TheCorporateCounsel.net

Last week, Vanguard announced the results of a survey of 1,000 investors which demonstrated a strong interest among investors in having the ability to participate in the proxy voting process. Like many other institutional investors, Vanguard has been conducting its Investor Choice pilot program, which allows investors to make a single policy selection from a range of proxy voting policy options that determine how their proportionate fund ownership is voted at shareholder meetings. Key findings from the survey include:

– Most investors (83%) believe it is important that asset managers consider investors’ preference when casting votes for their funds, with more than half (57%) interested in participating in voting programs.

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

– Fifty-eight percent of investors would be more likely to invest in a fund if they could influence the fund’s proxy voting decisions, while a third (33%) would be willing to change firms if another firm offered them the ability to influence proxy voting.

– Less than half of investors (47%) are aware that fund managers cast proxy votes at shareholder meetings.

Vanguard notes that the survey results highlighted those governance topics that are most important to investors: “Respondents selected executive pay (44%), issuing dividends (41%), and who sits on the board of the company (30%) as the three most important topics they would want to weigh in on through the proxy voting process.”

– Dave Lynn