Over the past several months, I’ve been blogging on proxy season developments as data rolls in. New analysis from Georgeson provides an interesting data point. Surprisingly, support for ESG proposals from proxy advisory firms is up this year, after hitting a low in 2025. However, despite the increased support from advisory firms, overall support levels have lagged. The report notes:
“Overall, the percentage of proposals that ISS and Glass Lewis (i.e. GL) recommended voting ‘for’ has increased versus last year for ESG proposals, 14% and 11% respectively, while average support has only risen slightly by 3%. As a result, the gap between recommendations and actual voting outcomes is widening.”
The gap between recommendations and actual voting results is interesting. It suggests that firms are disregarding proxy voting guidelines on ESG. This may be driven by political pressures. ISS and Glass Lewis are both actively defending against lawsuits brought by anti-ESG. Those lawsuits are unlikely to have merit in the long run, but they are inconvenient and costly. Financial services firms may be diverging from ESG voting recommendations to avoid a similar fate. Although, ironically, the choice to do so undercuts the red-state arguments that ISS and Glass Lewis wield monopolistic and anti-competitive clout in the proxy voting arena.
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