Voya expands nonqualified deferred compensation offering with new ‘Business-ready’ solution for smaller-sized businesses

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today the launch of “Business-ready” — the latest addition to the firm’s comprehensive lineup of nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) solutions. As a differentiated market offering, Business-ready provides a more simplified NQDC offering designed specifically for smaller-size employers as an added solution for their executive benefits package.

“At Voya, we continue to see a growing interest in our executive benefit solutions — so much so that in 2023 we saw a 117% increase in total plans sold in Voya’s NQDC offerings over the prior year¹,” said Kirk Penland, senior vice president, Nonqualified Markets. “At the same time, we also know there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to building an executive’s total rewards package. As smaller employers have unique needs, our new Business-ready offering provides those employers with an opportunity to offer a successful NQDC offering, without the complexities of a tailored solution that many larger companies seek today.”

Business-ready is available to any size 409A (for-profit) company but has been designed specifically for smaller-size employers, including those with less than 400 employees. The new solution brings forward the expertise and experience of Voya’s Non-Qualified Markets team, while providing many of the core benefits of a more customized solution, including several differentiating features. These include:

• A pre-built investment lineup: Offering 21 unique asset categories, including equities, fixed income (i.e. short-/intermediate-term bonds, high yield, global) and alternatives (such as real estate) managed by Voya Investment Management. With access to more funds and fund manager support — including access to different target-dates series — participants are offered diversification without an overwhelming number of options.
• Easy implementation and administration: Providing more-streamlined plan design choices and funding options. This includes mutual funds and corporate-owned life insurance, as well as faster implementation and ongoing plan management tailored to employers on the smaller end of the market.
• Less complexity: With a focus on providing easier plan management for both employers and their participants, Business-ready offers the core attributes that make a NQDC plan effective for participants without the complexities of a larger custom plan, including flexible contribution and distribution schedules.

As the holistic wellness needs of Americans continue to evolve, innovative compensation benefits are becoming an increasingly important way for employers to attract and reward leadership talent within an organization. As a result, more employers are looking to include NQDC, or executive benefit solutions, into their overall benefit offering; according to industry data, a majority (89%) of employers today offer NQDC plans to stay competitive with their benefits packages.²