Good morning. Welcome to the 2019 Voya Financial Annual Meeting of Stockholders, 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Thursday, May 23, 2019. I now call the meeting to order. I'm Rod Martin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Voya Financial. On behalf of our directors, officers, and employees, I thank you for attending our sixth annual meeting. Following the official items of business, I will provide a brief presentation and then take any questions. Now, I will ask Jean Wang, our Corporate Secretary, to begin the formal business of the meeting. Jean?
Thanks, Rod. Good morning, everyone. We're happy to have with us members of our board of directors. We also have in attendance members of our executive committee and representatives from our auditor, Ernst & Young. Also attending is Tracy Oates, the Inspector of Elections. Ms. Oates has filed with me her oaths as Inspector and has provided me with her duly executed certificate of quorum. With that, we will now begin the official business for this annual meeting. As indicated in our proxy statement and a supplement, we're here today to consider the following items: the election of eight directors to our board of directors for one-year terms, an advisory vote on the approval of executive compensation, the adoption of the Voya Financial 2019 Employee Incentive Plan, and a vote to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditors for 2019.
The vote will now be taken on the foregoing four matters. We will now pause to allow stockholders to vote. The polls for voting on all matters are hereby closed. I have the report from Ms. Oates on the votes cast. As to the election of directors, each director nominee has received a vote of a majority of votes cast and has been elected. As to the second matter, stockholders have approved on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers. As to the third matter, stockholders have approved the adoption of the Voya Financial 2019 Employee Incentive Plan. As to the final matter, stockholders have ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditor for 2019. Final voting results will be reported by the company on a Form 8-K filed with the SEC within the next four business days.
Before our Chairman and CEO, Rod Martin, provides a business update and takes your questions, I would like to remind everyone that statements made today, which are not historical or current facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements reflect management's current expectations or beliefs. We call to your attention the fact that the company's actual results could differ from these statements. The company has filed with the SEC reports that list some of the factors that may cause results to differ materially from these statements. We assume no duty to update these forward-looking statements. Please also know that we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial metrics. In particular, we refer to adjusted operating earnings and adjusted operating return on capital, which are non-GAAP financial metrics.
For a reconciliation of these metrics to the most comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our most recent investor supplement available on our investor relations website. With that, I turn it back to our Chairman and CEO, Rod Martin.
Thank you, Jean. Today, I'd like to give you an overview of our business. I'll also highlight our plans for continued growth and value creation. As noted on the slide, I will be talking about some non-GAAP measures and forward-looking information. Turning to slide three. Since our IPO in 2013, we've executed a thoughtful and deliberate transformation of Voya. We have made purposeful decisions to de-risk our balance sheet, improve returns, reduce capital intensity, and become a more focused company. Most recently, we sold our annuities business and ceased new sales of individual life insurance, resulting in significantly reduced tail risk. Today, Voya has three high-growth, high-return capital-light businesses. We have one of the most recognized brands in retirement. We have set and twice exceeded ahead of schedule ROE improvement targets, and we have returned close to $5.5 billion of excess capital to our shareholders, largely through stock buybacks.
This amount is greater than our market cap when we went public. We believe we're well-positioned to continue to grow as we fully leverage our business profile and the opportunities in the marketplace. Turning to slide four. At Voya Financial, our vision is to be America's retirement company. We believe we can achieve that vision through our three high-growth, high-return capital-light businesses, retirement, investment management, and employee benefits. Together, Voya's complementary mix of businesses provide a compelling value proposition for our workplace and institutional clients. We're a top five retirement franchise with strong market share in multiple markets. Our investment management business offers hard-to-replicate specialty asset classes, and we are a must-quote employee benefit Stop Loss provider. At the same time, our individual life in-force block continues to deliver meaningful earnings and capital diversification.
Individual life itself will also enable our plans to drive free cash flow of at least $1 billion over the next five to six years. Our growth-focused complementary businesses are poised to help write another chapter of success for our customers, our shareholders, and our employees. Turning to slide five. In addition to financial performance and a compelling business mix, Voya distinguishes itself through its strong culture. We believe that what we do is just as important as how we do it. From our Voya Cares initiative, which focuses on those individuals with special needs and their caregivers, to being a best place to work, culture matters at Voya. This focus on culture is what has driven us to achieve gender parity at our executive committee and to have a board where 40% of our independent directors are women. Our efforts are increasingly being recognized externally.
For example, earlier this year, we were again named one of the world's most ethical companies by the Ethisphere Institute. This is the sixth consecutive year we've earned this distinction. According to Ethisphere, the world's most ethical companies have outperformed the large cap index over five years by more than 14%, and this validates the belief that financial performance and ethics go hand in hand. It also tracks with Barron's analysis of its 100 most sustainable companies, which outperformed the S&P 500 by 24% and the Russell 1000 by 30% in 2018. 2019 was Voya's second year to earn recognition from Barron's as a most sustainable company, ranking sixth overall and number one in financial services. In short, we are increasingly hearing from our clients that our culture and the way we do business distinguishes us from others in helping us win new business. Turning to slide six.
In addition to our focused business portfolio and strong culture, we have significant distribution relationships as well as both size and scale to compete. We're focused on operational efficiency while also making investments in our business and in technology that will enable us to better serve our clients as we grow. All of this positions us well to serve the retirement readiness needs of Americans who are increasingly looking for solutions at the workplace. Even for American households with a defined contribution plan, about 50% of those are at risk of having insufficient income to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. With our business mix and our reach, Voya is well-positioned to take advantage of this convergence of health and wealth at the workplace. Specifically, our retirement, investment management, and employee benefit businesses will enable us to grow by helping our customers plan, invest, and protect their savings.
Turning to slide seven. During our 2018 Investor Day, we introduced our 2019 to 2021 growth plans. We are targeting adjusted operating EPS growth on a normalized basis of at least 10% each year through 2021. As we have demonstrated through our proven track record of execution, we are confident in our ability to achieve this EPS growth. Our plans will primarily be driven by three key levers, organic growth, capital deployment, and cost savings. Organic growth will come from the attractive opportunities to profitably grow our ongoing businesses. In addition to growth plans for each business, we continue to leverage opportunities to deliver comprehensive solutions across our company. Cost savings will be partially achieved by leveraging our focused and simpler organization. We remain on track to deliver the $230 million-$250 million in annual run rate savings by the end of 2020.
As a less complex, more efficient company, we are committed to ensuring that we operate efficiently while also wisely investing in our business. Turning to capital deployment. Our high free cash flow generation will enable us to return value to shareholders through continued share buybacks. We also plan to increase our annual dividend to a target yield of at least 1% beginning in the third quarter of 2019. We believe that increasing the dividend will help broaden our investor base. Turning to slide eight. In summary, Voya has achieved significant success over the past few years for our customers, our employees, and our shareholders. With our three high growth, high return capital light businesses, we have opportunities to continue our growth with a focus on the workplace and institutional customers.
We have a strong track record as a management team and a company supported by a brand and culture that are differentiators. With our focus on organic growth, cost savings, and optimal capital management, we believe we can achieve our plans to increase adjusted operating EPS on a normalized basis by at least 10% each year through 2021. We are well-positioned to create further value for all of our stakeholders and achieve our vision to be America's retirement company. With that, I will turn it back over to Jean so that we can take any questions you may have.
Thank you, Rod. At this time, we'll be happy to answer any questions. We will now pause to see if there are any questions.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Again, if you have a question, please press star 1. Showing no questions, I would like to turn the conference back over to our presenters.
Great, thank you. We see there are no questions. On behalf of Voya Financial, I would like to thank you for participating in our annual meeting. The meeting is hereby adjourned.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.