Bloomberg reports:
BlackRock Inc. and Vanguard Group are the clearest examples of passive investing giants’ shift toward more active oversight of the companies they own, according to a first-of-its-kind study by investment researcher Morningstar Inc.
These two firms showed the most growth since 2014 in the total times that they've met with companies to voice their concerns on issues ranging from executive pay to climate change.
I'm a long-term Vanguard investor, precisely because I strongly believe in the virtues of passive management. But passive ought to mean passive. I don't want Vanguard using the fees it charges me to engage in shareholder activism, especially when it comes to highly contested CSR issues like climate and diversity.
Vanguard needs to remember that not everybody who invests with it is a millennial social justice warrior.
