Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze survey feedback representing nearly 155,000 U.S. employees.

GPTW_100BestCompaniesToWorkForByRegion_2026-New_York_Large-Voya_Financial_US1__69b3fce961790aef776b106c_7

Employees say:"I love the culture—volunteerism is really important here and I love that. I love the mindset my team has of working hard and performing quality work; but also have fun and be kind to each other, lead with compassion and understanding. Benefits are great, pay is competitive, and work life balance is real. I feel trusted and respected by my peers and leaders to use my judgment and make the right decisions for my customers. I truly enjoy working here."

Best Large Workplaces in New York

With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

AI is a major force shaping this year’s list—but it’s far from the only story.

World's Most Admired Companies

See which workplaces made this year's list.

Best Workplaces_New York_Large_2025-Voya_US1__67fd6364bb07cc513ab900de_4

Employees say:"I love the financial support from this company. This is my first employer where I feel like the company actually cares about the wellbeing of the employees with benefits like the student loan assistance, generous 401k match and pension plan. I also enjoy my department a lot and how many opportunities we get to be involved with larger projects, as well as opportunities to lead meetings to develop our leadership &amp; collaboration skills. The volunteer time is also a huge plus for me, it is nice to see the company want to give back."

Best Large Workplaces in Financial Services and Insurance

Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze survey feedback representing nearly 145,000 U.S. employees.

Employees say:"I love Voya! This is the very best company I have ever worked for, and my loyalty will always be with them. My manager is amazing and supports my dreams here at Voya. Very encouraging and positive. I run to my computer every morning and it's a blessing in itself to work here! I'm proud to say I'm a Voya employee as they put the customer and employees first. We focus on teamwork and always keep the vision in mind. The benefits are phenomenal and I'm confident they give us all the tools we need to be successful. We also have additional training websites for those who want to grow in the organization at no cost! This is unheard of!"

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

The 300 companies on this year’s list brought in over $12.6 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with the median revenue figure at $22 billion.

America's Most Innovative Companies

Employees say:"The support that this company gives women is incredible. Full access to programs like Maven truly shows how much the company cares for women and recognizes the need to provide additional support. Regardless on how difficult things might get at work, the support I have via Maven and other benefits help me to show up to work at my best. I also am a very big fan of the paid volunteer time - it is enough hours to feel that I truly can give back to my community and have a presence. It also allows me to set a great example to my children on social responsibility."

Best Large Workplaces for Parents

GPTW_Parents_Large_2024-Voya Financial_US1__20240918135500_3

Employees say:"We love to experiment with new ways of doing things. We strive for better efficiency and better experiences for both our customers and ourselves. The company recognizes that we are human and our experiences are vital to connecting with the people we partner with and service."

The companies on this annual list make a conscious effort to be supportive, inclusive workplaces.

GPTW_Women_Large_2024-Voya Financial_US1__20240830224000_3

Employees say:"They create an atmosphere where all individuals are accepted for who they are, both in their professional lives and personal lives. Being honest about who you are, being open about who you are is a beautiful way to spend eight hours daily."

100 Best Large Workplaces for Women

GPTW_Financial_Services_and_Insurance_Large_2024-Voya Financial_US1__20240712182200_3

Employees say:"I feel the Voya Cares group is what makes Voya Financial unique in our industry. We really care about people with disabilities and special needs. This team makes a point to discuss this underserved group in our society and how we can look to help individuals and families with these certain circumstances plan for a better retirement future and have their companies help make this happen."

Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze survey feedback representing nearly 140,000 U.S. employees.

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work to analyze survey feedback representing nearly 100,000 U.S. employees.

GPTW New York 2023-Voya Financial_5003453-3

Employees say: 
 
"The Voya culture is exceptional and continuously reinforced, and the company is very successful. The leadership is extremely talented and visionary—the response to the pandemic was immediate and effective, and Voya has reiterated its commitment to offering a hybrid working environment and not enforcing a full return to the office. Combining forward-thinking business sense with compassion and disability and inclusion, Voya Cares® sets the company apart and seems to resonate with prospective clients as an appealing differentiator."

GPTW Financial Services & Insurance Large 2023-Voya Financial

Employees say: 
 
"The company has a history of giving back to the community, which really brings the employees together and makes you very proud to work for Voya Financial. I love that we can pick a cause to donate to and the company will match your donation. Also, the company gives you 40 hours a year to volunteer, which shows to really want their employees to participate in giving back to their communities—and not just with money but actually helping out."

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The companies on this year's list stand out for celebrating innovation, promoting cooperation, and more.

GPTW New York Large 2022-Voya Financial

Employees say: 
 
“I think their ability to adapt is unique. I feel this is a great place to work because in the pandemic and even now while things are getting better Voya is listening to their employees preference to where they would like to work from. They might prefer all employees return to the office, but I feel valued and heard because of the work from home opportunity they are giving.” 
 
Read the Great Place to Work review .

GPTW Financial Services Industry Large 2022-Voya Financial

Employees say: 
 
“There is a healthy culture here from the bottom to the top, you can count on others to operate within an inclusive, diverse culture and trust comes easier. I appreciate the opportunities to grow in my career and be my true self at work.”

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

These companies foster supportive cultures, where employees find opportunities for growth with help from their colleagues.

Best Large Workplaces New York 2021-Voya-Financial

Employees say: 
 
“Everyone here works hard and is always willing to go the extra mile for fellow employees and customers. Additionally, everyone is nice and enjoyable to work with, even when facing difficult challenges.”

The best workplaces in financial services and insurance acted as generous corporate citizens amid a year of multiple crises.

Best-Workplaces-Financial-Services-Large-2021-Voya-Financial

Employees say:  
“They've provided me with the means to have a career, care for my family, feel a sense of accomplishment, and so much more. From day one, I've been accepted fully and considered for promotions and advancement based on my skillset and work ethic.”

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

The American financial, retirement, investment, and insurance company is based in New York City and serves more than 14 million customers.

For an astounding 13th straight year, Apple claims the top spot in Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation, based on a survey of almost 3,800 executives, directors, and analysts.

The 40 companies highlighted on this year's list support personal growth, outside-the-box thinking, and diversity in the workplace.

best workplaces new york 2020-Voya Financial

Employees say: 
 
"This job has allowed me to balance family life with work. Due to this job, I am allowed to still play a very active role in my children's life. I can be present during the first day of school or be part of school activities."

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-353-Voya-Financial

The financial services company offers retirement savings plans, investment management, and life and employee benefit insurance to corporations and individuals.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2018 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Best Workplaces For Women

Industry Vertical

Founded

# Work Sites

Best Workplaces For Parents

Sites

Sector

Culture rank

Process rank

Product rank

Years on list

Previous rank

Best Workplaces In Financial Services And Insurance

Industry

Current All-Star Rank

Previous All-Star Rank

Industry Rank

Previous Industry Rank

Overall Score

Innovation

People Management

Use of Corporate Assets

Social Responsibility

Quality of Management

Financial Soundness

Long-Term Investment Value

Quality of Products/Services

Global Competitiveness

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Earnings Per Share (last Fiscal Year)

Earnings Per Share ($)

EPS % Change (from prior fiscal year)

EPS % Change (5 year annual rate)

EPS % Change (10 year annual rate)

Total Return

Total Return to Investors (last year)

Total Return to Investors (5 year, annualized)

Total Return to Investors (10 year, annualized)

Best Workplaces In New York

Getting workers ready for retirement is the focus of Voya Financial, which provides workplace benefits and savings solutions and technologies in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: wealth solutions, health solutions, and investment management. Voya serves some 39,000 U.S. employers and over 7 million individual retirement plan participants and has approximately 450 financial professionals serving retail and workplace clients. The company was formerly known as ING U.S. and changed its name to Voya Financial in April 2014. Voya Financial was founded in 1975.

Q2 2026

Q1 2026

Q4 2025

Q3 2025

Q2 2025

Q1 2025

Q4 2024

Voya Financial (VOYA): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

Voya Financial

voya financial

Good morning. Welcome to Voya Financial's Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Meeni Chew, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning and thank you for joining us this morning at Voya Financial's Second Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, material for today's call are available on our website at investors.voya.com. We will begin with prepared remarks by Heather Lavalli, our Chief Executive Officer and Mike Katz, our Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will take your questions. I'm also joined on this call by the Heads of our businesses, specifically Jay Kadison, CEO of Workplace Solutions and Matt Thoms, CEO of Investment Management.

Turning to our earnings presentation materials that are available on our website, Slide two will have some comments during today's discussion that may contain forward looking statements and refer to certain non GAAP financial measures within the meaning of federal securities law. GAAP reconciliations are available in our press release and financial supplement found on our Investor Relations website. And now, I will turn the call over to Heather.

Thank you, Meany. Good morning and thank you for joining us today.

Let's turn to Slide four. In the first half of the year, our business model has proven its strength driven by disciplined execution and our commitment to helping customers navigate a dynamic macro environment. Our retirement and investment management businesses are delivering attractive returns, reinforcing the value of our integrated approach to serving our clients. And in Employee Benefits, we continue to make progress on margin improvement, moving toward the levels of performance that historically defined this business. We are operating from a position of strength with solid capital and liquidity positions that give us the flexibility to invest in growth while maintaining a healthy balance sheet.

This foundation enables us to deliver long term value, positioning Voya not just for today's environment, but for the growth opportunities ahead. Turning to Slide five for highlights from the quarter. Before commenting on our results, I want to share an important update in how we describe our workplace businesses. We're returning to our prior segment names with retirement and employee benefits, replacing wealth solutions and health solutions respectively. These industry aligned names better reflect the services and solutions Voya provides today.

Moving to our results, we're encouraged by another solid quarter performance across our businesses with strong contributions from each of our core segments. In the second quarter, we achieved a major milestone, surpassing $1,000,000,000,000 in total assets across our retirement and investment management businesses, and we're now approaching nearly 10,000,000 participant accounts in retirement alone. This accomplishment reflects the trust we have earned from our customers and the value proposition our integrated model provides. In retirement, we delivered another strong quarter, generating approximately $12,000,000,000 in total defined contribution net flows. Year to date, we have increased overall assets by more than 100,000,000,000 including $40,000,000,000 in organic flows and $60,000,000,000 in assets onboarded from One America.

Investment Management generated approximately $2,000,000,000 in net flows in the second quarter, continuing a trend of positive organic growth. We continue to see momentum across both institutional and retail channels. In particular, strong demand for our public and private fixed income solutions reinforces our leadership in insurance asset management. Our strong investment performance, platform breadth and diversified client base continue to differentiate Voya Investment Management. Beyond these strong financial results, we continue to advance our strategy this quarter by driving greater value for our customers.

We partnered with Blue Owl Capital to meet rising demand for private market access, leveraging complementary capabilities across our investment management and retirement businesses. This expands our retirement offering and helps plan sponsors and participants pursue stronger outcomes through broader investment choice. The OneAmerica integration remains on track. We're delivering on our full year target of $75,000,000 in operating earnings, while deepening relationships with new customers. In addition, we have announced a new selling agreement with Edward Jones.

This partnership opens the door to future growth through one of the country's largest advisor networks. It reinforced the strategic value of the OneAmerica acquisition and our ability to meet the needs of our plan sponsors. In employee benefits, we're making steady progress with in sourcing lead management. Our expanded lead capabilities help to solve an increasingly complex issue for employers. This enhancement, combined with the breadth of our benefit offerings, strengthens our competitive position in delivering bundled solutions for employers.

In Stop Loss, we saw another quarter of positive claims development and we remain focused on improving margins. We are encouraged by our performance in the quarter. We will continue to focus on executing on our near term priorities and are optimistic about our growth opportunities ahead. With that, I'll turn it over to Mike to walk through the financials in more detail. Mike?

Thank you, Heather. Let's turn to our financial results on slide seven. We generated adjusted operating earnings per share of $2.46 in the second quarter, a 13% increase over the prior year. This result reflects the progress we are making on our near term strategic priorities, including improving margins and stop loss, strong commercial momentum and integrating One America. Net income was impacted by investment losses and severance expenses.

However, cash generation is still ahead of plan. We incurred $18,000,000 of severance expenses in the quarter. These actions are an outcome of the reallocation of resources to our strategy. As we look to the second half of this year, we will balance ensuring we are achieving our financial targets while accelerating future profitable growth. We added approximately $200,000,000 of excess capital in the quarter and have generated approximately $400,000,000 year to date.

With that, let me turn to our segment results. Turning to Retirement on Slide eight. Second quarter was highlighted by continued commercial momentum, driving further organic growth and higher earnings. We continue to make progress integrating One America, which has us approaching nearly 10,000,000 participant accounts across Retirement. Retirement generated $235,000,000 of adjusted operating earnings in the quarter and over $860,000,000 in the last twelve months.

This represents an increase of 1019%, respectively, over the prior year. Higher net revenues were driven by growth in fee based margins as our platform continues to attract new flows and gain scale. Spread based revenues also remained resilient in the quarter due to improved portfolio yields and higher participant fund transfers into the general account. We generated approximately $12,000,000,000 of total defined contribution net inflows in the second quarter, bringing our total year to date net flows to over $40,000,000,000 The strong commercial result includes positive full service net flows before One America and strong success in the large market, including a large record keeping win in the quarter. Looking ahead, we expect outflows in the third quarter driven by a large planned surrender and record keeping.

Having said that, we are on pace for one of our strongest years, growing our total defined contribution assets by more than $100,000,000,000 in the 2025, while maintaining strong margins. Turning to Investment Management on slide nine. The second quarter demonstrated strong organic growth and favorable financial performance. Adjusted operating earnings were $51,000,000 for the quarter and $214,000,000 over the last twelve months. This represents an increase of two percent and fifteen percent, respectively, over the prior year.

Our diversified platform, scale and breadth of product offerings continue to drive organic growth at strong margins. We generated second quarter net inflows of approximately $2,000,000,000 contributing to year to date net flows of nearly $10,000,000,000 Our institutional business generates strong and steady demand for our suite of public and private fixed income solutions. These solutions continue to strengthen our leadership position, including key strategic focus areas such as insurance asset management. Our retail net flows contributed nearly half the net inflows in the quarter and approximately one third year to date. We are encouraged by the momentum across both domestic and international retail channels.

These results are an outcome of the experienced leadership team delivering strong investment outcomes for our clients. Turning to Employee Benefits on slide 10. We continue to improve margins in Employee Benefits. Adjusted operating earnings for this segment were $69,000,000 in the quarter, up 15% over the prior year quarter. We have lowered our expected loss ratio for the January 2024 cohort by 200 basis points to 91%.

This was driven by claims experience in the second quarter. This cohort is now over 95% complete and will be nearing completion in the third quarter. For our more recently priced January 2025 stop loss cohort, we continue to hold reserves at an 87% loss ratio, no change from the first quarter. As a reminder, it is early in the development of this cohort. Experience will be more credible later this year.

In group life and voluntary, favorable claims experience in the second quarter led to improved loss ratios. As we look forward, continued discipline in underwriting and risk selection remains our top priority. We continue to embed industry data and medical trends into our pricing, while delivering a market leading portfolio of benefit solutions for our customers. Turning to slide 11. Our balance sheet is well positioned and was strengthened by the approximately $200,000,000 of excess capital we generated in the quarter.

We returned over $40,000,000 of capital to shareholders via common stock dividends and enter the third quarter with approximately $300,000,000 of excess capital. Turning to Slide 12. We've now generated approximately $400,000,000 of capital year to date above our 90% target. The first half positions us well to achieve our plan to generate over $700,000,000 of excess capital for the full year. In the third quarter, we will resume share repurchases targeting $200,000,000 in the 2025 as planned.

Looking forward, we are focused on executing our near term priorities, generating consistent strong free cash flows and executing on our balanced approach to capital deployment, which maximizes shareholder value over the long term. I'll now turn it back to Heather.

Thanks, Mike. Turning to Slide 13. This quarter, we made meaningful progress on our priorities, delivering strong first half results across our businesses. Our priorities for the remainder of the year are unchanged, driving strong organic growth in retirement and investment management, successfully integrating OneAmerica to drive higher earnings and meaningfully improving margins in employee benefits. As we look ahead, we're executing with purpose, helping our customers achieve their goals while generating strong cash flow across our businesses.

I want to thank our team for their continued focus and hard work. And with that, we'll turn the call over to the operator so we can take your questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Our first question is from Elyse Greenspan with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.

Hi, thanks. Good morning. I guess my first question is on just the Stop Loss business. I was hoping to just get some more color on just what led you to bring down the '24 block again this quarter. Just how '25 is looking?

And then is the expectation still that you guys would expect to get back to target loss ratios on that business in 2026?

Good morning, Elyse. Michael Starton, take your question.

So first, I'll just start by saying stop loss continues to be a high priority for Heather, myself, Jay, the entire management team. We continue to be laser focused on the prudent actions we've been taking across reserves, pricing, risk selection, underwriting. You asked first about the January 2024 business. We did reduce the IBNR in the quarter, the reserve levels from 93% to 91% as a targeted loss ratio. And that's just simply based on the claims experience that came in the quarter.

So as we come out of the quarter, we believe 91% is the appropriate amount. You also asked about January 2025. What I would say on that it's very, very early in the development of that cohort. We would estimate that it's approximately 15% complete. And so as we step back and we think about reserve levels going forward, it is a very uncertain backdrop in the healthcare industry.

And so as we approach the reserving, we're going to continue to take a prudent approach as we see that play out for the balance of this year. What we like about this business is it's annually renewable, which allows us to take decisive actions around rates risk selection. And the way that we're approaching the pricing is to get back to target loss ratios. And the last question you had, Elyse, do you still continue to expect it to be a two step process? That is our goal.

We're coming out and trying to price every piece of business such that we get back to target margins. But again, we have this very cautious mindset heading into the fall. And I would just finish by saying the entire mindset of the entire team is that we're going to prioritize margin over growth.

Thanks. And then my second question, I guess, is on capital. I know you reaffirmed the buyback view for the second half of year. But then for '26, I think there's like $160,000,000 that could be due to One America. Not sure it sounds like you guys are on track with that deal.

So I guess expectations would be that that's paid out next year. Is that going to impact, I guess, six capital return? Or should we think of 'twenty six being more in line with historical levels than 2025 in terms of share repurchase?

Yes. Hi, Elyse. Yes. No, it makes sense. It makes sense.

And look, we're going to we believe it's prudent to stay on plan for repurchases. We talked about $200,000,000 in the second half. The capital we generate in the second quarter, the capital we generated in the first half puts us in a good position to do just that. And then as you alluded to, we exit 2025 well positioned with sufficient capital to address One America and the earn out that's expected in the middle of next year. Now I would say just as a quick aside, One America fully on track.

We hit that in the prepared remarks. And as it relates to just next year, more to come on how we think about the deployment of capital. We come into it in a position with a balance sheet that's healthy, a balance sheet that's strong and businesses that continue to generate a lot of capital. And I would just finish by saying, 2025 is a good example of balanced capital deployment. When we think about what we deployed and what we're executing both from an organic and inorganic perspective, but then also finishing the year with the share repurchases that we signaled on the call.

Yes. And Elyse, it's Heather. If I can maybe just build a few points on Mike's comments. I'll reiterate, we're going to continue to take a balanced approach to capital as we think about 2026.

But we also expect to continue to drive higher cash flow generation heading into 2026. A couple of things that I would point you to think about where would what are the attractive investment options for us heading into 2026. I'll point to three things. First is continued investments in wealth management. We have some modest investments that are baked into our '25 targets around growing our field and fund based advisors and building digital capabilities.

We think that this is a really attractive growth area for us given the growth and success we've had in the workplace business. We like the high margin, growth opportunities within wealth and are well positioned to build on the base. Second, I would point to is retirement roll ups. We're going to be opportunistic around this. You certainly can't predict inorganic, but we think that the One America certainly has been a terrific addition to growing our retirement business and very attractive for shareholders.

And the third area that I would point to is investing in automation across the organization. We're certainly going to take advantage of AI capabilities and to drive efficiencies that create sleeves of spend that allows us to reinvest in higher growth areas. So just want to reiterate the fact that we continue to see some really nice catalysts for growth heading into 2026.

Our next question is from John Barnidge with Piper Sandler. Please proceed.

Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question, can you maybe talk about the Blue Owl partnership and opportunity, what it means for retirement? Do you anticipate maybe some co branding of products as options? Thank you.

Yes. Thanks, John. We'll do a combination of Jay and Matt will add some comments.

Thanks, John, for the question. We're really excited about the BlueOwl partnership. When we think about what Matt and I and the I'm team were able to develop through this partnership, it really is a lot of mutuality of interest and we're on our front foot here. This partnership, John is going to let us expand the access to private investments as you heard Heather open with. With that said, we are paying attention to the regulatory environment and any developments that may impact our business.

Specifically today, we're currently developing CITs that will soon be on the shelf. It's going to start with our advisor managed accounts and it's going to be embedded in our target date funds. So the BlueOwl partnership, it really does better position us to meet what I would say is an expanding need of our customers and plan sponsors. But Matt, anything you'd build on?

No, I completely agree, Jay. We look forward to building products together for retirement plan participants. This will include within target date products where the combination of Voya's areas of expertise paired very nicely with BlueOwl's broader and complementary private strategies. Our focus will be on risk adjusted returns as well as attractive returns net of fees. That's critical for the outcomes for retirement plan participants.

We think that will be a benefit to the entire space and open up the retirement landscape in a very beneficial manner for active managers. We also look forward to opportunities within the insurance channel, where the breadth of our complementary capabilities and structuring capabilities really provide a differentiated value prop for our clients. So in sum, it's the early feedback from our clients is quite positive, and we look forward to building the partnership.

My follow-up question would be on the distribution partnership with Edward Jones. Will those products and the full product suite be available through that?

Yes. Thanks, John. So I'll just start. And this was one of the other attractive aspects of One America, right? Not only did we see an opportunity to grow the revenues by $200,000,000 the earnings by $75,000,000 but we also talked about the attractive capabilities and the Edward Jones partnership being one of them. But I'll turn it to Jay to elaborate.

Great, John. Thanks for the question. If you think about One America today, right, it accounts for about 10% of the retirement business and the contribution today is pretty consistent with that. And one of the big advantages that we saw with that acquisition was the partnership programs with certain key advisor firms like Edward Jones. We were successful in the second quarter in executing a selling agreement.

And we like this relationship. We think it's going to help us drive more full service sales. The partnership programs, should think about them helping us expand our distribution footprint. And they really are going to be a key driver of growth for the retirement business. In the second quarter, I spent a lot of time with our intermediaries and plan sponsors that came to Voya through the One America transaction.

And we continue to receive very positive feedback on Voya's products, our services, but more importantly, our people. As part of that transaction, we acquired some great people relationship managers. And so the consistency and retention of those relationships, as you see in our numbers, are starting to show themselves. So again, we'll come back as more of these distribution relationships get executed.

Our next question is from Tom Gallagher with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.

Good morning. Just wanted to ask a few questions on medical stop loss. Now I know it's early in the 2025 accident year, but there were essentially two components as I think about to improve the outcomes this year and into next year. One was re underwriting the book and risk selection. And the second was just getting enough rate, broadly speaking, on the medical loss cost trend.

So I guess my question is, what do you what's the broader kind of macro development you're seeing so far? Because I assume you don't have enough seasoning on your own book, but you probably do have some inputs on medical loss cost trend more broadly, and that's probably informing your pick and why you left it at eighty seven percent. So you're still seeing that same level of elevation in loss cost trend where you reinsure? That's question number one. And number two, how is the risk selection gone so far based on and maybe that's early, but I just want to get a sense for does it look like you got it right in terms of the non renewed business versus that which you retained? Thanks.

Thanks, Tom. We'll let Mike take your question.

Yes, Tom, look, first I'd say, it is still uncertain out there. Think to what you're trying to drive at is, how do we see ultimately what we price for materializing in the results. And when you're pricing, you're always taking a forward looking approach. And maybe the one thing I would say that continues to give us the posture of making sure that we want to see this play out is that we expect first dollar medical inflation to increase in 2026 relative to 2025.

We continue to feel good about what we did heading into January 2025. You hit the two pieces where we were very prudent around the rate with that we went after. We were very prudent around underwriting and risk selection, but it's just too early. I think we'll have a better sense of where 2025 ultimately lands later this year. You should think fourth quarter is kind of the first key moment where we're going to be approximately two thirds, maybe 70% complete.

So we'll have a much better sense. But there's a lot of noise, as you know, Tom, in the healthcare arena. And I think right now, it's just too early to signal anything different than what we have up.

Got you. And Mike, anything on the risk selection? Because I think there that was more unique to Voya, not so much of a broader market issue. Do you feel like the initial indications on the changes in the business you lost is playing out as thought or any color or light you could shed on that?

Yes. And Tom, you're alluding to the point that we made around known claims being a piece of what drove the unfavorable experience last year. And just for those not close to this, that's where you ultimately would see a claim from a prior year, maybe younger cancer, where the opportunity for that to continue into the next calendar year is higher. That was absolutely a focus with the underwriting teams going into the year. But there's still, when you think about cell and gene therapy drugs, when you think about younger cancer still being kind of an area of higher frequency, we continue to feel that eighty seven percent is the appropriate level for January 2025.

Yes. And Tom, if I can add, it's Heather. I think the punch line on stop loss is we're making meaningful progress, but we're not taking our eye off the ball. As you think about what's going on in the broader landscape, some of the things we're paying attention to this is more going into the oneone hundred twenty six pricing season is just what's going on with first dollar expenses, what we're seeing in trend on high dollar drugs, as well as paying attention to provider billing and just seeing if that has any impact on oneonetwenty six pricing. And what I would reinforce that Mike talked about earlier is that going into the oneonetwenty six pricing season, we are assuming that medical trend is going be higher than we had assumed it a year prior.

And so that's why Jay, Mike, our entire teams, we're continuing to focus in on the discipline of margin improvement over any type of premium growth and really the alignment between our underwriting pricing and sales teams.

Our next question is from Ryan Krueger with KBW. Please proceed.

Thanks. Good morning. I had two questions on the voluntary benefits business. First is on the loss ratio. It improved to 47% in the quarter.

Are you still expecting more around 50% in the back half of the year at this point?

Good morning, Ryan. Yes, I think that's the base case, at least for the third quarter. We as you alluded to, we did have favorable claims experience in the quarter. We talked about last quarter that we're adding additional reserves to the tune of 150 to 200 basis points per quarter in advance of the fourth quarter where we see seasonality for voluntary. So we're obviously happy with the favorable claims experience in the second quarter, but no change to outlook in the third quarter, and then we'll have a better sense where this ultimately lands at the end of the year.

Thanks. And then related to this, could you give a little bit more color on what's driving the decline in voluntary premiums? See you previously had a pretty strong many year profit growth initiatives. So I just want to out better understand why not happy now.

Ryan, can you repeat the question? You broke up a bit there.

Apologies. I was just asking about why the voluntary premiums are declining this year compared to the strong growth you had had over a number of prior years?

Yes. We'll let Jay take your question. Thanks for clarifying.

Thanks, Ryan. If you think about 2024, Ryan, sales finished really strong. It was due to a number of few jumbo cases. And you should think about top line is actually trending really well for the full year 2025. In addition to that, our ability now to bundle in source leave solutions sets us up well for oneonetwenty six.

That was always a desire in that leave investment is our ability to bundle leave. If you think about, know, with leave today and other voluntary products, when you think about group and voluntary itself, 50% of those cases are now getting bundled with leave. And so as you think about the overall voluntary business that leave solution will help us get access to more RFPs. This has been a deliberate strategy to drive member engagement as you think about this with our members and customer retentions for the long term. So we're balancing Ryan, this kind of driving consumer value with the cost of servicing claims, particularly as utilization increases.

But we are a market leader. We're a top three provider for voluntary with 10% market share. And maybe just in closing, we've taken deliberate steps to align the product performance with customer value and market expectations, specifically a couple of areas we've upgraded in force blocks, We've enhanced the benefits and we've improved the admin experiences to actually ensure that the members are using what they buy. When customers see early value, they stay longer. As groups stay longer with three plus years, we see participation rates double. So it's going to be a solid 25.

Our next question is from Wilma Burgess with Raymond James. Please proceed.

Hey, good morning. Some of the other alternative asset managers have cited that the four zero one ks landscape is going to change dramatically in the near term. Could you go into a little bit more detail on how your offering with BlueOwl works for the customer and the types of products you hope to develop in the future? And additionally, would you expand your with other Alt managers? Thanks.

Yes. Thanks, Wilma. We'll let Matt elaborate. But really, we think this is something that everything we do is really intended to drive participant outcomes and breadth of offerings. And so we think this is just yet another example of how we can give access to private markets to our participants who just historically have not had it.

But let me let Matt get into a little bit more of the technical.

Yes. Thanks, Wilma. There is a regulatory component to this that you see, obviously, in the newspaper every day. So ultimately, plan sponsors have to make choices about what they offer. Our announcement of Blue Owl is that we're going to work with Blue Owl, who is a highly regarded partner, to build solutions that we think importantly provide strong risk adjusted returns for plan participants as well as strong and attractive returns net of fees.

Voya Financial (VOYA) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Company Participants