Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. (“Voya Financial”) (CRD# 2882) has many different complaints filed by FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), state regulatory organizations, and investors such as yourself. If you’ve lost money at Voya Financial, you have legal options to recover those losses.
The firm’s pattern of regulatory violations and customer complaints suggests systemic supervisory failures that may have directly contributed to your investment losses. You can pursue claims through FINRA arbitration, even if you signed an arbitration agreement. Time is critical—regulatory filing deadlines mean you must act quickly to preserve your right to compensation.
The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce has extensive experience handling cases against Voya Financial and understands the specific types of misconduct that frequently occur at independent broker-dealers. Don’t wait to protect your rights.
Is Voya Financial Advisors in trouble?
Voya Financial is not in major trouble, but the company is facing significant challenges in 2024-2025, particularly with its stop-loss insurance business. The company reported strong results in Wealth Solutions and Investment Management for the fourth quarter and full year were offset by higher loss ratios in Health Solutions.
Voya Financial announces fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results | Voya.com The company is prepared to lose customers to get prices up to profitable levels, executives said. Voya is doubling stop-loss price increases for 2025
The primary issue centers around their Health Solutions division, specifically stop-loss insurance. The ratio of benefits payments to premium revenue soared to 115% in the fourth quarter of 2024, from 76% in the fourth quarter of 2023. Voya’s stop-loss price increases average 21%, or higher, for 2025. This has forced Voya to implement aggressive pricing increases, with average rate increases for coverage renewals in January 2025 will be twice as big as the average rate increases for January 2024 renewals were. Voya is doubling stop-loss price increases for 2025
Despite these challenges, the company remains financially viable. Full-year 2024 net income available to common shareholders of $626 million, or $6.17 per diluted share. Voya Financial announces fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results | Voya.com Additionally, Voya completed a major acquisition, purchasing OneAmerica Financial’s retirement plan business in January 2025, indicating confidence in its long-term strategy.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SOME OF THE COMPLAINTS AND REGULATORY PROBLEMS VOYA FINANCIAL HAS FACED OVER THE YEARS
Voya Financial has accumulated a concerning pattern of regulatory violations and customer complaints. The firm has approximately 42 state and self-regulatory body disclosure events on its record.
Recent regulatory actions include a $500,000 FINRA fine in January 2024 for paying transaction-based compensation to an unregistered entity. In 2020, the SEC ordered Voya to pay $22.9 million for breaching fiduciary duties to advisory clients through various conflicts of interest, including recommending more expensive mutual fund share classes and steering clients into underperforming money market funds.
The company has also faced cybersecurity issues. In 2018, Voya was fined $1 million by the SEC for deficient cybersecurity procedures after intruders gained access to 5,600 customer accounts through password resets.
Customer complaints continue to surface in 2024-2025, particularly regarding delayed payments, difficulty withdrawing retirement funds, and poor customer service. Multiple reviews describe months-long struggles to access their own money, incorrect address updates, and inconsistent responses from customer service representatives.
The pattern suggests ongoing supervisory and compliance weaknesses typical of independent broker-dealers operating with remote oversight structures. These issues, combined with the current stop-loss insurance challenges, indicate that while Voya isn’t facing imminent collapse, it continues to struggle with operational and regulatory compliance problems that affect customer experience and profitability.
Can I Sue Voya Financial?
Yes, you can sue Voya Financial if you’ve lost money due to the misconduct of the firm or its employees. However, in most cases, you likely signed away your right to pursue a lawsuit in court and instead agreed to resolve disputes through a FINRA arbitration proceeding.
How to Sue Voya Financial for Investment Losses
What Can I Do If I Lost Money at Voya Financial?
If you lost money at Voya Financial, you can pursue recovery through FINRA arbitration, which is a legal forum designed specifically for resolving investment disputes between investors and brokerage firms. FINRA arbitration is binding and enforceable, meaning that if you win, Voya Financial must pay the award.
The process begins by filing a Statement of Claim that details your losses and the misconduct that caused them. This could include unsuitable investment recommendations, failure to supervise, unauthorized trading, misrepresentation, churning, or breach of fiduciary duty. These are the exact types of violations that appear repeatedly in Voya Financial’s regulatory history, with over 42 documented state and self-regulatory body disclosure events.
Voya’s pattern of SEC sanctions—including the $22.9 million settlement for conflicts of interest and fiduciary breaches, and the $3.1 million fine for undisclosed payment arrangements—demonstrates systemic compliance failures that may have directly affected your account. The firm’s documented issues with recommending more expensive share classes, steering clients to underperforming funds, and inadequate supervision create clear grounds for investor claims.
Even if you signed an arbitration agreement when opening your account, you still have the right to pursue claims. The agreement simply means you’ll resolve the dispute through FINRA arbitration rather than in court. Many investors successfully recover losses this way because arbitration panels understand the securities industry and can evaluate whether a broker violated industry standards.
Who Can Help Me Sue Voya Financial?
The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce specializes in representing investors who have suffered losses at firms like Voya Financial. With extensive experience in FINRA arbitration and a deep understanding of independent broker-dealer supervision failures, the firm knows how to build strong cases against Voya based on the firm’s documented regulatory problems and the specific circumstances of your losses.
What is Voya Financial?
Voya Financial (CRD# 2882) is a registered broker-dealer. It operates as a full-service independent broker-dealer, providing a range of financial products and services to individual investors and financial advisors.
As a registered broker-dealer, Voya Financial is subject to regulations and oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). It is required to comply with industry standards and regulations to ensure the protection of its clients’ interests.
A failure to comply with industry standards by either its brokers or the firm itself can result in disciplinary actions, fines, or other penalties imposed by regulatory authorities.
Voya Financial In Trouble – Latest News
Voya Financial faces mounting challenges in its Health Solutions division as of 2024-2025. The company’s stop-loss insurance business has become unprofitable, with loss ratios reaching 115% in Q4 2024, up from 76% the previous year.
To address these losses, Voya has implemented aggressive rate increases averaging 21% or higher for 2025 renewals—double the increases from 2024. Executives have stated the company is willing to lose customers rather than continue operating at unprofitable price levels.
Why Does Voya Financial Have So Many Bad Reviews and Customer Complaints?
Voya Financial operates as an independent broker-dealer, which means it uses a franchise-style business model that creates inherent supervision problems. This business structure makes it difficult to properly oversee financial advisors, leading to the types of investor complaints and regulatory violations the firm repeatedly faces.
In the independent broker-dealer model, financial advisors are not employees—they’re independent contractors running their own separate businesses. The firm opens many offices nationwide to generate steady monthly revenues without paying for full-service branch offices with on-site managers, compliance officers, and operational staff. This cost-cutting approach leaves investors vulnerable because there’s no one physically present to monitor day-to-day activities.
Supervision is handled remotely through other independent contractors who manage “Offices of Supervisory Jurisdiction” (OSJs). These OSJ managers aren’t full-time supervisors dedicated to overseeing advisors—they’re also running their own brokerage, insurance, and business operations. Because they’re managing their own offices from distant locations, they cannot supervise the daily operations of the smaller branch offices they’re supposed to monitor.
This means there’s typically no immediate review when new accounts are opened, when securities are bought or sold, or when correspondence goes out to clients. No one is on-site to catch forged signatures, detect unsuitable investment recommendations, or review sales literature before it reaches investors. Many offices receive only one compliance audit visit per year, leaving months of activity unexamined.
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has documented that independent broker-dealers like Voya have more instances of sales abuse and investor losses than traditional brokerage firms with on-site supervision. The remote supervision model that makes these firms profitable is the same structure that leaves investors inadequately protected.
Examples of Regulatory Problems and Complaints for Voya Financial
Voya Financial’s rapid growth has not been without consequences. There have been approximately 42 state and self-regulatory body disclosure events; that is, final and formal proceedings initiated by a regulatory authority (e.g., a state or federal securities agency like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or self-regulatory body like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for a violation(s) of investment-related rules or regulations. In addition, there have been hundreds of customer complaints filed against Voya Financial for misconduct by its securities sales and investment advisory representatives that are not reported by the firm on its Central Depository Record.
We have reported and written about these regulatory problems and customer complaints over many years. Voya Financial is a repeat offender: there are over 42 FINRA-reported disciplinary proceedings citing the firm with one form of supervisory lapses or another.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SOME OF THE COMPLAINTS AND REGULATORY PROBLEMS VOYA FINANCIAL HAS FACED OVER THE YEARS
Voya Financial has been repeatedly censured, warned, and fined multi-millions of dollars for its own misconduct and failure to supervise its army of financial advisors.* A few of the notable FINRA Sanctions for its Supervisory Failures are below:
Voya Financial Settles with SEC for $22.9 Million Over Alleged Conflicts and Breaches
Brief Overview: Voya Financial Advisors settled with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for $22.9 million, including $13.9 million in restitution and interest to harmed customers. The settlement was reached due to alleged conflicts at Voya’s registered investment advisor arm, which led to breaches of fiduciary obligations to advisory clients. The SEC found that from January 2013 to December 2018, Voya’s investment adviser representatives made recommendations that charged costlier 12b-1 marketing fees, charged upfront commissions for expensive alternative investments, recommended underperforming cash sweep money market funds, and provided misleading comparisons to transfer funds to a bank cash sweep product. In addition to the restitution, Voya Financial will pay a $9 million civil penalty.
SEC Fines Voya Financial $3.1 Million for Undisclosed Payments from Clearing Broker
Brief Overview: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has censured and fined Voya Financial Advisors $3.1 million for failing to disclose payments from its clearing broker for selling clients funds from the broker’s no-transaction-fee (NTF) mutual fund platform. Voya agreed to fund revenue-sharing and service-fee sharing arrangements without adequately disclosing the resulting conflict of interest to its clients. The SEC also found that Voya lacked supervisory procedures to ensure proper disclosure. The penalty includes $2.7 million in disgorgement to customers and a $300,000 civil penalty. Voya terminated its service fee arrangement with the clearing firm and agreed to send copies of the agreement to all its existing advisory clients.
How to File an Official Complaint Against Voya Financial or One of Its Brokers with FINRA
File a complaint against Voya Financial through FINRA if you experienced misconduct, fraud, or negligence by one of its financial advisors. The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce has investigated Voya for years and represented investors in regulatory and arbitration actions involving breach of fiduciary duty, supervisory failures, and investment losses.
With over 42 FINRA and state-level regulatory disclosures, Voya Financial shows a clear pattern of non-compliance. Our firm can guide you through the FINRA complaint and arbitration process and help you recover your losses.
Related Read: Can You Sue Your Brokerage Firm?
How The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, P.A. Can Help You Recover Losses at Voya Financial
The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce provides comprehensive representation in FINRA arbitration proceedings against Voya Financial. The firm handles every aspect of your case, from initial complaint filing through final hearing, drawing on detailed knowledge of Voya’s specific regulatory violations and supervision failures.
Attorney Pearce understands the independent broker-dealer business model that creates the supervision gaps at firms like Voya. This expertise allows the firm to build compelling cases that connect documented regulatory problems to individual investor losses. With over 45 years of experience in securities arbitration and more than $175 million recovered for clients, the firm has the track record and resources to effectively pursue your claim.
Attorney Robert Wayne Pearce offers free consultations to evaluate your potential claim. During this consultation, he will review your account statements, discuss the losses you’ve suffered, and explain whether you have grounds for recovery based on Voya’s pattern of misconduct.
Did Voya Financial Advisor Misconduct Cause You Investment Losses?
If you believe you have a claim or complaint against Voya Financial or one of its financial advisors, you should not wait until it’s too late to file a claim. The securities industry has strict time limits for filing claims, and waiting too long could result in losing your right to recover your losses.
Consult With An Attorney Who Recovers Investment Losses Caused By Voya Financial Today
The investment loss attorneys at The Law Offices of Robert Wayne Pearce, P.A., have helped countless investors over the last 45 years recover the losses from their investment accounts that were caused by broker negligence or misconduct. The firm has extensive experience with Voya Financial cases, and Attorney Pearce is committed to seeing that those responsible for the losses you have suffered are held fully accountable.
Give us a call at 800-732-2889. Let’s discuss your case and see what we can do to help you get the compensation you need and deserve.
