Vanguard More Than Doubles Participation in Investor Choice

VALLEY FORGE, PA (September 10, 2025)—Vanguard today released data from its Investor Choice proxy voting pilot, highlighting a significant increase to both investor participation and voting policy dispersion in the 2025 proxy season.  

Vanguard’s Investor Choice, which launched in early 2023, empowers individual investors to make their voices heard on important shareholder matters at portfolio companies held in the participating Vanguard funds. Since its launch, the pilot has expanded to become the largest individual investor proxy voting choice program, currently spanning 12 equity index funds comprising more than $1 trillion in assets.

“For more than 50 years, Vanguard has made investing more accessible for everyday investors. Investor Choice carries forward that legacy by ensuring that investors and their fiduciaries can more directly align their investment portfolios with their goals and preferences,” said John Galloway, Global Head of Investment Stewardship at Vanguard. “The results from this proxy season reinforce that investor interest in proxy voting choice continues to grow and, as illustrated by the dispersal of policy selections, investors have a range of perspectives on proxy voting matters. We are excited to continue to build the Investor Choice program to give investors a voice in corporate governance.”

2025 Investor Choice Data

Over 82,000 Vanguard investors participated in Investor Choice during the 2025 proxy season – more than double the 2024 total. Key findings include:

• Increasing Policy Selection Dispersion: No more than 35% of investors selected any policy option, underscoring investor interest in a range of perspectives related to proxy voting. Full voting policy breakdown:

• Plan Sponsor Expansion: In 2024, Vanguard expanded Investor Choice to reach retirement plan sponsors. In 2025, plan sponsors representing over 100,000 participants enrolled in the program.

• Shifts in Policy Selection: Nearly two-thirds of investors (65%) selected a policy option other than the Vanguard-Advised Funds policy – a significant year-over-year increase (57%), while selection of the Glass Lewis ESG Policy dropped for the second consecutive year (17.6%), to its lowest share since the inception of the program.

• ESG Policy and Investment Alignment: Investors in the Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF selected the Glass Lewis ESG policy at more than four times the rate (80%) of the overall participating population (18%).

• Generational Divide on ESG: Younger investors (44 and younger) were more than twice as likely to select the Glass Lewis ESG Policy (42%) than older (45 and older) investors (17%).²

• Gender Breakdown: Female investors (28%) were considerably more likely than male investors (16%) to select the Glass Lewis ESG Policy, while male investors (26%) were nearly twice as likely to select the Egan-Jones Wealth-Focused policy than female investors (14%).³

“Investor Choice is built on two foundational beliefs: 1) investors should have a say in how their proportionate fund holdings are voted, and 2) giving individual investors access to a range of independent perspectives supports a healthy corporate governance ecosystem. The continued growth of our program validates these beliefs and reinforces that there is strong – and increasing – interest from investors to make their voices heard. Guided by our mission to take a stand for investors, we look forward to continuing to expand Investor Choice to all investors in our U.S. equity index funds,” added David Reiner, Head of Investor Choice at Vanguard.

Please click here to review a comprehensive report on Investor Choice from the 2025 proxy season.

Investor Choice Policies

Vanguard Investor Choice offers a range of straightforward, distinct, and deliberately curated voting policy options that determine how investors’ proportionate shares are voted. To learn more about the proxy voting policy options, please click here. As Vanguard continues to scale Investor Choice, individual Vanguard investors holding a fund directly through Vanguard are invited to select a proxy voting policy here. Policy selections for those investors will automatically be applied as additional funds are added to the program.

For more information about Vanguard’s Investor Choice pilot, please click here.

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About Vanguard

Founded in 1975, Vanguard is one of the world's leading investment management companies. The firm offers investments, advice, and retirement services to tens of millions of individual investors around the globe—directly, through workplace plans, and through financial intermediaries. Vanguard operates under a unique, investor-owned structure where Vanguard fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own Vanguard. As such, Vanguard adheres to a simple purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success. For more information, visit vanguard.com

Notes:

1 The table reflects participating AUM of the voting policy option out the total participating funds’ AUM in the program. 2023 represents voting policy selections for Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF, Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund, and Vanguard Russell 1000 Index Fund; 2024 represents voting policy selections for Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF, Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund, Vanguard Russell 1000 Index Fund, Vanguard Mega Cap Index Fund, and Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund; 2025 represents voting policy selections for Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF, Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund, Vanguard Russell 1000 Index Fund, Vanguard Mega Cap Index Fund, Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund, Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund, Vanguard Tax-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund, and Vanguard Tax-Managed Small-Cap Fund. Vanguard Growth Index Fund, Vanguard Value Index Fund, Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund, and Vanguard Large-Cap Index Fund joined the proxy voting pilot around August 2025. Percentages may not sum to 100% because of rounding.

Source: Vanguard, as of July 31, 2025.

2 Among Vanguard brokerage clients.

3 Among Vanguard brokerage clients.

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