How Investors Vote
Executive Summary
Vanguard Investor Choice empowers individual investors, their financial advisors, and retirement and 529 plan sponsors to direct how their share of eligible funds are voted at company shareholder meetings.
Investor Choice is an extension of our longstanding mission to take a stand for all investors. Just as Vanguard made index investing accessible to everyday investors, Investor Choice extends that philosophy to proxy voting by making participation simple, accessible, and free. Historically, index funds, on behalf of their fund investors, have voted at public company shareholder meetings according to the funds’ voting policies.
As index investing has become more accessible, more investors have expressed an interest in having a voice on matters affecting the companies held through their funds. Through Vanguard Investor Choice, investors can now make a single policy selection to have their voices heard on thousands of individual ballot items for the companies held in their eligible Vanguard equity index funds. Clients can choose from a menu of clear and distinct policy options that align with their preferences.
Our continued expansion of the program underscores our confidence that Investor Choice effectively elevates investors’ voices, contributes to a healthy corporate governance ecosystem, and reinforces our passive, investor owned, and time tested approach that supports millions of investors.
Overall Participation
Evolution of Vanguard Investor Choice
In mid 2026, Vanguard conducted a survey with nearly 1,000 investors about their perspectives on proxy voting choice programs, initiatives that enable investors to help direct how their equity index funds vote at company shareholder meetings. Most survey respondents (85%) said it’s important for asset managers to consider their preferences when casting votes. Additionally, more than half (55%) expressed strong interest in participating in such programs.[5]
Significant Growth
Vanguard has regularly expanded Investor Choice, which now includes the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (the first index fund for individual investors), nearly all our equity index sector funds, and our full suite of S&P benchmarked strategies.[6]
As the program became available to a wider universe of Vanguard clients, participation remained strong among individual investors and expanded among retirement plan sponsors. From July 2025 to July 2026, participating fund shareholders increased from 82,000, representing $9 billion in assets under management, to 507,000, representing $151.3 billion.
17x increase in assets of participating funds with a policy selection since July 2025.
6x increase in participating fund shareholders since July 2025.
Since the start of the U.S. proxy voting season, we have seen multiple instances of more than 1,000 fund shareholders, in a single day, choosing a voting policy through Vanguard’s retail brokerage platform. On one day, more than 5,000 fund shareholders selected a voting policy.
Expanding Access and Creating Ease of Use Through Technology
Throughout 2026, technology enhancements made it easier for hundreds of thousands of investors to access Investor Choice through the digital platforms they already rely on.
Broadridge’s ProxyVote Digital Platform
In March 2026, Vanguard made Investor Choice more accessible through an expanded partnership with Broadridge Financial Solutions. By integrating Investor Choice into Broadridge’s ProxyVote digital platform (ProxyVote.com), investors holding Vanguard funds through third party brokerage platforms can now participate in Investor Choice through a streamlined policy selection process. Investor Choice became the first index fund proxy voting program available through ProxyVote.com, a platform already familiar to millions of investors who use it to cast proxy ballots for individual securities.
BetaNXT and Tumelo
In 2026, Vanguard Investor Choice was also supported by a new pass through voting solution developed by BetaNXT, in collaboration with stewardship technology firm Tumelo. The innovation combines technology from BetaNXT and Tumelo to support the end to end collection and application of investor voting policy choices and expands access to more eligible investors to participate in Investor Choice.
Integration with Amazon’s Alexa
In early 2026, Vanguard introduced a voice activated pathway to access Investor Choice through a new integration with Amazon’s Alexa.[7] Investors can simply say, “Alexa, take me to Vanguard Investor Choice,” to receive an experiential overview of Investor Choice, learn how it works, and get a direct link to enroll via the Investor Choice webpage. By integrating with Alexa, Vanguard is empowering investors to “use their voice to have a voice” in proxy voting.
Vanguard Investor Choice U.K. Pilot
In 2026, for the first time, Vanguard offered eligible professional investors in the U.K. the opportunity to participate in a pilot where they could express their preferences on shareholder voting decisions in select Vanguard U.K. based index equity funds. Like eligible U.S. investors, U.K. eligible investors were able to choose from a menu of proxy voting policy options to direct how their share of participating funds voted on key shareholder matters.
As of June 2026, the U.K. Investor Choice pilot has already collected $3 billion of policy elections from early adopters. Encouraged by this early participation, we will gather feedback from investors and will continue to explore opportunities to expand the program offerings in regions outside the U.S.
Retirement Plan Participation
As highlighted in our 2025 report, the addition of more eligible mutual funds, ETFs, and collective investment trusts broadened the program’s accessibility, increasing the ability for retirement plan clients to participate.
As of July 31, 2026, nearly 80 retirement plan clients have elected to participate in Investor Choice, representing $120 billion in assets under management and more than one million underlying plan participants.
Voting Policy Selections by Retirement Plan Clients
Expanding Access to Investor Choice
Future Momentum
Investor Choice has been designed to seamlessly apply client policy elections as more Vanguard equity index products participate under the program. Hundreds of thousands of clients have already preselected a policy option for their share of future eligible products, enabling Vanguard to instantly apply these choices at shareholder meetings as soon as additional funds join the program. Across our U.S. equity index lineup, as of July 31, 2026, total voting policy selections cover $270 billion in assets. Currently, approximately $150 billion (60%) of our U.S. equity index lineup applies client policy elections at shareholder meetings. The remaining $120 billion (40%) represents products with a policy selection on file, ready for future participation as we add funds to the program.
We are committed to bringing all U.S. equity index funds with U.S. securities into Investor Choice in 2027.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Policy elections of funds that will be eligible for the program in 2027 | $120B |
| Fund shareholders who have elected a policy for funds that will be eligible for the program in 2027 | 267K |
| Percentage of investors in the Vanguard Morningstar Total Stock Market Index Fund who selected a policy option in advance of the fund’s eligibility for the program in 2027[8] | 5% |
Source. Vanguard, as of July 31, 2026.
Investor Choice Voting Briefs
Investor Choice Voting Briefs are designed to help offer investors, and other interested parties, insight into how the voting policy options offered through Vanguard Investor Choice are applied at particular portfolio companies of interest. We are committed to reporting and disclosures that help interested parties understand the Investor Choice program.
More Voices in the Proxy Voting Ecosystem
No single proxy voting approach can represent the full range of investor perspectives on what proxy voting outcomes are most likely to maximize long term shareholder returns. With Investor Choice, index fund investors can choose from a menu of clear and distinct proxy voting policies and select the option that best aligns with their preferences regarding proxy voting matters. That policy will determine how an investor’s share of the fund votes on critical corporate governance questions.
As the program expands, investor policy selections continue to vary widely. As illustrated in the table below, in 2026, no single policy was selected by more than 38% of investors who hold eligible equity index funds and ETFs. As mentioned earlier in this report, that contrasts with the choices made by participating retirement plan sponsors, who overwhelmingly selected the Fund Proxy Policy option.
As of July 31, 2026, more than 70% of voting policy selections among eligible mutual fund and ETF holders were for policies other than the Fund Proxy Policy.
As we look at patterns across time, we observe a higher share of policy selections for the Company Board Aligned Policy in 2026 compared to prior years, while the share of policy selections for the Fund Proxy policy and the Glass Lewis ESG policy decreased. We believe that this shift reflects the changing mix of investment objectives and shareholder bases of the funds added to Investor Choice year over year rather than a secular shift in investor preferences. For example, the ESG U.S. Stock ETF has been included in Investor Choice since 2023, and the rate of investor selection of the Glass Lewis ESG policy option has been relatively consistent, at 73% in 2023, and 78% in 2026.[9]
Voting Policy Selections by Year
Voting Policy Selections by Vanguard Eligible Funds
Vanguard Brokerage Clients Show the Most Balanced Policy Dispersion Across Participation Channels
Participation Through Vanguard’s Retail Brokerage Platform
As of July 2026, Vanguard Brokerage clients, meaning investors who hold eligible funds directly with Vanguard, have maintained strong participation in the program, demonstrating broad interest in having a voice in how their eligible funds vote on important company decisions.
Investors with a Vanguard Brokerage account can access Investor Choice and select a proxy voting policy online or via the Vanguard mobile app. Naturally, among this cohort of investors, it is possible for Vanguard to draw a more robust set of observations to provide insight into how different types of investors have engaged with the program.
Strong Participation, Accelerated Growth
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Participating assets | $45B |
| Growth in participating assets from July 2025 to July 2026 ($6B to $45B) | 7.5x |
| Participating Vanguard Brokerage fund shareholders | 225K |
| Eligible funds with a participation rate at or above 10% (up from 4 funds in 2025) | 10 |
Note. Based on policy selections made through Vanguard’s retail brokerage platform, as of July 31, 2026.
Vanguard Brokerage Clients’ Policy Selections
- The Egan-Jones Wealth Focused Policy and the Fund Proxy Policy remain the two largest policy selection percentages for Vanguard Brokerage clients.
- Vanguard Brokerage clients have a higher preference for the Glass Lewis ESG Policy and the Egan-Jones Wealth Focused Policy as compared to the total population of participating mutual funds and ETFs.
- While the Mirror Voting Policy only represents 1% of all voting policy selections in 2026, this is up from 0.4% in 2025.
Policy Selections by Vanguard Brokerage Clients
Voting Policy Selections by Client Demographics
Gender
Consistent with 2025 policy selection percentages, we saw the most marked distinctions across gender in the Glass Lewis ESG Policy and the Egan-Jones Wealth Focused Policy selections. Female fund shareholders selected the Glass Lewis ESG Policy at nearly twice the rate of male fund shareholders (25% versus 15%). In 2026, selection of the Mirror Voting Policy increased among both female and male participating fund shareholders, although the policy still accounted for only 1% of all policy selections.
Policy Selections by Gender
Males Participated at Twice the Rate of Females
Age
Among Vanguard Brokerage clients holding an equity index fund, as of July 2026, participating brokerage clients (those who made a policy selection) had a median age of 66 compared to 45 for nonparticipating clients.
Preference for the Glass Lewis ESG Policy decreases with age, while preference for the Company Board Aligned Policy generally rises with age. Clients ages 31 to 45 selected the Mirror Voting Policy at slightly higher rates than clients in other age groups and the overall participating population.
Policy Selections by Age Group
Nearly 60% of Participating Vanguard Brokerage Clients Are Over Age 62
Policy Preferences by Investable Assets
Fund shareholder preference for the Company Board Aligned Policy and the Egan-Jones Wealth Focused Policy increases with account balances. In contrast, preference for the Glass Lewis ESG Policy decreases as account balances rise.
Preferences for Select Policies Vary by Account Balances
Nearly Half of Participating Clients Have $1 Million or More in Investable Assets
Link to the full report can be found here.
5Ipsos Investor Choice Survey, 2026. Sample size = 914 (sample weighted to reflect U.S. population). Investors were defined as respondents who indicated that they have any of the following types of accounts or funds, retirement funds (e.g., 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA); a high yield savings account; a certificate of deposit (CD) account; a money market account; a brokerage account (e.g., an account in which you choose the stocks, bonds, and mutual funds you invest in); or a managed investment account (e.g., an account in which a financial advisor manages and chooses investments for you).(go back)
6Vanguard launched the first index fund for individual investors in 1976, then known as First Index Investment Trust.(go back)
7The branded experience with Alexa is effective from April 27, 2026, through October 31, 2026.(go back)
8Based on policy selections made through Vanguard’s retail brokerage platform.(go back)
9The percentage of eligible fund AUM with an explicit ESG mandate decreased from 33% in July 2023 to 0.34% in July 2026.(go back)
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
