Vanguard’s recent move to distance itself from climate-conscious investing won support from anti-ESG state leaders — but the firm is now getting pushback from some of its clients. Earlier this week Vanguard received at least 1,400 copies of a form letter from the Sierra Club, signed by Vanguard investors. The letter asserts that by leaving…
Category: vanguard
Vanguard Pulls Out of NZAM
Vanguard explains why it is withdrawing from the climate agreement. Emphasis added More than 30 million individual investors around the world have chosen to entrust Vanguard with their hard-earned savings. We have a singular goal to maximize their long-term returns and give them the best chance for investment success as they save for retirement, a…
How Vanguard Looks at Shareholder Proposals
From the Veritas Compensation in Context newsletter, courtesy of John Galloway, how Vanguard evaluates shareholder proposals: We assess each proposal through a fiduciary lens. First we look for alignment with the Vanguard funds’ corporate governance principles in the company’s board composition, the board’s oversight of strategy and risk, executive compensation, and shareholder rights. We then…
The Hidden Dangers of the Great Index Fund Takeover – Bloomberg
We have repeatedly warned about the problem of index funds, including VEA Chair Robert A.G. Monks’ book Citizens Disunited, with extensive data on “drone” companies (with stock ownership tracking the index) and VEA Vice Chair Nell Minow was one of the judges who selected Index Funds and the Future of Corporate Governance: Theory, Evidence and…
Want a Bigger Say on Corporate Behavior? Move Your Money – The New York Times
From our former colleague Jackie Cook — index fund voting patterns may be an unhappy surprise to their investors. [W]hile index funds offered by different companies were often nearly indistinguishable in fees and performance, the voting behavior of the funds was very different. Vanguard and BlackRock, the two biggest fund managers, tended to side with…
Activists thought BlackRock, Vanguard were climate allies. Not now
In 2017, the two biggest U.S.-based fund managers, BlackRock and Vanguard — which control a combined $12 trillion in assets — both voted to require Exxon Mobil to produce a report on climate change. It was a seen as watershed moment showing what can occur when the biggest index funds punch their weight at the…
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