From Voya Financial

BIO

David Durfee (left) is a regional vice president, client relations manager with Voya Financial. He and his integrated support team are accountable for the oversight and satisfaction of retirement plan relationships in Voya’s emerging market segment. He has worked 30-plus years in the retirement industry—including more than 22 with Voya Financial—in a variety of roles. He holds a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist designation and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance and economics and a Master of Business Administration from the University of South Florida. David maintains Financial Industry Regulatory Authority series 6, 63 and 26 registrations.

Patricia Keesling (right) is a senior plan manager with Voya Financial. In that role, she is responsible for ensuring her customers’ plans run smoothly. She is her client plans’ primary contact and works closely with the plan sponsor and the plan’s financial advisers. Keesling has more than 30 years of financial services experience. She is FINRA Series 6 registered as well as certified as an Accredited Retirement Plan Specialist.

NOMINATOR COMMENTS

A health service company said: “As soon as we mentioned to David Durfee that we are not only merging with another health care provider, but, also, we are changing human resource information systems, simultaneously, he started thinking of everything that would need to be done. This was a large undertaking and required weekly meetings to gather all the information needed to make this happen by our deadline. The merging-in company had a 403(b) that had to be merged in to our 401(k) plans. This was time-consuming and required many meetings and information gathering sessions with David, our organization, the other organization, our adviser, as well as attorneys. David made himself available to help with all aspects of that, giving suggestions and feedback along the way. The merging-in organization offered loans, but we do not so there were many additional meetings on how that would be handled before they could have their balances moved to Voya. We are not completely through the process, but we are extremely confident that, with David’s expertise, he will continue to lead us in the right direction through the final steps, making sure everything is handled properly.

“Besides always being pleasant and professional, Patricia Keesling goes above and beyond with us many times throughout the year. She speaks with our auditors to get them the information they need and stays on top of things for me. She has also been a huge help with the merger we are going through. The merging-in organization offers loans, while we do not, and it continues to need education to determine how to handle contributions, going forward. Patricia has had many direct conversations to help educate [those employees] on maneuvering the Voya website, until we’re able to be automated as one organization. She also has helped coordinate getting the correct people involved to work on the file feeds so the integration will be ready when the HRIS implementation is in place to go live. Patricia is a pleasure to work with.”

David and Patricia are registered representatives of Voya Financial Partners, LLC (member SIPC).