The expansion of voting choice for the ETF would bring $2.3trn of BlackRock’s total index equity AUM in scope for participation in BlackRock Voting Choice, more than half of its index equity AUM globally.
BlackRock has joined fellow passive giants State Street and Vanguard in experimenting with ways to involve ordinary investors in voting on shareholder proposals, at a time when their collective influence on US companies has come under fire from both left and right.
Investors in BlackRock’s iShares Core S&P 500 ETF will be asked to choose among seven different general policies ranging from voting generally with management to prioritising Catholic values or ESG factors.
Investors can also choose to authorise BlackRock to vote on their behalf. Customers will not be able to cast specific votes on individual companies.
This proposed expansion of proxy voting will be subject to iShares Board approval and, if passed later this year, is expected to be in effect for the 2024 proxy voting season.
BlackRock will use this pilot as an opportunity to evaluate investor interest, the necessary proxy voting infrastructure and overall user experience to evaluate further expansion of the program.
Two years ago, BlackRock launched its Voting Choice service, and announced its plans to expand it to the UK for individual investors in November 2022.
Newly launched CIRCA5000 impact suite first UK ETF range to offer direct shareholder voting
Joud Abdel Majeid, global head of BlackRock investment stewardship, said: “BlackRock is committed to a future where every investor can have the choice to participate in the shareholder voting process.
“While many asset owners choose to rely on BlackRock’s Investment Stewardship team to engage and execute voting on their behalf, consistent with our fiduciary duty as an investment manager, others want the choice to participate in proxy voting more directly.
“In support of this, we are pleased to be working towards expanding BlackRock Voting Choice to our largest ETF, and we look forward to learning from this pilot starting 2024.”
Any investors that choose not to participate or are not eligible to participate will continue to have BlackRock investment stewardship vote their pro-rata shares.
Since its launch in 2022, BlackRock Voting Choice has attracted more than 70 newly committed clients, representing $223bn of AUM. As of March 31, 2023, $555bn in index equity client assets are committed to the program.
