Voya Investment Management to Expand Services to Insurers

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Voya Investment Management, the asset management business of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that it is expanding its efforts and investment offerings to meet the long-term investment needs of insurance companies. Specifically, Voya Investment Management (IM) will bring to insurers its proven expertise in investing in private placements, commercial real estate, structured credit, bank loans, high-yield debt, private and public equity, and several other asset classes.

As part of the firm's expansion efforts, Voya IM also announced today that John D. Simone, CFA, has joined the firm in the newly created role of head of insurance investment management sales and solutions. Simone joins Voya IM from J.P. Morgan Asset Management, where he most recently served as executive director, global insurance solutions, since January 2008. He will report to Bas NieuweWeme, head of institutional distribution for Voya IM.

"Voya Investment Management's long history of providing solutions to institutions and our commitment to reliable investing align well with the investment needs of insurance companies," said Jeffrey T. Becker, chief executive officer, Voya IM. "We have demonstrated a disciplined approach to investing through market cycles for Voya Financial's approximately $80 billion general account and our more than 200 institutional clients. We are excited to expand our presence in the insurance asset management space and bring our research-driven, disciplined investment processes to insurers as we seek to help them generate tailored outcomes supported by reliable, risk-adjusted returns in their general account portfolios."

"The challenges of the low-interest-rate environment have created an opening for us to help insurers identify opportunities for yield beyond high-grade public bonds, which have traditionally made up a significant portion of general account portfolios," said NieuweWeme. "We have highly competitive, specialty fixed-income track records as well as long-tenured investment teams with deep expertise in managing money for insurance company general accounts. We're looking forward to introducing these capabilities to even more clients."

"With significant experience working with insurance companies, John understands insurers' investment needs," added NieuweWeme. "I'm excited to have him join the team and am looking forward to working closely with him."

"This is an exciting time to be joining Voya IM," said Simone. "With the market opportunity for outsourced general account asset management estimated to be around $2 trillion, there is a clear need for the unique, solutions-based expertise that Voya IM can offer insurers. We have a deep understanding of both the asset and liability side of managing an insurance company balance sheet that makes us well-suited to provide investment opportunities for insurers and their general account portfolios. One of the things I've been most impressed with is Voya's deep bench of talent and expertise across several asset classes, and I'm pleased to be a part of the team."

In his most recent role at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Simone was a senior member of a dedicated team of professionals responsible for working with C-level insurance executives to deliver the firm's suite of investment management products. Prior to this, Simone had served as national sales manager for J.P. Morgan Asset Management's mid institutional group from April 2005 to December 2007. He also has held leadership roles at Lyra Capital LLC and Wachovia Corporation.

Simone holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation as well as Series 3, 7, 63 and 24 licenses from FINRA. He earned an MBA from Fordham University as well as a bachelor's degree in economics from Rutgers University.

Voya IM takes an active approach to its fixed-income investments, seeking to uncover unrecognized value though disciplined research. Voya IM's fixed-income capabilities have continued to perform¹ very well:  88% and 99% of fixed-income assets outperformed benchmark or peer median returns as of June 30, 2014, on a 3-year and 5-year basis, respectively.

Media Contact:
Christopher Breslin
(212) 309-8941
[email protected]  

About Voya Investment Management
A leading, active asset management firm, Voya Investment Management manages, as of June 30, 2014, more than $200 billion for affiliated and external institutions as well as individual investors. With 40 years of history in asset management, Voya Investment Management has the experience and resources to provide clients with investment solutions with an emphasis on equities, fixed income, and multi-asset strategies and solutions. For more information, visit voyainvestments.com. Follow Voya Investment Management on Twitter @VoyaInvestments.

About Voya Financial
Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), which has rebranded from ING U.S., is composed of premier retirement, investment and insurance companies serving the financial needs of approximately 13 million individual and institutional customers in the United States. The company's vision is to be America's Retirement Company^TM and its guiding principle is centered on solving the most daunting financial challenge facing Americans today — retirement readiness. Working directly with clients and through a broad group of financial intermediaries, independent producers, affiliated advisors and dedicated sales specialists, Voya provides a comprehensive portfolio of asset accumulation, asset protection and asset distribution products and services. With a dedicated workforce of approximately 7,000 employees, Voya is grounded in a clear mission to make a secure financial future possible — one person, one family, one institution at a time. For more information, visit http://voya.com or view our Voya Financial Interactive Company Profile. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook and Twitter @Voya.

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¹ "Above Benchmark" metrics are calculated on an annualized, gross-of-fees basis and include mutual funds as well as pooled and separately-managed institutional portfolios that fall within our traditional (long-only) commercial book of business that remain open as of 6/30/2014. If terminated and other non-discretionary and special purpose accounts had been included, results may have differed from that shown. Source: Voya Investment Management, Morningstar and eVestment.

SOURCE Voya Investment Management