Vanguard’s 500 Index Fund, including the VOO ETF, is being extended to its Investor Choice program next year. Investors can choose from various proxy voting options, including one that follows ESG recommendations from Glass Lewis. This move comes as Vanguard’s 500 Index Fund holds around $1.4 trillion in assets, almost as much as the world’s biggest ETF.

Massive firms like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street have implemented policy voting guidelines in recent years. The Investor Choice program allows individual investors to direct how their shares are voted on key issues, addressing concerns about Vanguard’s influence in corporate America. Despite some criticism, this program is seen as a win for the company and its fund shareholders.

Vanguard’s Investor Choice program, now in its fourth year, applies to about $1 trillion in assets and will expand to $3 trillion and 20 million investors. While only 80,000 investors opted for a voting policy for the 2025 proxy season, choices were evenly split, with no policy receiving more than 35% adoption, according to Vanguard.

The goal of Vanguard’s Investor Choice program is to allow investors to express a preference for how their index fund holdings are voted. This initiative reflects the belief that investors should have a say in how their shares are voted, without needing to make decisions on every issue at every company. Vanguard plans to roll out this program to all its US equity index funds.

Read more at Yahoo Finance: Vanguard Gets the VOO Proxy Vote Out