Voya Financial Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Strong Q2 results with over $12 billion in defined contribution net flows, $2 billion in investment management net flows, and surpassing $1 trillion in retirement and IM assets.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Medical stop-loss margins improved as the January 2024 loss ratio was lowered to 91% and 2025 reserves remain at an 87% targeted ratio, though outcome uncertainty persists.
  • Positive Sentiment: Generated $200 million of excess capital in Q2 and $400 million year-to-date, resuming $200 million in share repurchases next quarter and targeting over $700 million for the full year.
  • Positive Sentiment: Partnered with Blue Owl Capital to offer private market access in retirement plans, enhancing plan sponsor and participant investment choices.
  • Positive Sentiment: OneAmerica integration is on track to deliver $75 million in operating earnings, bolstered by a new selling agreement with Edward Jones to expand distribution.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Voya Financial Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 9 speakers on the call.

Operator

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.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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?

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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%.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Operator

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

Speaker 3

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?

Speaker 3

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

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 3

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.

Speaker 3

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?

Speaker 2

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

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Operator

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

Speaker 4

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.

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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? Yes.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 4

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?

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

But I'll turn it to Jay to elaborate.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Operator

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

Speaker 5

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.

Speaker 5

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?

Speaker 5

Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Tom. We'll let Mike take

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 5

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?

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Operator

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

Speaker 6

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.

Speaker 6

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

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 6

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.

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 6

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?

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

So it's going to be a solid 25.

Speaker 6

Thank you.

Operator

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

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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.

Speaker 1

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

Speaker 2

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.

Speaker 2

So now those concepts are a little different than what you hear in the retirement space today, which is lowest fee, passive, avoid regulatory or legal uncertainty. So this conversation will happen through the industry over the coming quarters and years. I wouldn't anticipate this to be incredibly fast. But as you see that standing up products such as target dates that could include a broader array of active and private solutions makes a lot of sense, will provide better outcomes for clients. And our complementary capabilities within Voya Investment Management and BlueOwl, I think is a fantastic platform to build from.

Speaker 2

To your second question, will there naturally in a platform the size of ours, you're going to have an array of providers, but we look forward to working specifically with Luau to deliver products and design products, co create products we're excited about.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you. And then how are you thinking about the fees and the economic split on these types of products, given the sensitivity you just mentioned to a few levels in 04/2001? Thanks.

Speaker 2

So ultimately, it's much like any active management. The way I'd frame it is active management needs to provide a value proposition beyond the fees that are embedded. So still much to be determined. Think of CIT as being the cornerstone and the vehicle of choice within the retirement landscape because of its lower fee access points. So that fee component, the expense component, we'll work closely on.

Speaker 2

These products aren't in launch yet, but we're working towards that. And I would tell you the entire industry will be looking at making sure that you have these long term investments oriented towards a net of fee return that's attractive. So stay tuned, but really no different than the active investment management more broadly.

Operator

Our next question is from Suneet Kamath with Jefferies. Please proceed.

Speaker 7

Thanks. I want to go back to stop loss for a second and I appreciate the color that you gave. Just on the medical cost trend, I guess I just want to clarify, is what you're seeing in terms of the cost trends year to date consistent with what you assumed in your January 2025 pricing, meaning step one? Because it seems to me that a lot of health insurers are seeing an escalation in severity and frequency, which perhaps they did not anticipate, which is surprising investors. So I just wanted to get a sense of how things are playing out versus what you built into pricing.

Speaker 1

Yes, Suneet. We'll let Mike take your

Speaker 2

question. Morning, Suneet. I'm very consistent with what I was sharing with Tom earlier. We continue to approach 2025 with that uncertain and kind of cautious view, given everything that's happening with the healthcare industry. As it relates to what we price for, what we underwrote, we came into the year feeling good about that.

Speaker 2

As I mentioned earlier, we're still only 15%, one-five percent through. So it's I think it's way too early for us to get much deeper into like how we see claims ultimately playing out for the year. But I would say in the same breath that we put up 87% that's our best estimate right now. And as we get deeper in the year, we'll continue to update you with respect to how this plays out. As Heather mentioned just a moment ago, I shared earlier, we continue to think as we move into the fall that First Dollar Medical moves up.

Speaker 2

We are working with advisors, we are partnering with everyone that we can to make sure we have the best thinking around that, whether it's cell and gene or what might happen with cancer in younger ages and making sure we have the best thinking around that. But again, this is something that we'll continue to update you in the fall. And as I said earlier, we'll have a better sense ultimately where this 2025 block is heading in late third quarter, fourth quarter.

Speaker 7

Okay. Thanks for that. Sorry for the repeat question. And then I guess on retirement, can you just talk a little bit about what you're seeing at the plan participant level in terms of withdrawals? Maybe an update, I think on prior calls, you've talked about strategies to retain more assets at retirement point of retirement.

Speaker 7

So just an update there would be helpful as well.

Speaker 1

Yes, thanks. We'll let Jay take your question. We have seen some improvement and we've also, as we've talked about on prior calls, been working on some product development to be able to retain more of those assets. But Jay?

Speaker 2

Yes, great. Appreciate the question. If you think about retention, we feel really good about where we're retaining, whether it be in the One America at the 90% level that we talked about, full service plan retention remained really strong this quarter at 97%. That's in line with expectations. And the results that we see are really demonstrating the clear execution we've had towards the strategic priorities around commercial momentum in One America.

Speaker 2

It was a solid first half of the year. You heard Heather reference $100,000,000,000 of positive flows with $40,000,000,000 being purely organic. Much of that was in the large end of the market in record keeping. The results in record keeping, they are purposeful and it's selective growth we see it as an attractive market. That's also, if you think about this very complementary to our other businesses, including wealth management, where we continue to expand our advisor base and capabilities to serve the customers to and through retirement.

Speaker 2

So we feel really good around where our strategy is around retention. Our pipeline right now remains really healthy. We've got 25% more assets year over year in the final stages in the key segments. It really does underscore our value proposition. So whether it be where we are in current flows, our retention or our pipeline, it's a really strong business right now in '25.

Speaker 7

Sorry, anything on the participant behavior that was kind of the root of my question as opposed to plan behavior? Thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes, thanks. I'll take that question. I think what you're referring to is in prior years where we saw heightened participants surrenders with a higher interest rate environment, we have seen that begin to normalize a bit in 2025. So given some of the market volatility in the second quarter, we did see more transfers from variable into fixed. So that has been a favorable trend.

Speaker 1

But in addition to some of that participant behavior, we are also seeing greater uptick in some of our targeted funds that include the general account and other products. So we see this as a combination around what's going on with the participant behavior as well as making sure we've got a competitive sleeve of products to be able to help us to moderate some of the outflows we had seen in the general account. Hopefully that answers

Operator

Our next question is from Wes Carmichael with Autonomous Research. Please proceed.

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning. Thanks for the question. In employee benefits, you'd previously flagged, I think, 50,000,000 of strategic spend for 2025. Just wondering how much progress has made has been made on the $50,000,000 And should we expect, I guess, within the income statement, those expense lines to be a little bit more pronounced in the back half of this year?

Speaker 1

Thanks, Wes. Michael, taking your question on expenses and Jay can just talk about just what we're seeing on some of the commercial momentum around lead.

Speaker 2

Hey, good morning, Wes. We continue to expect that approximately $50,000,000 of investments aimed at the lead capability that we're building. And I would think about that as more back half than first half, not tremendously, but modestly higher in the second half. I would also flag as you're thinking about just overall expenses, second quarter to third quarter, I think relatively flat for retirement I'm again modestly up in EB. The other piece to keep in mind for EB is just open enrollment.

Speaker 2

So on track for what we're trying to accomplish there on leave and maybe I'll pass it to Jay to give a bit more of an update on how that's going. Great. Appreciate the question. If you think about the leave administration right now, it's definitely the most important capability in the market. That's leading to growth really among carriers.

Speaker 2

It's increasingly becoming a more complex market. The insourcing of the lead is going to help us drive our bundled solutions around group and voluntary. And that is always an intention. We knew the marketplace was going there. And we decided that the in source solution was our best way to create a positive customer experience.

Speaker 2

The early response right now from the market and from our intermediaries has been very, very positive. We are on plan to deliver the technology and the operating model to support a oneonetwenty six launch, and we've already sold a number of cases for oneonetwenty Like I referenced, the intermediaries, one of the reasons we see this as a positive development with them is they're already placing us on their panels for sales, and that's a key trigger force. So to underscore the importance of LEAF, I referenced it earlier, over 50% of the life and disability RFPs are being bundled with LEAF today. So we're really confident that the LEAF disability and sub health capabilities that we're developing right now for employers are going to help them manage their benefits and for employees to access support when they need it. Maybe the last part of this is, bringing this integrated claims platform remains a top priority for employee benefits business and we'll continue to come back to you with progress, but we're on plan for oneonetwenty six.

Speaker 2

Great. Thank you.

Speaker 1

And my follow-up, Heather, I

Speaker 2

think in response to one of the questions on capital uses, you mentioned additional retirement roll ups. Could you maybe just give us a little bit of color on the landscape in terms of how many opportunities are out there and what kind of multiples those businesses are demanding?

Speaker 1

Yes. No, it's a good question. A bit early and always hard to be so specific on inorganic. What I would just say is we do see that consolidation continues to take place within the retirement industry. I think we're viewed as a good acquirer in terms of how we're going to take good care of those employees and the plan sponsors.

Speaker 1

So I think it is a constructive environment, but this is one that's a little bit more of stay tuned. We're going to be opportunistic. We have a high bar for capital deployment just given where our share price is trading today. So stay tuned. We are going to be disciplined on any inorganic moves that we would make and make sure it is something that is a highly attractive and accretive investment for us.

Operator

Our next question is from Alex Scott with Barclays. Please proceed.

Speaker 8

Hi, I wanted to ask on investment management, just the progress with the Allianz partnership on like the AGI distribution and what kind of impact is that having? Is that fully in place at this point or is it still building? Any color there would be helpful.

Speaker 1

Yes. Thanks, Ellis. I'll start and toss it to Matt. I mean, we're three years in on our partnership with AGI, continues to be one that is very mutually beneficial for both organizations as well as for the clients. And it's really that economic alignment that we have between them.

Speaker 1

But let me toss it to Matt to provide more details.

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks, Alex. The fundamentals, of course, as Heather mentioned, are really driven around delivering world class investment solutions for clients. We call out the income and growth franchise or thematic equity, fundamental equity franchises. We've seen growth in the private placement component.

Speaker 2

That's somewhere where we have a strong value prop from the investment team as well as distribution, insurance globally. We've referenced growth in the fixed income component. We continue to see green shoots for selling our fixed income components globally. That's somewhere where we have very strong performance numbers and a strong franchise as well. We are seeing growth there.

Speaker 2

And we'd anticipate we continue to see growth as we move into 2025, 2026. Bottom line, the relationship continues to be very strong and look forward to continue to build upon it.

Speaker 8

Helpful. Thanks. Could be in retirement, just with the average AUM levels and so forth, looking like they'll potentially be a lot stronger headed into the back half of the year. How would you think about the additional flexibility that, that provides you from a top line standpoint? And to what degree would you maybe use that flexibility to invest in the business as opposed to letting it hit the bottom line through margin?

Speaker 1

Yes, maybe I'll start. As we think about our priorities for 2025, we've been really clear on what we're trying to accomplish. And so I would just kind of come back to our priorities around executing on the margin improvement and employee benefits, continuing to drive the commercial momentum across retirement and investment management and the successful integration of One America. So as we think about that's our top priority is to continue to execute, drive the cash generation. It maybe ties back to a little bit of what Mike talked about in terms of the severances.

Speaker 1

We are going to continue to be good stewards of how we think about expenses, how we look for opportunities to drive efficiency that catalyst for us to be able to invest in the business. So there isn't anything specific that I would point to. I think the final bit that I would mention is what has already been in the targets that I talked about on prior calls is the modest investments we're making in wealth management this year, which sits inside that retirement business. And we think that's a great opportunity for us to continue to grow value across that franchise.

Operator

Our next question is from Josh Shanker with Bank of America. Please proceed.

Speaker 4

Yes, thank you. Just looking at the sales figures and the medical stop loss, obviously, it's a rebuilding stage. Was we thinking about 2026, what sort of partnership do your buyers look at you as having with them? And do you expect to be a more competitive player in the market with a real value add to your buyers' needs?

Speaker 1

Yes, Josh. Let start and then I'll toss it to Jay. So I'll reaffirm on stop loss, the priority is not about capturing market share in this business. Really the partnership goes back to you think about the fifty year track record we have in the business. We've got very strong distribution partners.

Speaker 1

But our priority remains clear and it is about that margin over premium growth. But Jay, please add.

Speaker 2

Yes, sure. Josh, I appreciate the question. Listen, Matt, this prioritization of margin over growth has been a kind of a cultural transformation for the team. And I really like what I'm seeing right now from the alignment between pricing, underwriting, risk and distribution. We have the ability to renew this business annually.

Speaker 2

And so we're constantly looking at our relationships in the marketplace, our intermediaries. There are new intermediaries that are joining this marketplace. You're seeing more and more companies on the smaller end of the market thinking about with the rising cost of health insurance, self insuring, this marketplace will expand. And as it does, we're going to remain disciplined on our pricing and our improved risk selection. This has been a driver for us to return to profitability.

Speaker 2

When we look at the pricing discipline that I'm seeing in the market right now and the competitive pressures, I'm seeing a natural alignment with our competitors going to the center more around risk capacity, thinking about what each of our competitors capacity is. And we're seeing some of that movement in our results, which we see as positive. Again, prioritizing margin over growth is going to be our strategy and the team is focused on that.

Speaker 4

And just one other question, when you think about medical stop loss business in the sort of health solutions area, it's very different from the other things that you're offering. You talk to different places within organization when you're selling it and it's a different kind of product. How does the Stop Loss business fit within the goals of the health solutions? Is this a business that Voya needs to do the other things that it wants to do in health solutions?

Speaker 2

I appreciate the question. I think where the alignment happens, the way we look at this is it really is around risk transfer. It's another risk transfer product for us. And so the way we think about this and the way we price and underwrite this is really based on fifty years of experience in pricing and underwriting in this market. The data is evolving, as Mike referenced earlier, and we are on top of some of the latest data with our advisors.

Speaker 2

But the linkage between this and our intermediaries and brokers see this very much as a risk transfer business. And so that's going to be our focus. Sitting inside the employee benefits business, this is another benefit that does happen to employers to help protect them as they're self insuring. And so we very much see this as complementary to the rest of our business. Now with that said, there's volatility in this business that we're managing.

Speaker 2

And we have separate soft loss teams that are on top of this business, both from pricing and an underwriting and a distribution. And we very much look at this business while complementary. We're disciplined about managing it with the volatility that it brings.

Operator

Our next question is from Mike Ward with UBS. Please proceed.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Good morning. I just had a question for Matt Thoms and curious about the outlook for flows for the remainder of the year in Investment Management. And then if you could help us think about the fee rates and if they were if your revenues were pressured by the strange equity market diversion in the quarter, if you could help us think about sort of a run rate?

Speaker 2

Yes. Thanks, Mike, for the question. Very happy with flows on the quarter, 1,800,000,000.0 on the quarter in what was a volatile market, think, a difficult operating environment. The key there is the breadth of these flows. And that's both year to date, if we think about the $9,500,000,000 flows year to date, that's a 3.1% organic growth number for the first half.

Speaker 2

And I'd say that the breadth of flows that we look into the second half is what makes us confident. So across channels still insurance and international are standouts for us. Everything by investment platform, private fixed income, our multi asset components and incoming growth continue to show strength. So, in the first half as well in the second half, that balance and that breadth of flows, we think is a differentiator for us.

Speaker 1

As far as so I'd

Speaker 2

say the components are similar to the second half. As we had as far as growth rate, we see no reason to pivot away from that 2% -plus longer term organic growth rate target. That's where we landed in the second quarter. And we think the second half is likely to be similar down that path. As far as fee rate, roughly unchanged quarter over quarter at 27 basis points.

Speaker 2

We think that's something we've been very successful in holding flat versus an industry headwind. But you're right, the equity market drawdown in the quarter does provide a little bit of noise, but I view that as nothing other than noise. And it sets us up quite well heading into the third quarter.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Matt. And then maybe for Heather or Jay. Appreciate the restoring of the segment names. And I guess it seems like now strategically, and I think you've alluded to this, but you could actually set up an actual wealth advisory business, maybe a segment at some point. Is that how we should be thinking about that?

Speaker 4

And could you size at all the contribution to earnings from that platform? Or is it still earlier innings?

Speaker 1

Yes, I'll take your question. So when you think about it, we have a wealth management business that sits inside of retirement today and we have for a number of years, we are calling out the capability. This has been a very important capability within our tax exempt business. Jay came in bringing in a lot of wealth management expertise. So I wouldn't necessarily think about this as a separate segment.

Speaker 1

But like others in the space, we see this as an important growth lever inside retirement when you think about our ability to provide more holistic advice and planning to our clients.

Operator

Thank you. We have reached the end of our question and answer session. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and thank you for your participation.

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