Vanguard Adds Three New Funds - Including Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX/VOO) - to Vanguard Investor Choice

With the addition of Vanguard's oldest index fund, Vanguard is empowering 20 million investors and their over $3 trillion in assets to make their voices heard

VALLEY FORGE, Pa., Oct. 21, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Vanguard today announced the addition of three new funds to its Investor Choice program in 2026, including its flagship 500 Index Fund. The expansion will double the number of eligible investors to approximately 20 million, and triple the assets eligible to participate in the program from $1 trillion to over $3 trillion.¹ Vanguard Investor Choice continues to provide more individual investors access to proxy voting choice than any other program.

"The Vanguard 500 Index Fund, the first ever retail index fund, revolutionized asset management by making it more accessible to everyday investors," said John Galloway, Global Head of Investment Stewardship at Vanguard. "Central to Vanguard Investor Choice is the core belief that investors should have the option to express a preference for how their index fund holdings vote. As we enter the fourth year of our program with strong momentum, we are committed to building on our legacy of accessibility by continuing to expand Investor Choice to all our U.S. equity index funds."

Vanguard Investor Choice empowers individual investors, their advisors, 529 plans, and retirement plan sponsors to make their voices heard on important shareholder matters at portfolio companies held in participating Vanguard funds. During the 2025 proxy season, Vanguard more than doubled participation in Investor Choice with more than 80,000 investors making a policy selection. Notably, participating investors continued to express a range of perspectives on proxy voting matters, as illustrated by the dispersal of policy selections with no single option on the Investor Choice menu receiving more than 35% adoption. Rising participation reflects recent Vanguard research, which revealed strong individual interest in proxy voting choice, finding that most investors (83%) believe it's important that asset managers consider their preferences when casting proxy votes.

Expanding to New Funds
With the expansion, Vanguard Investor Choice will span all share classes of the 15 participating funds, representing more than 50% of Vanguard's total U.S.-based equity index assets. The participating funds are:

• Vanguard 500 Index Fund*²
• Vanguard Extended Market Index Fund*
• Vanguard Institutional Index Fund*
• Vanguard Growth Index Fund
• Vanguard Value Index Fund
• Vanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund
• Vanguard Large-Cap Index Fund
• Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund
• Vanguard Russell 1000 Index Fund
• Vanguard ESG U.S. Stock ETF
• Vanguard Mega Cap Index Fund
• Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Index Fund
• Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund
• Vanguard Tax-Managed Capital Appreciation Fund
• Vanguard Tax-Managed Small-Cap Fund

Participating in Investor Choice
Vanguard Investor Choice offers a range of straightforward, distinct, and deliberately curated voting policy options that determine how investors' proportionate shares are voted. To learn more about the proxy voting policy options, please click here. As the Investor Choice program expands to include additional Vanguard funds, investors holding one or more Vanguard funds directly through Vanguard can select a proxy voting policy here. Policy selections for those investors will automatically be applied as additional funds are added to the program.

Vanguard also recently introduced the ability for all Vanguard brokerage investors to make an Investor Choice policy selection via its Mobile app. Investors can easily access Investor Choice on the mobile app by navigating to Profile > Account Preferences > Proxy voting through Investor Choice.

For more information about Vanguard Investor Choice, please click here.

About Vanguard

Founded in 1975, Vanguard is one of the world's leading investment management companies. The firm offers investments, advice, and retirement services to tens of millions of individual investors around the globe—directly, through workplace plans, and through financial intermediaries. Vanguard operates under a unique, investor-owned structure where Vanguard fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own Vanguard. As such, Vanguard adheres to a simple purpose: To take a stand for all investors, to treat them fairly, and to give them the best chance for investment success. For more information, visit vanguard.com

For more information about Vanguard funds or ETF Shares, contact your financial advisor to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.

Vanguard ETF Shares are not redeemable with the issuing Fund other than in very large aggregations worth millions of dollars. Instead, investors must buy and sell Vanguard ETF Shares in the secondary market and hold those shares in a brokerage account. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than net asset value when buying and receive less than net asset value when selling.

ESG funds are subject to ESG investment risk, which is the chance that the stocks or bonds screened by the index provider or advisor, as applicable, for ESG criteria generally will underperform the market as a whole or, in the aggregate, will trail returns of other funds screened for ESG criteria. The index provider or advisor's assessment of a company, based on the company's level of involvement in a particular industry or their own ESG criteria, may differ from that of other funds or an investor's assessment of such company. As a result, the companies deemed eligible by the index provider or advisor may not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor and may not exhibit positive or favorable ESG characteristics. The evaluation of companies for ESG screening or integration is dependent on the timely and accurate reporting of ESG data by the companies. Successful application of the screens will depend on the index provider or advisor's proper identification and analysis of ESG data. The advisor may not be successful in assessing and identifying companies that have or will have a positive impact or support a given position. In some circumstances, companies could ultimately have a negative or no impact or support of a given position.

The Vanguard Russell 1000 Index Fund and Russell® are registered trademarks of Russell Investments and have been licensed for use by The Vanguard Group, Inc. The Product(s) are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by Russell Investments and Russell Investments makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in the Products.

The Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a division of S&P Global, or its affiliates ("SPDJI"), and has been licensed for use by Vanguard. Standard & Poor's® and S&P® are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, a division of S&P Global ("S&P"); Dow Jones® is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC ("Dow Jones"); and these trademarks have been licensed for use by SPDJI and sublicensed for certain purposes by Vanguard. Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by SPDJI, Dow Jones, S&P, their respective affiliates, and none of such parties make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in such product(s) nor do they have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions of the Vanguard S&P 500 Growth Index Fund.

All investing is subject to risk, including possible loss of principal.

Vanguard Marketing Corporation, Distributor.

¹ As of September 30, 2025.
² *indicates newly added fund

SOURCE Vanguard