Thread regarding Bank of New York Mellon Corp. layoffs

@7mcx

Voya is quite incompetent. Waiting for a distribution is like watching grass grow. Every single withdrawal was an adventure. From 59 1/2 on I began to to pull out all every year to rollover IRAs. .

Whenever leaving an employer, or closing my Keogh plan after closing my own company), I had always rolled over my 401k to my brokerage/Funds company. It’s a pain, but it’s best to address it as you leave so it’s done. So many people lose track of their savings, 401 ID/passwords, address etc.

I was a bit taken aback to see that rollovers are now mostly all paper based again. I vastly prefer paperless. We’ve had ACH between our Mutual Funds/Brokerage and our bank for about 50 years. And actually have the option to bank there as

So I was a bit leery. VOYA wants to send your check by U.S. mail, no tracking. In our case well over half of our net worth. So I asked their offshore call center if they had tracking. No, no tracking. OK are there any other shipment services? “sir can you have a UPS”. He-l yes! Does it start with a number like “1Z”?. Yes, he-l yes I’ll take that. Thank you!

So I started small with about a quarter of the balance as a test. It worked, was trackable, and I was able to endorse it to deposit it to existing Mutual fund & Brokerage provider. I was so excited to have these funds rescued out of Voya that I did it again. By the year end I had moved out all but a token $10K. Layoffs were rampant in the last 10 years so I was making catch up contritions, getting the match and moving it all out at least once a year.
When I retired I drained it right after match and closed it.

@7gpz, I think you're the one with the comprehension issue. BNYM did NOT buy ING or Voya.

@7wzw

Reading comprehension can be your best friend or your worse enemy. Please allow it to be your friend.

https://www.ing.com/Newsroom/News/Features/Features-old/ING-U.S.-to-rebrand-as-Voya-Financial.htm

BNYM bought ING and Voya??? I don't think so...

BNYM owned Dreyfus through acquiring Mellon. It was an excellent outfit. ING, a competitor, was fined for stealing their own customers’ funds. ING changed their name to VOYA and then BONY, ever the bad bank, immediately was attracted to it and bought them. There is no way that this was in employees best interest. We may never know the back story but it certainly fits the BONY culture.

@7vdz, wait until you try getting your money out of Voya. I'm STILL waiting for the proceeds from my distribution that was taking out of my Voya account last Wednesday.

In addition to all the previous complaints, I just found out that the only target date funds available at Voya are the LifePath ones from Blackrock. 1 Yr Performance was only 8%...my Fidelity one made 12% previous year...what a joke

@3oyg

Why, they’re treating you just like a retiree!

I left with my required six week notice for my grade so that I would remain bonus eligible. I picked up lots of weekend work… why not, I Ike my coworkers. I followed all of the good leaver policies.

Guess what… no bonus. I was stunned. Don’t be a fool when you leave.

@1qld

The difference is that your cool high tech company has an actual business model and certainly an excellent set of products.

BNYM has no business model, no growth strategy and no hope. I hope that everyone reads this thread and learns that it is worth a job hunt.

@3oyg, only if you were axed in the first 3 quarters.

It seems that all of you forgot that this is a layoff “page”. Well, for those of us who were laid off last year, guess what? None of us received our corporate match, nor will we. Why, you ask? Well the company has a policy that if you are made redundant in the prior year they don’t need to pay your 401k match. So for thousands of us let go last year we get nothing. That is unless you were someone like MW in NYC who worked a deal to be released late in the year and retain 100% of your bonus and match on account of giving up other employees early to pay for your bonuses. Yes, that is correct. There were MDs who were toxic and allowed to work deals on their way out to preserve their wealth at the cost of laying off others who were good, hard-working, honest people.

Right, @3qdj. I guess we didn't hear it over the chants for a higher minimum wage so there was less money to reward based and merit and so offshoring our operations jobs would accelerate.

Have you heard about the additional shares we are being granted for 2023 performance? Me neither…….well only 2 more years until we are all owners!

I can't say I disagree with most of what has been said here. But what bothers me most of all with regards to the newly delayed 401k match, is that they presented it to us as a kind of "enhancement" that they can use to give us additional / better benefits. Furthermore, they actually said this change was a result employee feedback on their Peakon Surveys. I don't recall suggesting they take away our dollar-cost-averaging monthly match.... Do you? I also don't recall asking to have 100% of my HSA beginning of year seed money discontinued. As Howard Cosell would say, "Let's just tell it like it is." It saves the company money. It's cheaper for them. More money in their pockets, less in yours. That is the truth.

@2ehz

“switch your contributions to the bond fund and rebalance throughout the year”

Thank you…. It warms my heart to see sound financial advice from what I assume to be a coworker. I’ve never read anything so thoughtful on this board…. I’ve never once seen a thoughtful suggestion this good here. Great Job!

“all the cool companies are doing it” said nobody ever.

With so much truthful things to point out there is no reason to manufacture (or “manafactor”, as our POTUS says with his last brain cell).

Let’s get back to the real 401K issues.

@2awj

Why would you want the match so that you can buy high? Buying high means less shares. The real issue is that Management buys once per year. This is the weirdest 401K ever.

The whole point of regular matching purchases is dollar cost averaging…. Buying monthly in the same amount, receiving more shares when the price is low and less when the shares are low.

Senior Management is at war with your personal savings. I’m not going so far to say that this is illegal but it very well could be. Class action suit seems to be appropriate

As they’re stealing our 401(k) earnings, they are busy posting on LinkedIn about some ugly artwork ( certainly overpriced. I’m sure ) on the 15th floor in New York.

@2awj, switch your contributions to the bond fund and rebalance throughout the year.

give us the match so we buy high with the current market.
they already made large profit with our match in this market through out the year, basically cost them nothing now

Made it cheaper for them to fire people ahead of year end. And next year they did the same with vacation days people will not be paid for accrued time but will owe for any days used if terminated.

BofA gives their employees 100 RSUs and 401k and yearly bonus.

BNYM is not known as an employer of choice in our industry.

To the person whose RSU are worth 300k USD - why are you here on this board?

Basically your presence here just proves that your assertion is bull .. May be you are richer but why are you visiting a layoff discussion forum and following it on topics like how they handle their 401k.

The explanation “all the cool companies are doing it” is absolute rubbish.

The “cool” companies such as the cool tech company I am part of mainly does RSUs on top of all the currently existing benefits including 401k. Also last time I checked my RSUs were not a few hundred dollar gift like BNYM gives out, but instead the new tech company gave me $150K usd of RSUs that are now worth $300K usd.

As much as I think it's unethical and shortsighted to delay our match, it isn't ours until our employee says it is so there is no legal standing for a suit.

@lmf

Yes! It should be illegal for management to have the use of Employee funds for their own interest but it would take a class action lawsuit to make that case.

Unlike a class action for layoffs, a class action suit for conversion of employee assets for the Bank’s use would have merit. The damages are the loss of value that they suffered because their employer availed themselves of these funds.

The 401K has morphed from a wealth building tool for employees into a way for the Bank to siphon off our contributions to a perpetual interest free loan. As with many BONY machinations they’re stealing your dollar cost averaging.

I would leave immediately after you receive your match. Then roll it over into a rollover IRA, or better yet…. If you can swing the taxes, right into a Roth IRA. I did that very thing and left four years ago, for far less reasons and far less cuts.

Ask yourself what keeps you here, make a list and think it through. Run it by a trusted friend who is good with affairs management. You need to be interviewing bin January.

And the explanation that “all the cool companies are doing it” doesn’t fly either. But they made dang sure to move up the date of bonus payments didn’t they? That equates to maybe a mortgage payment for us, vs. a whole new vacation home for them.

401k this year is going to be buying high. Would have been nice to leverage dollar cost averaging over 23. I can look the other way on a lot of things, but this one is reprehensible.