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Proxy advisory firm considers changes (2025)
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
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| • What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • ESG legislation tracker • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter |
Glass Lewis—the smaller of the two largest proxy firms—announced it is considering changes to how it advises clients on shareholder voting. The announcement followed the recent congressional hearing on proxy advisory services.
Critics argue proxy advisors apply a single, standardized set of recommendations—known as a house view—that promote ESG priorities across all client votes. Glass Lewis is considering cutting the house view in favor of custom voting guidelines for each client, which could reshape how institutional investors approach shareholder proposals.
According to Semafor:
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Glass Lewis, the scrappier and smaller rival of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), is discussing a dramatic shift to essentially scrap its “house view” on ballot measures ranging from takeover battles to complaints about gender balance, political donations, and carbon emissions, according to people familiar with the matter and an internal memo seen by Semafor. The move is partly in response to heightened conservative backlash, they said. Instead, Glass Lewis would help investors develop their own custom voting policies, handle the paperwork and regulatory reporting, and provide data and research. The changes would be phased in over a few years, and the firm would likely continue to make explicit recommendations in the meantime. … Glass Lewis’ own pivot comes a year into the tenure of its new CEO, Bob Mann, and amid an investigation by House Republicans into it and ISS. The two firms control an estimated 90% of the US shareholder-advice market, which critics say has allowed them to push an ideological agenda. Glass Lewis’ moves would go beyond those of ISS, which said in February that it would no longer consider the diversity of board members when making its recommendations.[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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