Investment giant BlackRock announced the expansion of its Voting Choice program for the first time to individual investors, extending the program to retail investors representing approximately $200 billion in assets in its iShares Core S&P 500 ETF.
The move opens the program that allows investors to control their own proxy voting choices to more than three million S&P 500 exchange-traded fund shareholder accounts, giving retail investors a voice on issues such as executive compensation, initiatives climate and governance.
BlackRock introduced Voting Choice in 2021, starting with select institutional clients, including pension funds, insurance companies and corporations, in certain accounts managed in the US and UK. BlackRock has been working to expand the program, with the company announcing last year that it planned to expand voting choice to individual investors.
With the expansion of the program to the S&P 500 ETF, Voting Choice is now open to $2.6 trillion of BlackRock's total index equity AUM, or about half of the company's global index equity AUM.
The company said that using the pilot, it will assess investor interest, proxy voting infrastructure, and overall user experience.
Joud Abdel Majeid, Global Head of Investment Management at BlackRock, said:
“Expanding access to Voting Choice is a way to empower investors by making proxy voting easier and more accessible. I'm excited that today more than three million additional shareholder accounts have an efficient solution to participate in proxy voting if they so choose. For the clients and shareholders who trust BlackRock to vote on their behalf, we remain steadfast in our focus on their long-term financial interests.”
The program offers investors multiple voting options, including proxy voting under their own policies and utilizing their own voting infrastructure, selecting from a menu of third-party policies, with votes cast according to the selections, voting directly on resolutions individuals through BlackRock's infrastructure, and by continuing to use the company's management service, BlackRock Investment Stewardship (BIS), in accordance with BlackRock's voting policy.
