Vanguard VCM / VPM Split-Vote Analysis
Company
Meeting
In early 2026, Vanguard completed its reorganization into two separate investment advisers:
VCM (Vanguard Capital Management) for passive/index strategies and
VPM (Vanguard Portfolio Management) for active strategies.
Each entity has its own Investment Stewardship team with separate proxy voting policies.
This tool infers whether VCM and VPM may have voted differently on contested ballot items
by analyzing the 13F voting authority breakdown and 8-K aggregate vote tallies.
Total Vanguard Shares
VCM (Index/Passive)
VPM (Active)
-- of shares outstanding
13F report: --
Proposal Vote Analysis
Meeting: --
| # | Description | Type | Mgmt Rec | Outcome | For % | Against % | Vanguard % of Votes | Closest Scenario | Divergence |
|---|
Methodology & Caveats
VCM / VPM Share Estimation
We approximate the VCM/VPM split using the 13F voting authority fields reported by Vanguard Group Inc:
- VCM shares =
voting_auth_none— shares where Vanguard has no sole/shared voting authority, typically index fund shares where VCM's Investment Stewardship team votes on behalf of fund shareholders. - VPM shares =
voting_auth_sole + voting_auth_shared— shares where Vanguard has discretionary voting authority, typically in actively managed funds overseen by VPM.
Scenario Analysis
For each proposal, we model four voting scenarios by removing Vanguard's estimated shares from the aggregate 8-K vote tally, then adding them back under different assumptions:
- Both FOR: Both VCM and VPM voted in favor.
- Both AGAINST: Both entities voted against.
- VCM FOR / VPM AGAINST: Index arm supported, active arm opposed.
- VCM AGAINST / VPM FOR: Index arm opposed, active arm supported.
The scenario whose implied For% is closest to the actual result is flagged as most likely. Divergence is flagged when the residual between actual and closest scenario exceeds a significance threshold.
Confidence Levels
- High: Vanguard's combined position is >5% of votes cast AND residual delta >1%.
- Medium: Position is 2–5% of votes cast OR delta is 0.5–1%.
- Low: Position <2% or confounding factors present.
Important Caveats
- Inference is probabilistic, not definitive. Actual vote confirmation requires N-PX filings (typically filed in August for the prior proxy year).
- Securities on loan may mean Vanguard voted fewer shares than reported on the 13F.
- 13F positions are reported with a 45-day lag and may not match the meeting record date.
- The
voting_auth_none→ VCM mapping is an approximation. In practice, clients who retain voting rights are also counted in this field. - Broker non-votes are excluded from the denominator for contested items.
Data Sources
- Vote tallies: 8-K Item 5.07 filings via SEC EDGAR
- Holdings: SEC 13F bulk data sets (free, quarterly)
- N-PX actual votes: SEC EDGAR N-PX filings (annual, August)