*Before you start reading the review of Voya Financial, there is something important to take note of. Voya Financial was previously known as ING. A lot of people don’t realize the company changed names, which can lead to a lot of confusion. You can check out our previously published ING Life Insurance Review as well!*
If you’re looking to the future, you should include life insurance in those plans. Our finances are an important part of our lives.
Not only should you be concerned with your money, but you should think about your family’s as well. You should protect your family’s finances as much as possible. One of the only ways you can do that is through an insurance policy.
History of Voya Financial
If you specifically look at Voya, you can read the whole history in two minutes, but that’s not the whole story. In April of 2014, ING officially changed their name to Voya Financial (the name is taken from the word “voyage”).
To get a clearer picture of the company and where they started, you have to go back to ING’s roots, which started in 1991.
ING was created as a combination of the companies, Nationale-Nederlanden and NMB Postbank Group. If you want to go all the way back to the very beginning of these companies which eventually led to ING, you have to search back to 1845.
ING was created in the Netherlands after restrictions on mergers between banks and insurers was overturned. The two companies combined to make Internationale Nederlanden Groep, which quickly was shortened to ING.
While they have only been branded as Voya for a few years, they have already made a splash in the insurance market. They were given the award of one of the “World’s Most Ethical Companies” by Ethisphere Institute. They are also one of the top-tier providers of both life insurance and brokerage networks in the United States.
Insurer Ratings and BBB Grade
When you’re sifting through the sea of life insurance companies, it can be like trying to pick a needle out of a haystack in the dark. How do you know which companies are trustworthy? Everyone claims they are the best provider, but which ones actually are?
You don’t have to go digging through all of their financial records to figure it out. There are specific organizations which review factors to given consumers an idea of the security and stability of these carriers.
For Voya, they have good grades from all of these companies. A.M. Best has given them an A rating. Fitch rewarded them with an A- grade, and they have the same from Standard & Poor’s.
Life Insurance Products Sold by Voya
Now that you know their background and where they started, we can look at some of their insurance products. It’s important you understand all the options from Voya.
One thing you’ll notice if you head over to their website is they don’t sell term insurance. Term life insurance is the most popular form of coverage. It’s the cheapest and it’s the easiest to understand.
Voya offers a term insurance plan, but it’s only for businesses looking to cover their employers. If you want an individual term policy, you better look somewhere other than Voya.
While they don’t sell term, they do sell every other kind of plan. Here are some of the types of insurance they sell:
- Universal Life
- Indexed Universal Life
- Variable Universal Life
- Survivorship Life
If you are new to life insurance, you might have no clue what any of those plans are. Don’t worry, we are going to explore each of these options.
Universal Life
Universal life insurance is whole life insurance. You don’t need to worry about deciding how long you should buy insurance. Once you’ve been accepted, you have coverage until you hit the max age.
Just like with every other kind of permanent plan, universal policies build cash value. The money grows taxed deferred.
What’s so unique about universal life insurance is the flexibility of the plan. Policyholders can determine how often they pay premiums and how much the death benefit of the plan is. The longer you have your policy, the more your needs are going to change. Your plan should be able to change with your life.
Voya sells two universal plans – Voya Universal Life – CV and Voya Universal Life CY NY.
Indexed Universal Life
IUL gives you the same benefits of the universal plans we detailed above, except they have more potential for growth. The cash value inside of the policy is tied to market indexed. The better the index performs, the more growth inside of your policy.
For anyone who is looking to make some little extra investments, these IUL could be the go-to choice.
IUL plans have a minimum interest rate, which you’re guaranteed to get, but there is a chance it could go much higher.
If you want to buy an IUL plan through Voya, you have a couple of options, Voya Indexed Universal Life-Global Choice, Voya Indexed Universal Life-Global Choice NY, Voya Indexed Universal Life – Protector, and Voya Indexed Universal Life – Accumulator.
Variable Universal Life
Variable universal life insurance plans gives you the flexibility of being able to change your premiums and death benefit, and the ability to grow the cash value through investments. Unlike indexed policies, the investments are restrictedly tied to indexed market performance.
You still get returns which grow tax-deferred, but you’ll have more options than you do with the indexed version.
Voya sells two variable universal plans: Voya Variable Universal Life – CV and Voya Variable Universal -Life DB.
Survivorship
Survivorship insurance is very different from a traditional plan because it actually covers TWO people, not one. The plan doesn’t pay out until the second person named on the policy passes away.
These policies are popular with older married applicants who are estate planning. They want to leave behind enough money to their loved ones to pay off taxes and fund a burial. Because these policies technically cover two people, they are going to be more affordable.
If you want a survivorship policy, you can buy the Voya Survivorship Variable Universal Life –CV.
Other Products and Services
Life insurance isn’t the only thing Voya does. In fact, they have a lot of other insurance and financial products.
Because we are focused on life insurance, we aren’t going to explore all of their other products, but you should at least be aware of them. Having all of your insurance and financial tools in one place can be helpful.
In addition to the life insurance, Voya also has a handful of IRA options. They have IRAs for people who want to manage their own policies or for people who would rather an expert manage the finances.
Voya also has workplace retirement plans, college saving plans, and a variety of financial tools and information.
Final Verdict of Voya
There are so many factors which go into reviewing an insurance carrier. You have to get a full view of the whole company.
Because every person and family has different insurance needs, we can’t say if they are the best for you, but we can give some preferred applicants for Voya.
One niche they have carved out for themselves is the applicant with a family history of cancer seeking life insurance. Voya doesn’t ask about any family history of cancer, which is extremely rare compared to the other companies out there.
Another type of person who should consider Voya is any applicant who has high blood pressure. Even applicants who have higher blood pressure can still get their lowest premiums.
If you’re overweight, Voya can be a great choice. Their build chart is much more lenient than other carriers out there. They have a higher range of weight for each height range. Their weight chart could save you money every month.
How to Get the Best Life Insurance Quotes from Voya
Hopefully, this review of Voya has given you enough info to make an informed decision about your life insurance. After reading this, you may have decided Voya is not the best option for you.
If so, we highly suggest giving us a call. We can walk you through the decision process and point you in the right direction. Not only can we answer questions, but we can run your info to create tailored quotes from all of the carriers who we’ve partnered with.
Voya is only one of the fish in the massive sea of insurance carriers. Each one has crafted various products and use different price scales. The worst mistakes you can make is to buy a plan from a company you don’t know without shopping around.
We can do all of the research for you. Think of us as your pocket expert for life insurance protection.
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