What Is Proxy Voting Choice?
/This analysis is based on Dorothy S. Lund’s 2025 article, “The Past, Present, and Future of Proxy Voting Choice,” published in the Journal of Corporation Law and available via Columbia Law School’s Scholarship Archive. Lund examines how new proxy voting systems have emerged as a response to concerns about the concentration of voting power among a small group of U.S. asset managers, especially the “Big Three”: BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street.
Proxy voting allows shareholders to cast ballots on important issues at corporate annual meetings, and in recent years, several large asset managers have begun offering clients new choices in this process. “Proxy voting choice” is an innovation where funds give end investors—both institutional and, more recently, retail—the option to influence or directly choose how their shares are voted.
Traditionally, investment managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street controlled the voting rights for the millions of shares pooled in their investment funds. As these firms grew, concerns mounted about the concentration of voting power among just a few institutions. Critics pointed out that passive index funds have limited incentives to thoroughly research and vote on individual companies, potentially weakening effective corporate oversight.
In response, and after growing public and political pressure on topics like climate change and diversity, asset managers began creating “voting choice” programs. These let clients select from several third-party voting policies or the fund’s default approach. The approach is still voluntary and in its early stages, but millions of investors now have access to some form of voting participation—an important shift in how American corporate governance works. Participation rates and ultimate impacts remain to be seen, but proxy voting choice marks a major step toward democratizing shareholder voice in large public funds.
For example, BlackRock launched its Voting Choice program in 2022, which allows eligible clients—including institutional and some retail investors—to select from a menu of third-party voting policies or use their own. The program has expanded rapidly and now covers $2.7 trillion in index equity assets. More information is available on BlackRock’s official Voting Choice page
Similarly, State Street offers a Proxy Voting Choice program that permits eligible investors in institutional index funds and certain ETFs to decide how their pro-rata share of votes is cast. The program includes access to several third-party voting policies and continues to expand across eligible funds. Details can be found at State Street’s proxy voting page.
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