As Voya Investment Management continues to build momentum, we remain grounded in a simple principle: keep clients at the center of every decision— how we invest, how we build solutions, and how we measure success.
Dear clients,
Across our business, the signals we’re seeing remain remarkably consistent: The industry is consolidating, partner lists are tightening, and expectations for what defines a trusted relationship continue to rise. Each year brings new dynamics, but the direction of travel is clear.
In institutional markets, decision cycles remain rigorous, and clients increasingly value managers who can deliver clean implementation, reporting, and reliability as portfolios evolve. In the highly competitive insurance landscape, differentiation increasingly comes from pairing proprietary balance sheet management with third-party client capital and sustaining high-touch client engagement.
In intermediary channels, platforms are reassessing shelf space as client portfolios evolve through the use of a growing toolkit, including mutual funds, ETFs, SMAs, and model portfolios. And in defined contribution (DC), plan sponsors are scrutinizing how retirement income, managed accounts, and private assets fit within fiduciary guardrails designed to protect participants at scale.
All of this is unfolding as clients navigate a complex economic backdrop. The U.S. economy has been remarkably resilient, yet concentration in a few key areas has raised questions about the cycle’s durability. Geopolitical events are creating new sources of instability. Inflation has cooled despite the weight of U.S. tariffs, though the path forward is increasingly uncertain. And, while labor is stabilizing, new questions have emerged about the future of work as AI agents become more capable.
In this environment, clients are looking for more from their investment managers. They want true partners who understand their needs, who stay accountable, and who design solutions focused on outcomes.
This is the lens we bring to our work. For us, keeping clients at the center of our business is a core operating principle that defines every aspect of our business. We believe our results in 2025 reflect that discipline, demonstrating how our strategy is translating into tangible momentum in a competitive marketplace.
Rising to the moment
In 2025, Voya Investment Management (Voya IM) delivered record results, with clients entrusting us with nearly $15 billion in net inflows, contributing to 4.8% organic growth in an industry where growth is scarce. Favorable markets and positive flows drove assets under management (AUM) to an all-time high of $360 billion, reflecting broad-based momentum across our businesses.1
We continued to build on a position of strength in the insurance channel as a top-10 manager of third-party general account assets in North America.2 Institutional gross sales were the highest in our history,1 reinforcing our view that clients value specialized capabilities, delivered consistently. In the U.S. intermediary channel, fixed income, specialty equity, and multi-asset strategies contributed to positive flows as we continued to modernize how we meet client demand.
Internationally, clients demonstrated strong demand for thematic investments focused on AI innovators and cybersecurity, as well as outcome-oriented solutions such as those provided through our Income & Growth capabilities. Our strategic partnership with Allianz Global Investors serves as a force multiplier, expanding our ability to provide access to complementary strategies, deeper market expertise, and long-term resources to clients around the world.
We see this commercial momentum as evidence that our disciplined execution, experienced teams, and client-aligned solutions continue to resonate. Building on this, we advanced key initiatives to meet evolving client needs.
We launched three actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs), providing clients access to our active capabilities in vehicles that offer daily liquidity, transparency, and operational simplicity without sacrificing investment discipline.
We sharpened and scaled our asset-based finance (ABF) capabilities. This is a market we’ve been underwriting for over 30 years, long before it started getting attention. We believe ABF is a multi-sector private fixed income opportunity set where relative value and disciplined risk selection matter, and where experience across public and private securitized markets creates an advantage.
We continued to see traction in public/private blend solutions. Our Enhanced Long Duration Government/Credit strategy achieved a seven-year track record, providing an effective hedging solution for corporate pension plan sponsors as they de-risk. This builds upon our heritage of merging public and private assets in comingled portfolios to achieve superior outcomes, an industry theme we believe will continue to gain prominence.
In defined contribution, we launched MyCompass Blend, our first co-manufactured target date solution developed in partnership with Great Gray. The strategy pairs Voya’s multi-manager target date capabilities with our stable value expertise to provide plan participants with enhanced protection against market volatility as they approach retirement.
Just as important, we strengthened the foundation that supports consistent execution. We completed a major operating platform migration and continued enhancing our data infrastructure and governance. For clients, this reduces onboarding friction, improves reporting consistency, and increases our ability to support complex mandates while minimizing execution risk.
As AI transforms industries, how should private lenders think about risk?Our takeFew industries have been upended by AI automation as much as software developers. That’s a problem for certain private lenders: Below investment grade software loans are often labeled “senior secured,” yet recoveries tend to be low in stress scenarios, as these companies tend to have few tangible assets. Lenders who relaxed underwriting standards to win deals in the boom period now face the prospect of more write-downs, potentially leading to a widening dispersion of manager returns in the coming years. What it means for clientsRather than pulling back from private credit, consider focusing new allocations on investment grade loans with strict underwriting standards and on areas of below investment grade lending that can both diversify software risk and provide tangible collateral. Our approachWhile peers reconsider concentrations in vulnerable sectors, our portfolios remain anchored in primarily investment grade businesses with stable demand, tangible assets, and more predictable recovery outcomes. In an AI‑driven era defined by rapid change, Voya’s consistent underwriting discipline—not a reactive pivot—is what positions us to deliver consistent results for clients. |
The road ahead
Building on our momentum will require sustained execution of our strategic plan. That plan aligns with the three growth pillars shared across Voya Financial: build on our core strengths, expand into high-growth areas adjacent to our expertise, and deepen connections across the enterprise to deliver more value to clients.
Here’s what that means for Voya IM:
We will continue to deepen our insurance solutions capabilities in areas where balance sheet alignment, liability-aware portfolio construction, and disciplined structuring create meaningful competitive advantage. Drawing on more than four decades of managing regulated balance sheets across multiple credit cycles, stress environments, and regulatory regimes, we approach credit and risk with the same operating discipline applied to our proprietary balance sheet. Grounded in that heritage, we deliver a broad and expanding suite of customized solutions across public and private markets, including energy and infrastructure credit, investment grade private placements, ABF, and commercial mortgage lending.
We will selectively expand our privates and alternatives capabilities with strategies that target a higher risk/return profile. As private credit becomes pervasive among institutional clients, the differentiator has changed: It’s now about who can source consistently, underwrite through cycles, structure investments with strong protections, and help clients integrate them into portfolios.
In particular, we are seeing increased appetite for secondaries and liquidity solutions as private markets mature and clients seek more efficient ways to implement and rebalance exposures. We are also broadening access to innovative private structures. Rated note feeders (RNFs) have become a preferred way for insurance companies to gain private markets exposure. By “unstapling” RNFs, we can simultaneously offer institutions a more return-oriented vehicle and create rated tranches that best meet insurance company needs.
For the defined contribution market, we are developing private markets solutions delivered through collective investment trusts (CITs), providing a repeatable structure that can evolve with industry practices. Our multi-manager model approaches this work thoughtfully, grounded in governance, plan design realities, and participant outcomes.
We see meaningful opportunities to grow through our alignment with Voya’s recordkeeping business, where retirement solutions and investment capabilities are offered as an integrated proposition. The right products and implementation—whether in target date portfolios, retirement income solutions, or other outcome-oriented building blocks—have the ability to deliver differentiated outcomes for clients by harnessing the expertise across all of Voya.
We will continue to optimize our U.S. intermediary platform for growth. In 2025, we successfully transformed our intermediary distribution organization, providing a structure to better engage with key partners and Voya’s affiliated wealth management business.
Finally, we remain committed to attracting and developing the highest-caliber professionals, ensuring our team exemplifies the spirit of collaboration needed to deliver exceptional client service.
Should private assets be part of DC portfolios?Our takeYes, as long as it comes with the right governance, structure, and participant education. For most participants, including alternatives as self-directed investment options isn’t practical, and the risks of complexity and poor implementation are real. We believe private assets belong in DC plans only when integrated into a broader solution that offers disciplined manager selection, professional management, appropriate liquidity design, and a clear focus on participant outcomes net of fees. What it means for clientsThe debate isn’t “alts or no alts.” It’s whether the structure improves diversification and retirement outcomes without introducing avoidable risks. Our approachVoya has a decade-long track record of successfully including private assets in custom target date suites, leveraging our deep understanding of the needs of both DC plan sponsors and participants. We are expanding how alternatives are offered in DC plans through private markets multi-manager solutions, using vehicles natively suited to retirement plans. |
Moving forward, together
We believe we have the right strategy and the right talent to sustain our momentum and deliver on our mission. Our conviction doesn’t come from a forecast. It comes from how we operate: from disciplined underwriting and thoughtful portfolio design; from clarity about where we compete and where we do not; and from continued investment in people, platforms, and partnerships that strengthen execution over time.
But most of all, our conviction comes from keeping our clients at the center of our business: Your needs set the agenda. Your constraints shape the solutions. Your trust defines our responsibility.
We are grateful for your partnership, and we look forward to continuing to earn that trust in the years ahead.
Matt Toms, CFA
Chief Executive Officer,
Voya Investment Management
A note about risk: The principal risks are generally those attributable to investing in stocks, bonds, and related derivative instruments. Holdings are subject to market, issuer, and other risks, and their values may fluctuate. Market risk is the risk that securities or other instruments may decline in value due to factors affecting the securities markets or particular industries. Issuer risk is the risk that the value of a security or instrument may decline for reasons specific to the issuer, such as changes in its financial condition.