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Key Takeaway

The Egan-Jones Wealth-Focused Policy was the most popular third-party option on Vanguard’s Investor Choice program in 2025.

Background

Vanguard launched its Investor Choice program in 2023 to allow the underlying investors in Vanguard equity index funds to choose a proxy voting policy. As of September 10, 2025, $1 trillion in AUM is eligible to participate in the Investor Choice program. In 2025, Vanguard began offering Egan-Jones Wealth-Focused Policy on the platform and it is now the most popular third-party option, with 24% of participating AUM choosing the Wealth-Focused Policy.

The Policy

The Egan-Jones Wealth-Focused Policy is a unique offering in the market that focuses solely on protecting and enhancing investor wealth and does not consider ESG factors to be material risks.

Under the policy, directors who have been at the company during sustained periods of underperformance will receive AGAINST recommendations. For example, at Under Armour’s recent shareholder meeting, Egan-Jones recommended against several directors due to the sustained underperformance of the company during their tenure. Additionally, pay packages that are not aligned with company performance (as measured by TSR) will receive AGAINST recommendations.

Looking to the Future

Egan-Jones is committed to providing recommendations that are in the best interests of shareholders, which is why Egan-Jones does not also sell consulting services to issuers. Additionally, Egan-Jones does not offer a benchmark policy, but instead builds all policies from the ground-up so that recommendations under each policy are transparent and consistent.

As the largest asset managers continue to expand their proxy voting choice programs, we expect the Egan-Jones Wealth-Focused Policy will continue to rise in popularity among both retail and institutional investor clients.