State Street Global Advisors, the asset management business of State Street Corporation, announced it will offer more investors the power to direct how shares held in the funds they own are voted.

The new program will offer eligible investors in certain institutional funds in the US and the UK a range of voting policies that will be applied to the voting of shares held in those funds. Voting policies offered as part of the new program will be made available to investors through Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), a recognized independent proxy voting provider.

State Street Global Advisors’ clients in separately managed accounts already have the ability to either vote their own shares directly or delegate proxy voting of their shares to the firm’s asset stewardship team.

With the addition of this new program, investors in more than 40% of the index equity assets managed by State Street Global Advisors will have the ability — by the start of the 2023 proxy season — to make choices regarding how shares held in the funds and separately managed accounts they own are voted. Over time, the firm intends to expand investor directed voting choice to as many of its index equity assets under management as possible.

“The new voting choice program is a recognition of how important participation in proxy voting is to our clients,” said Lochiel Crafter, executive vice president and head of the Global Institutional Group of State Street Global Advisors. “Giving even more investors the chance to choose how to vote shares held in funds they are invested in will remain a priority.”

More details and information on the proxy voting policies that will be offered to investors as part of the new program can be found at the company website. Similar to separately managed accounts, shareholders of institutional funds that are eligible for the new program can also still choose to delegate their votes to the State Street Global Advisors Asset Stewardship team.

For funds where the ability to select a proxy voting policy to apply to the voting of shares held by the funds is not yet available, the State Street Global Advisors Asset Stewardship team will continue to vote proxies for those funds and investors. Please visit the firm’s website to learn more about our approach to asset stewardship.

“Our focus is to deliver long-term value for our clients,” said Lori Heinel, executive vice president and global chief investment officer at State Street Global Advisors. “Whether our investors delegate voting responsibility to us or choose a different voting option, we remain committed to that mission.”

Source: State Street