News release
Vanguard Also Adds Two New Voting Policy Options and the Ability for Retirement Plan Sponsors to Participate
VALLEY FORGE, PA (November 18, 2024)—Vanguard today expanded its Investor Choice pilot program, adding three new funds and two new voting policy options. For the 2025 proxy season, Vanguard Investor Choice will be offered to nearly four million investors, their advisors, and retirement plan sponsors across nearly $250 billion in assets under management*.
Vanguard Investor Choice, which launched in early 2023, empowers individual investors to make their voices heard on important shareholder matters at portfolio companies held in participating Vanguard funds. Investors can choose from a selection of proxy voting policy options that determine how their proportionate fund ownership is voted at shareholder meetings.
“Vanguard Investor Choice is grounded in the foundational belief that empowering investors to influence how their proxies are voted helps create a healthier corporate governance ecosystem,” said John Galloway, Global Head of Investment Stewardship at Vanguard. “Consistent with our investor-owned**, passive investment approach, we are excited to further expand Investor Choice by adding new funds and policy options, and begin engaging with retirement plan sponsors, so we can ensure that more investors can make their voices heard on proxy voting matters as they seek to achieve their long-term financial goals.”
Participating Funds
For the 2025 proxy season, Vanguard Investor Choice will close to double the asset total from the 2024 pilot, spanning eight Vanguard funds:
Retirement Plans
Vanguard Investor Choice will allow retirement plan sponsors that offer eligible funds to consider participating, empowering them to explore providing proxy voting choice to participants in 401(k) and other retirement plans.
New Policy Options
Vanguard Investor Choice provides a spectrum of simple, distinct, and thoughtfully curated voting policy options. For the 2025 proxy season, Vanguard is adding two new policy options that reflect ongoing investor feedback:
The new policy options offer additional choices to investors and expand the range of third-party providers, complementing the existing policy lineup, which includes: the Company Board-Aligned Policy, the Third-Party ESG Policy, and the Vanguard-Advised Funds Policy.
“Guided by our mission and legacy of taking a stand for investors, we are committed to continuing to expand Investor Choice in a thoughtful, straightforward, and efficient way so that more and more investors can make their voices heard,” added Galloway.
For more information about Vanguard Investor Choice, please click here. To learn more about how participating investors voted in the 2024 proxy year, 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.
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*As of September 30, 2024
**Vanguard is owned by its funds, which are owned by Vanguard’s fund shareholder clients.
***Funds added to Vanguard’s proxy voting pilot program in 2025
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