Voya

I am not eligible to contribute to Roth this year, and face a substantial penalty. I called in to withdraw the funds for medical hardship a week ago, and have received no emails or messages in my Voya app to provide the documents that were needed. I was told on the phone you would send me the forms that I needed to fill out to withdraw my funds. I haven’t heard a dang thing since. This is horrible service on my account, what is going on with you guys? If I could withdraw all my money and use someone else I definitely would, but I’m trapped here with you, just wishing and hoping you will follow through on your commitments. I would have to have to escalate this to a better business bureau or attorney general complaint just to make you do your jobs.

The app is fine and that’s the only things going for it. Voya as an investment company is awful. Here’s why, per a rep If I took a loan on my 457 (max being 50k) I have to setup a repayment plan. That’s fine, however I can’t pay back anything else unless I do a full payment, with a cashiers check. So if I had like 500$ I could use to pay my loan, nope, sorry we’re still making money off the interest. So let’s talk about investment options. Do you get a wide variety of choices? Kinda, if you’re happy with them playing around with your money, taking a cut off the top and giving you a few dollars for your troubles. Can you invest in some individual stocks? Nope. Make your own portfolio? Nope. How about a self directed account? Sure they offer that but there’s a catch. You can only do a percentage of YOUR money to open a TD ameritrade account. Sure you can do whatever in it but you can’t take money out of it and you have to liquidate it so the money goes back to voya and you can use it for retirement. There exists right now a wide range of other brokerages and their apps that are light years better than Voya. Go educate yourself about your money and investing. It’s a new age and Voya is in the past. Canceling my business with them as soon as I can.

Pro’s: Easy set up Biometric login Intuitive User Interface Allows for input to give retirement health overview Simple display Reminder of goals Accurate rate of return calculation Con’s: Inaccurate plan contribution limit- allow users to adjust Does not display split of contributions and deposits Display of rate of return is hard to understand Overall an excellent app. Easy to use, interface uses standard menus & icons for apps. It is not a replacement for a professional retirement planner or professional level planning seminar, but is a nice tool for you to input other pension and savings figures to provide a snapshot of where you are in relation to your retirement goals. It updates each day the market is open between 10 PM and 11 PM eastern time. So many people don’t understand risk, and the projected rate of return for the planning section is really nice, it gives a simple display of risk that changes as you slide from a low return to a higher return. Of course I want 8% a year, but it gives an easy to understand display of the risk. I am mildly frustrated with the incorrect contribution limit in the planning or set up section. It only allows for a 15% maximum which it states is “your plan maximum contribution limit.” This is about 10 years out of date or more. It would be a simple change to allow the user to enter contributions. I am using the catchup provisions and contributing $26,000. It would be nice to include that.