Good morning, welcome to the Voya Financial 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to turn the meeting over to Rod Martin, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Welcome to the 2018 Voya Financial Annual Meeting of Stockholders, 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 30, 2018. I will 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 want to thank you for attending our fifth annual meeting. Following the official items of business, I will provide a brief presentation then take any questions. Now, I'll ask Jean Weng, our Corporate Secretary, to begin the formal business of the meeting. Jean?
Thanks, Rod, good morning, everyone. I would first like to make a few introductions. We are 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 Philip Meyer, Designated Inspector of Election. Mr. Meyer has filed with me his oath as inspector, providing me with a fully executed certificate of quorum. As is our custom, we'll answer questions at the end of the meeting. Please know that stockholders who desire to ask any questions do so in writing by using the web portal provided. Only stockholders will be permitted to present questions. You must have your control number to do so. With that, we'll now begin the official business of this annual meeting.
As indicated in our proxy statement, we're here today to consider the following items: the election of the nine directors who make up our board of directors, advisory vote on the approval of executives' compensation, a vote to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditors in 2018. I will now declare the polls open. Poll will now be taken on the foregoing three matters. If there are any stockholders logged on who have not already submitted a proxy and wish to vote their shares, you may do so now. If you have previously provided your proxy card or voted online, shares will be voted accordingly. If you wish to change your vote, you may do so now. We will now pause to allow stockholders to vote. The polls for voting on all matters are hereby closed.
I have the report from the inspector of elections on the votes cast. The preliminary report is as follows. The election of directors. Each director nominee received over 98% of the votes cast, and as such, of the nine director nominees hereby elected. As to the second matter, over 94% of the votes were cast in favor of approving, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers. As to the third matter, over 99% of the votes asked to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's auditor for 2018. Full voting results will be reported by the company in Form 8-K filed with the SEC in 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 are not historical or current facts, are forward-looking statements, the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements reflect management's current expectations or beliefs. I call to your attention the fact that the company's actual results 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 measures. In particular, we refer to adjusted operating earnings as a non-GAAP financial measure.
For a reconciliation of this metric, the most comparable GAAP measure, 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'd also like to share highlights of Voya's accomplishments and our plans for continued growth and value creation. As noted on the slide, I'll be talking about some non-GAAP measures and forward-looking information. With a vision to be America's retirement company, Voya Financial is demonstrating strong financial and operational success. The 12 months ended March 31st, 2018, generated $1.3 billion of adjusted operating earnings before income taxes. We have strong, diversified businesses that enable us to help Americans plan, invest, and protect their savings to get ready to retire better. We have a broad distribution reach and significant scale. Our businesses hold market-leading positions, making us a top-tier provider in many markets. We have 14.7 million customers, $541 billion of total assets under management and administration, and 6,300 dedicated employees.
We have the financial strength and commitment to execution that has enabled us to create value for our customers and our shareholders. We are proud of what we've achieved, and we're excited about what comes next. Before we discuss the future, it's important to recognize how far we've come since our IPO in 2013. During our first five years as a public company, we've achieved a great deal. We've improved our Adjusted Operating Return on Equity by more than 700 basis points, taking us from the bottom quartile to the top quartile performance. Voya shares have increased approximately 175% since the IPO. We've significantly outperformed our peers, as well as the S&P 500. We've invested in our company so we can better serve our clients, and we've returned approximately $4 billion in excess capital to shareholders while maintaining a strong balance sheet.
Performance has been supported by a strong culture that continues to evolve. We've earned recognition for our culture and the character of our brand that has distinguished us from other companies. For example, we're one of only two financial services companies in the world to earn a spot as one of the world's most admired companies, one of the world's most ethical companies, and on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index, all at the same time. Achievements like these, coupled with our cultural transformation, have enabled us to build a brand that is now one of the most recognized names in retirement. Today, our brand has achieved a level of awareness that rivals or surpasses our competitors. We've been steadfast in our commitment of being good stewards of capital. As I mentioned, we've returned approximately $4 billion in excess capital to shareholders while maintaining a strong balance sheet.
From the time of our IPO to the end of the first quarter, our market value has risen by more than 70%. We expect to have returned approximately $5 billion of excess capital to shareholders by the end of 2018. Our accomplishments, along with recent actions that we've taken to position Voya for future success, have us well positioned as we move forward. 2018 is a pivotal year in the transformation of our company. We're focused on several priorities for this year. First is completing the sale of our annuities business. Transaction, which we announced in December, will reduce risk, narrow our business focus, and make us an even simpler company. We expect to close the transaction sometime during the second or third quarter of this year. Our second priority is achieving $110 million-$130 million in expense savings within 12 months of closing the transaction.
Our third priority, to continue to be good stewards of our capital. This includes delivering the $1 billion in stock buybacks that we announced in December by the end of the second quarter. These priorities position us well for accelerated growth. Our businesses are increasingly working together to deliver positive outcomes for our customers and clients. This continued focus on cross-enterprise partnership will enable us to grow further. As we move forward, we will continue to share examples of how we're executing on these priorities. Longer term, we're very excited about the opportunities ahead for Voya and for our stakeholders. The annuities transaction will significantly reduce our exposure to the market and insurance risk. Our strong balance sheet will become simpler post-transaction. We will become a faster, more nimble organization, and we will continue to grow our capital-light, high cash flow-generating retirement, investment management, and employee benefit franchises.
We'll build upon our track record of execution, we'll continue to be good stewards of capital. Moving ahead, we are focused on achieving our 2018 priorities. We're building on our success over the past five years, combined with Voya's strong financial foundation to expand our growth. We're well positioned to achieve our vision to be America's retirement company. Questions you may have.
Thank you, Rod. At this time, we will be happy to answer any questions. We will now pause to see if there are any. I see there are no questions. There'll be more questions when our time allows policies to all such questions and our response to our investors. On behalf of our board, management of Voya Financial, I would like to thank you for participating in our annual meeting. The meeting is hereby adjourned.
Annual meeting has now concluded. Thank you for participating.