Investor Choice
Investors report strong interest in proxy voting choice
April 24, 2025
A recent Vanguard survey of more than 1,000 investors shows a strong interest among investors in having a voice in the proxy voting process.
Asset managers have begun offering proxy voting choice programs that enable investors to help direct how their equity index funds vote at company shareholder meetings. The survey delved into investors’ perspectives on these programs, and its results provided key insights about investors’ interest in participating, along with the topics they consider important to weigh in on and their general awareness of proxy voting.1
Key findings from the survey include:
- Most investors (83%) believe it is important that asset managers consider investors’ preference when casting votes for their funds, with more than half (57%) interested in participating in voting programs.
- Two-thirds (66%) of investors say they would participate in a proxy voting choice program offered through their employer retirement plan.
- Fifty-eight percent of investors would be more likely to invest in a fund if they could influence the fund’s proxy voting decisions, while a third (33%) would be willing to change firms if another firm offered them the ability to influence proxy voting.
- Less than half of investors (47%) are aware that fund managers cast proxy votes at shareholder meetings.
Investors want a voice.
According to the survey, most investors agree that it’s important that asset managers consider investor preferences when casting votes for their equity funds.2 More than half (57%) of those surveyed would participate in a program to influence fund managers’ votes, and even more (66%) would participate in a program offered through their retirement plan to do the same.
FIGURE 1
Note: Investors n=1,010 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population).
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
FIGURE 2
Note: Investors n=1,010 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population).
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
The survey results also highlighted governance topics that are most important to investors. Respondents selected executive pay (44%), issuing dividends (41%), and who sits on the board of the company (30%) as the three most important topics they would want to weigh in on through the proxy voting process.
FIGURE 3
Note: Investors n=1,010 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population). Survey respondents could choose up to three responses.
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
Voting choice can influence product and firm selection.
More than half the investors surveyed said they would be more likely to invest in a fund if they could influence the fund’s proxy voting decisions. One in three reported being willing to change firms if another firm offered them the ability to influence proxy voting. Investors under age 45 were more likely than those 45 or older to say they would be willing to change firms.
FIGURE 4
Note: Investors n=1,010 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population).
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
FIGURE 5
Note: Investors n=1,010 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population).
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
FIGURE 6
Note: Investors 44 or younger: n=396, investors 45+: n=614 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population). Statistically significant differences between groups are shown with ▲ Single select.
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
Results show an opportunity to increase investor understanding.
Nearly half the investors surveyed were already aware that fund managers cast proxy votes at shareholder meetings on behalf of their investment funds. Only 36% of younger investors (44 or younger) reported being familiar with proxy voting.
FIGURE 7
Note: Investors n=1,010 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population).
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
FIGURE 8
Note: Investors 44 or younger: n=396, investors 45+: n=614 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population). Statistically significant differences between groups are shown with ▲ Single select.
Source: Vanguard, Investor Proxy Voting Survey, February 2025.
Vanguard Investor Choice provides a channel to bring more voices to the table.
The Investor Choice pilot program enables millions of individual investors, their advisors, and retirement plan sponsors to make their voices heard on important shareholder matters at portfolio companies held in participating Vanguard funds. Through Investor Choice, investors can make a single policy selection from a range of proxy voting policy options that determine how their proportionate fund ownership is voted at shareholder meetings. Vanguard investors who hold an equity index fund directly with Vanguard can make a proxy voting policy selection here.
1 Ipsos conducted the study February 28–March 2, 2025, using its large-scale, nationwide online research panel, KnowledgePanel, among a weighted national sample of 1,347 adults 18 or older living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Among that sample,1,010 self-identified as investors. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is ±2.9 percentage points, including a design effect of 1.16.The data for the total sample were weighted to adjust for gender by age, race/ethnicity, and education, census region, metropolitan status, and household income using demographic benchmarks from the 2024 March Supplement of the Current Population Survey. Benchmarks for the investor’s subgroup were obtained by using the weighted percent of the general population. Investors were defined as respondents who indicated in the survey that they have any of the following types of accounts/funds: retirement funds (e.g., 401k, IRA, Roth IRA), a high-yield savings account, a certificate of deposit (CD) account, a money market account, a brokerage account (e.g., where you choose which stocks, bonds, and mutual funds you invest in), or a managed investment account for which a financial advisor manages and chooses investments for you.
2 Percentages in the charts may not total 100%, as respondents were not required to answer every question.
Related items:
- Vanguard Investor Choice: Empowering everyday investors through voting choice (webpage)
- Vanguard Investor Choice: Empowering more index fund investors (article, issued March 2025)
- Proxy Voting: What is it, how does it work? (PDF, issued January 2024)
Notes:
All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.
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