. These policies are oftentimes used for estate planning strategies. They can be especially beneficial as the premium on a survivorship policy is generally less costly than that of two separate policies. Voya offers the Strategic Accumulator Survivorship Universal Life policy, as well as the Voya Survivorship Variable Universal Life-CV plan.
Financial Strength Ratings
Voya is a strong company, and it has been provided with very good ratings from the ratings agencies. These marks are as follows:
| A.M. Best | Fitch Ratings | Moody’s Investor Services | Standard & Poor’s |
| A | A- | A3 | A- |
Advantages and Disadvantages
Although not at the very top of the list, Voya is considered to be an extremely strong contender in the life insurance arena. The company has very strong ratings in terms of financial ability for paying out claims, and it offers a nice array of different products for meeting a diverse mix of client needs.
As with some of the other life insurers, however, if an applicant has any type of adverse health condition, he or she may be at an impasse in terms of how to proceed through the “traditional” application channels – especially if applying directly through the company. In this regard, it is best to instead work with an agency or company that specializes in higher risk insurance cases.
Obtaining Life Insurance Quotes
Any time you are seeking coverage, it is always best to obtain quotes from several different insurance carriers. This will allow you to review various policies, as well as premium prices, and to truly see what types of plans are available to you.
Just as with other types of important purchases, you wouldn’t typically opt for the first and only item that you see. So, with life insurance, it is important to keep in mind that this is in most cases going to be the financial security that your loved ones will be counting on to pay their living expenses, erase large debts, or eliminate substantial tax obligations. With that in mind, you will want to ensure that you are obtaining the very best coverage that you can.
When you’re ready to begin shopping for policies, our recommended partner, Root Financial, can help. They work with the top life insurance carriers in the nation today, and can get you all of the information that you need in order to make a well informed decision. They can also assist you with decisions such as:
- What type of coverage to purchase – term, whole life, or universal
- Determining how much benefit will be enough
- Finding the best carrier that will meet your protection needs, as well as your premium budget
In addition, should you have any type of adverse health condition, Root financial specializes in helping people find the carriers that are more apt to cover various applicants. So whether you are a smoker, a diabetic or just in good health, this can save you countless hours of time and frustration throughout the application process. Use the form on this page to get started with your own set of quotes.
We purchased a large term policy from ReliaStar/ voya and paid premiums for over ten years that totaled over $250,000. Last year we sent voya an amount equal to the annual premium due. Voya refuses to take the full payment and never gave us a reason why. They returned the funds and later cancelled the policy. After going back and forth with voya for months we asked them to show us the language in the policy which would allow them to reject the full payment from the insured and after they looked tiny out they acknowledged that there wasn’t any such language nd promised to correct their error. Instead they want the insured to reapply and have made that process almost impossible. Who would ever do business with voya? It is a terrible company.