Voya reports early post-conversion activity for Oklahoma City plans; staff ask for quarter of data

Voya representatives told the Oklahoma City Deferred Compensation Board on March 3, 2025, that they have 30 days of data since the recordkeeper conversion and expect fuller quarterly statistics to give a clearer picture of participant behavior.

The Voya presenter summarized early plan balances as of Jan. 31: the 457 deferred compensation plan was about $11 million higher than at conversion, at approximately $475 million; the money purchase (open) plan was about $650,000 higher at roughly $15 million; and the money purchase (closed) plan was about $750,000 higher at about $38 million. The presenter attributed increases to a mix of investment gains and incoming contributions.

Voya reported participant distributions and movement patterns. The presenter said there were 33 full termination distributions with an average distribution of about $138,000, which produced a large aggregate dollar amount because a small number of participants had high balances. Voya said the most common outside-rollover destinations for participants taking money from the plan were Schwab, the PCRA custodian, and Vanguard. The presenter also said transfers were seen out of a fixed account and the William Blair International Fund into the Northern Trust S&P 500 and an SSGA All Country World fund, among others.

Call-center and outreach metrics were also given. Voya reported 633 calls entered with 623 accepted, an average handle time of 9 minutes, 22 seconds, and an average talk time of 8 minutes, 6 seconds; the presenter described these measures as elevated given the conversion and initial participant login assistance. Voya’s local office reported running 138 group webinars, 32 in-person group meetings and 93 one-on-one sessions (from go-live to the Jan. report period).

On communications, the presenter outlined outreach steps used during the transition: an initial announcement postcard in early October, a mid-October transition mailing, a transition website, enrollment overviews and a post-live mailing notifying participants their balances moved. Voya described ongoing personalized messaging options, an e-book, and targeted emails that can be limited so participants are not overloaded.

Board members asked for a consolidated presentation that merges the different plan schedules for easier review. A board member asked about utilization of the target retirement funds; the presenter said more than a month of data is insufficient to draw firm conclusions and recommended reviewing quarterly reports for a clearer trend. The Voya representative said she would provide March metrics (mobile app vs. web/IVR/call center) when available and agreed to share the presentation with staff for distribution.