Survey Highlights Strong Investor Interest in Proxy Voting Choice

VALLEY FORGE, PA (April 24, 2025)—Vanguard today unveiled research outlining investor perspectives on proxy voting. The results highlight investors’ strong desire to participate in a proxy voting choice program, which allows index fund investors to select a policy that will direct how their proportionate shares vote on proxy ballots for companies held in their funds.

“At Vanguard, we believe long-term shareholders – including index fund investors – play a critical role in a healthy corporate governance ecosystem,” said John Galloway, Global Head of Investment Stewardship at Vanguard. “Our research reinforces that investors are keen to make their voices heard, and are looking for asset managers that will empower them to engage in the proxy voting process. Our Investor Choice program democratizes access to proxy voting, providing investors in index funds the ability to direct how shares associated with their financial interests are voted as they pursue their long-term financial goals.”

Proxy Voting Matters

Proxy voting is central to effective corporate governance, and a fundamental right of ownership. Whether voted by investors who directly own shares in a company, or by an investment manager who invests in the company on behalf of others, proxy votes allow shareholders to support governance standards in the manner they believe will protect and maximize shareholder returns.

Investors Want a Voice

As individual investors learn about proxy voting, they express more interest in engaging in a proxy voting choice program:

• Investors nearly unanimously (83%) believe it’s important that asset managers consider investor preferences when casting votes for their funds.

• Nearly six in ten investors (57%) would participate in a program that would allow them to influence how their asset manager votes – and only 8% of investors said they definitely would not participate in such a program.

• Two thirds of investors (66%) would participate in a proxy voting choice program offered through their employer retirement plan.

Voting Choice May Influence Product & Firm Selection

Beyond the strong interest in participating in proxy voting choice programs, more than half of investors (58%) also noted that they would be more likely to invest in a fund that offers the ability to influence its proxy voting decisions, and 86% of investors might consider switching investment firms altogether for the ability to influence proxy voting.

Proxy Voting Literacy

Despite the importance of proxy voting, the critical role it plays in corporate governance, and the transparency regarding their voting record that asset managers deliver via regular disclosure, many investors aren’t aware of the process. In fact, less than half of investors (47%) know that investment managers cast proxy votes on behalf of their investment funds – and younger investors (44 or younger) report even less awareness, with only one third (36%) familiar with proxy voting.

Vanguard Investor Choice

Vanguard Investor Choice, which launched in early 2023, empowers nearly four million 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. Investors can make a selection from a range of proxy voting policy options that determine how their proportionate fund ownership is voted at shareholder meetings. As Vanguard continues to scale Investor Choice to more funds, individual Vanguard investors holding a fund directly through Vanguard are invited to select a proxy voting policy here.

Survey Methodology

The study was conducted February 28 – March 2, 2025, by Ipsos 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 US states and the District of Columbia, of which 1010 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, education, Census region, metropolitan status, and household income using demographic benchmarks from the 2024 March Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). Benchmarks for the investors subgroup were obtained by using the weighted percent of the general population. “Investors” were defined as respondents who indicated they have any of the following types of accounts/funds in the survey: retirement funds (e.g., 401k, IRA, Roth IRA), high-yield savings account, certificate of deposit (CD) account, and/or money market account, a brokerage account (e.g., where you choose which stocks, bonds, and mutual funds you invest in), a managed investment account (e.g., an account where a financial advisor manages and chooses investments for you), a managed investment account (e.g., an account where a financial advisor manages and chooses investments for you).