During our recent webcast — Proxy Season Roundtable: What You Need to Know Now — Proxy Analytics’ Steve Pantina discussed the potential impact of pass-through voting on this proxy season at the 49:35 mark. Below is a summary of some of his thoughts:

  • BlackRock allowed pass-through voting for some of its clients last year for the second year in a row. Consequently, clients took up BlackRock on its offer more often this year than the prior year. This report shows the statistics on pass-through voting during the 2022 proxy season.
  • People often ask about whether client-directed voting truly makes a difference in the voting results. For companies, client-directed voting likely doesn’t matter much. How this might impact voting overall is challenging to tell so far. For example, we’ve only seen small changes in the vote totals in Schedule 13F filings among “sole-” and “shared-” voting totals.
  • For now, companies should expect the bulk of votes that historically have been cast by BlackRock to continue to be cast by BlackRock.
Print:
Email this postTweet this postLike this postShare this post on LinkedIn
Photo of Broc Romanek Broc Romanek

As a strategist for the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, Broc Romanek has a deep understanding of the regulatory and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Broc served as editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and DealLawyers.com, where he oversaw…

As a strategist for the firm’s Corporate & Securities practice, Broc Romanek has a deep understanding of the regulatory and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) marketplace. Prior to joining Perkins Coie, Broc served as editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net, CompensationStandards.com, and DealLawyers.com, where he oversaw and managed coverage on issues related to ESG, corporate governance, executive pay, deals, and market trends and analysis.

In addition to his nearly two decades of working as a journalist and publisher, Broc served as assistant general counsel at a Fortune 50 company, worked in the Office of Chief Counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance, was a counselor to former SEC Commissioner Laura Unger, and worked in private practice. He also is the author, or co-author, of four legal treatises, and has authored several books focused on the legal industry.