J.P. Morgan Asset Management Votes with Its Feet on Proxy Advisors

No advice, thanks.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management has had enough of proxy advisors, recently announcing in an internal memo that going forward, it will rely on an in-house, AI-powered program for data about US-listed companies that its portfolio managers use to guide their votes. That decision, the first such change in the industry among major asset managers, follows through on hints CEO Jamie Dimon had long been making. 

“We are proud to announce that J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management is now the first major investment firm to fully eliminate any reliance on external proxy advisors for our US voting process,” an internal memo read. “Building on decades of in-house, research-driven voting rigor, we have launched Proxy IQ — an AI-powered tool on Spectrum that aggregates and analyzes proprietary data from more than 3,000 annual company meetings.”

Cut It Out

Dimon has been a vocal critic of proxy advisory firms, particularly the big two: Institutional Shareholder Services, or ISS, and Glass Lewis. Essentially calling for such firms to be eliminated, Dimon echoed the broad opposition to proxy advisors across the industry. Widely, the two firms have been cast as a duopoly working to advance liberal causes, a characterization disputed by shareholder advocacy groups. Last month, President Donald Trump issued an executive order, “Protecting American Investors from Foreign-Owned and Politically-Motivated Proxy Advisors,” directing the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Labor and Federal Trade Commission to increase their oversight of proxy advisors, naming ISS and Glass Lewis specifically. 

A spokesperson for ISS did not comment on JPMorgan’s change. “We are proud of our four-decade record serving the global institutional investor community with independent and high-quality governance research, recommendations, and voting solutions and will continue to do so as we prepare for the 2026 annual meeting season,” the spokesperson said.

Proxy measures, particularly those in the environmental and social categories, fell dramatically at the start of 2025, according to data from Georgeson:

• There were 133 proposals focused on environmental issues last year, down from 173 in 2024 and 180 in 2023, with average shareholder support for the measures at 15%, down from 21% and 24%, respectively.
• The number of socially themed proposals was 223, down from 335 in 2024 and 354 in 2023, with average support falling to 17%, from 20% and 22%, respectively.
• Both ISS and Glass Lewis were less likely to recommend votes in favor of environmental proposals last year. ISS’s “for” recommendations dropped from 61% to 15%, and those by Glass Lewis went from 25% to 19%.

Let’s Take This Private: Filing proxies is one mechanism that activist shareholders have to get companies to change practices, with ballot measures often being a last resort. Another method is encouraging companies privately to get them to make changes, and that approach still appears to be effective, said Bryan McGannon, managing director at US SIF. But watch for more asset managers, particularly big ones with the means to invest in AI, moving away from using proxy advisory firms, he noted. Conversely, the use of AI “certainly could lower the barrier for entry for new entrants in the proxy advisory space.”