Dive Brief:
- Vanguard is preparing for a final expansion of its Investor Choice program in 2027 that will see the program’s eligibility expand to all of the asset manager’s U.S. equity funds, the firm said Monday.
- The voting plan will now cover funds totaling $8.2 trillion in assets under management and will allow investors to vote their proxies based on five different voting policies, according to a press release.
- Vanguard launched its proxy choice program in 2023, and participation in the program increased from 82,000 investors in 2025 to 507,000 in the 2026 proxy season that ended July 31, according to a September update from the asset manager.
Dive Insight:
Vanguard said investors representing $151 billion in assets under management participated in the program during the most recent proxy season, out of $4 trillion eligible assets, according to its 2026 program report. The firm said the expansion for 2027 will include its Morningstar Total Stock Market Index Fund, the largest mutual fund in the U.S. by AUM according to Investopedia.
The expansion to all U.S. equity funds comes after the program piloted in 2023 with just three eligible funds, before slowly expanding eligibility across its lineup. Vanguard said in its 2026 program report that 529 retirement plan sponsors have elected to participate in the program as of July 31.
“Three years ago, we launched Vanguard Investor Choice to make proxy voting more accessible to all investors," John Galloway, a principal and global head of investor engagement at Vanguard, said in the Nov. 9 release. “As participation grows, we continue to see investors bringing diverse perspectives to proxy voting, strengthening our conviction that corporate governance is stronger when all investors have a voice.”
Around 85% of investors think that fund managers should consider their preference during proxy votes, according to a recent survey conducted by marketing research company Ipsos. Vanguard commissioned the survey of 914 investors that have either a retirement fund, high-yield savings account, certificate of deposit account, money market, brokerage account or managed investment account, according to the release. In that survey, 55% of respondents also said they wanted to choose how their proxy votes are cast.
In its 2026 program report, Vanguard said that 38% of participants have chosen to vote using a company-aligned policy preference, and 28% are following their fund’s proxy voting policy. Twenty-two percent of program participants chose an Egan-Jones “wealth focused” voting policy, and a Glass Lewis advised ESG policy preference was the fourth-most selected option, with 12% of participants choosing that voting policy. Only 1% of participants chose to vote their portion of shares “in approximately the same proportions” as the votes cast by other shareholders, following the mirror policy.
“We are hearing from clients that they see value in having their perspectives reflected in their funds’ votes through the innovative ways made possible through Vanguard Investor Choice,” Galloway said in a foreword to the 2026 report. “We’re also continuing to see that investors’ preferences regarding corporate governance outcomes are varied, as illustrated by the fact that their policy selections remain dispersed across the full range of available options.”
The Egan-Jones and mirror voting policy options were added in late 2024. Egan-Jones’ “wealth focused” option generally opposes what it deems “restrictive governance and environmental protection” proposals and also opposes proposals “promoting” DEI, according to its most recent voting policy overview. The exceptions to those rules are “when proposals are directly tailored to revenue generation,” according to the voting policy.
