Vanguard Investor Choice
Empowering everyday investors through voting choice
“As a company with a long history of reducing barriers for everyday investors, Vanguard Investor Choice continues this commitment, empowering individual investors to participate more directly in the proxy voting process for their mutual fund and ETF shares.”
John Galloway
Global Head of Investment Stewardship
- About
- How it works
- Policy options
- How our funds voted
- Insights & updates
About Investor Choice
More than 50 million individual investors entrust Vanguard to help them save for objectives such as retirement, a home purchase, a child’s education, or simply financial peace of mind.1 The money that Vanguard manages belongs to those investors, and we take our responsibility to them seriously.
In 2023, Vanguard launched the Investor Choice pilot program, giving individual investors the ability to express their perspective on shareholder matters at the companies held in their equity index funds. With Investor Choice, Vanguard is enabling equity index fund investors in participating funds to choose a proxy voting policy option aligned with their preferences. An investor’s policy selection directs how their proportionate share of portfolio company holdings is voted at the shareholder meetings included in each pilot.2 Vanguard Investor Choice allows those investors who choose to participate to select from a menu of voting policy options that reflect a broad range of approaches to proxy voting.
Pilot participants' voting policy selections by Vanguard Fund
For the 2025 proxy season, Vanguard Investor Choice will give investors in funds representing more than $200 billion in assets the opportunity to help direct how their equity index funds vote at company shareholder meetings. Vanguard plans to continue expanding Investor Choice in the future through pilot programs for investors in additional equity index funds.
1 As of December 31, 2023.
2 Vanguard will rely on the share ownership information provided by an investor’s broker or custodian in its calculations. Due to rounding or other factors, the proportionate share of portfolio company shares that are voted according to a Pilot Fund shareholder’s policy selection may not always exactly match that shareholder’s proportionate ownership. Additionally, shares of a security that are on loan pursuant to Vanguard’s securities lending activities or shares that are subject to vote restrictions or ownership limitations could impact the total number of shares available for the fund to vote. In such cases, an investor’s proportionate share will be calculated utilizing the number of shares eligible to be voted by the fund after excluding shares on loan or subject to such voting restrictions and ownership limitations.
Important information:
All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.
For more information about Vanguard funds, visit vanguard.com to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information about a fund are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.
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ESG funds are subject to ESG investment risk, which is the chance that the stocks or bonds screened by the index provider or advisor, as applicable, for ESG criteria generally will underperform the market as a whole or, in the aggregate, will trail returns of other funds screened for ESG criteria. The index provider or advisor's assessment of a company, based on the company's level of involvement in a particular industry or their own ESG criteria, may differ from that of other funds or an investor's assessment of such company. As a result, the companies deemed eligible by the index provider or advisor may not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor and may not exhibit positive or favorable ESG characteristics. The evaluation of companies for ESG screening or integration is dependent on the timely and accurate reporting of ESG data by the companies. Successful application of the screens will depend on the index provider or advisor's proper identification and analysis of ESG data. The advisor may not be successful in assessing and identifying companies that have or will have a positive impact or support a given position. In some circumstances, companies could ultimately have a negative or no impact or support of a given position.
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