Voya Offers SAVVI’s Short-Term Financial Planning Tool
Employees of Voya’s clients whose income has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will be able to get a personalized short-term financial action plan.
Voya Financial is collaborating with SAVVI Financial, a technology-enabled financial wellness platform, to offer a COVID Relief Planning Assistant designed to help those who have been laid off, furloughed or had their working reduced hours because of the pandemic.
Through its Retirement and Employee Benefits businesses, Voya will offer SAVVI Financial’s COVID Relief Planning Assistant to its workplace clients as an online resource for their plan participants and employees.
“The relief tool helps people make the right choice across a series of goals holistically rather than with one particular product or solution,” Andrew Frend, senior vice president of Product and Strategy for Voya’s Employee Benefits business, tells PLANSPONSOR. “It is uniquely capable of addressing the challenge of choice overload and helping people figure out the right thing to do.”
The COVID Relief Planning Assistant is a targeted experience for those financially impacted by the pandemic who need a short-term plan. If an individual has lost his income or had his income reduced, the solution provides educational resources or an action plan that adjusts his household financial plan by organizing assets, debt, expenses and existing income to create a strategy to help the individual get through the next three to six months.
To begin, individuals will be provided with a link to this online tool by their employer or retirement plan sponsor. They will then be guided through a series of six questions which will gauge how they’re feeling about their overall financial situation, collect key financial household information, determine whether their health care coverage has changed during the crisis and collect other necessary financial and employer information.
If they qualify for COVID-19 relief planning assistance, they will then receive a personalized, short-term financial action plan. It will provide specific guidance on recommended monthly spending cuts and budget changes, specific accounts (savings, health savings accounts [HSAs], retirement, etc.) to access for income shortfalls and potential savings actions to meet longer-term retirement goals. The recommended actions also take into account Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act benefits, tax consequences and long-term retirement goals. If a person does not qualify, they will then be directed to educational resources selected by SAVVI.
“This COVID Relief Planning Assistant is a valuable tool to help those financially impacted create a personalized, short-term plan to help manage through their immediate financial needs—without compromising their future financial goals,” says Rob Grubka, president, Voya Employee Benefits.