BlackRock announced Tuesday that it is partnering with a third proxy advisory firm to offer clients a wider range of investment advice, with critics suggesting the mammoth asset manager is trying to offset allegations that it relies on ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles. more than his fiduciary responsibilities deserve.
In a statement obtained Monday by Fox News Digital, BlackRock officials said the company remains committed to providing its clients with choices that support their growing range of investment preferences through its Voting Choice program.
“We continue to innovate and offer more choices to our clients who want to take a more direct role in the proxy voting process,” Joud Abdel Majeid, global head of BlackRock Investment Stewardship, said in the release.
“We are pleased to add a third proxy advisor to our platform and give more clients the ability to customize their voting guidelines to reflect their specific goals and objectives.”
In this regard, BlackRock will add rating firm Egan Jones, based in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, as a third proxy advisor starting in July. Sean Egan, the founder of Egan Jones, was previously ranked by Fortune as the #1 prognosticator of the 2008 financial crisis.
“With the addition of two Egan Jones guidelines, Voting Choice will offer eligible clients more choice with up to 16 distinct voting guidelines across three voting advisory services, plus BlackRock’s reference policy,” the statement said. communicated.
“The majority of BlackRock’s equity investment clients continue to entrust the BlackRock investment management team with the important responsibility of voting in accordance with BlackRock’s policy benchmark, consistent with BlackRock’s fiduciary duty.
Although the partnership between BlackRock and Egan Jones appeared to attempt to assuage criticism over the politicization of investments, some conservatives remained unconvinced.
A leading public policy expert who has long spoken out against the politicization of financial services sector told Fox News Digital that BlackRock was failing to assert any apolitical fiduciary position by bringing Egan Jones into its advisory fold.
Dr. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, said BlackRock’s decision was belated at best.
“(CEO) Larry Fink could argue that ESG has been ‘weaponized by the left and the right,’” he said, referring to a Fox Business interview with Fink in July 2023. “But he fails to understand the reality that ordinary Americans recognize ESG as a scam.”
In the interview, Fink told Fox Business host Liz Claman that BlackRock was seeing more new investors than at any time in its history, and he responded to ESG-minded critics by saying the company remains a trust company who did “what our customers ask”.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We are performing well and we have responded well to market calls,” Fink said.
BlackRock officials also said they would leave it up to shareholders to vote on whether to adopt ESG policies.
In his 2023 chairman’s letter to investors, Fink somewhat responded to Roberts’ overall criticism, writing that “many people have opinions about how we should manage our clients’ money.” But the money doesn’t belong to these people. It’s not ours either. . This belongs to our customers, and our responsibility and duty is to them. »
In his comments to Fox News Digital, Roberts said many states are nonetheless seeking to “eliminate politics from corporate America’s boardrooms.”
“BlackRock’s decision to expand ‘voting choice,’ presented under the guise of a ‘commitment to providing choice to its clients,’ is too little and too late,” he said, highlighting the progress from the right in France and the European Parliament which show that citizens are “I’m tired of being pawns in the global elites’ war against common sense.”
BlackRock’s statement said that prior to Egan Jones’ arrival, $600 billion in institutional investment assets under management had been entrusted to the Voting Choice program.
Fox News Digital also reached out to other financial services experts and lawmakers for comment.
