The Proxy Adviser Cartel Is in Retreat. Congress Should Continue to Legislate.

Ken Buck
Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:50:39 -0800
Opinion

After intense scrutiny from the Trump administration, Congress and Wall Street, the grip of two corrupt shareholder advisory firms — Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services — is finally waning. Put it down as another point in capitalism's win column.

This month Glass Lewis announced it will move away from "singularly-focused research" and "benchmark vote" recommendations, or blanket advice it used to foist its liberal social and environmental tenets on companies. Earlier this year ISS declared it would "indefinitely halt" guidance on gender, race and ethnicity in corporate governance.

This about-face reaffirms that President Donald Trump's executive action to end the left's DEI crusade has gotten America back to the business of doing business. After years of contorting itself into alignment with the Biden administration's radical cultural and environmental agenda, corporate America is refocusing its time and resources where they matter: creating jobs, driving innovation, and delivering better services and products to consumers.
Updated: Wed Nov 12, 2025

After intense scrutiny from the Trump administration, Congress and Wall Street, the grip of two corrupt shareholder advisory firms — Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services — is finally waning. Put it down as another point in capitalism's win column.

This month Glass Lewis announced it will move away from "singularly-focused research" and "benchmark vote" recommendations, or blanket advice it used to foist its liberal social and environmental tenets on companies. Earlier this year ISS declared it would "indefinitely halt" guidance on gender, race and ethnicity in corporate governance.

This about-face reaffirms that President Donald Trump's executive action to end the left's DEI crusade has gotten America back to the business of doing business. After years of contorting itself into alignment with the Biden administration's radical cultural and environmental agenda, corporate America is refocusing its time and resources where they matter: creating jobs, driving innovation, and delivering better services and products to consumers.

But the Trump administration, Congress and state leaders should not take their foot off the throttle to rein in these market manipulators. Both Glass Lewis and ISS have said that they will continue to peddle their progressive dogma, only now more segmented to companies' "investment philosophies and stewardship priorities." These firms understand the political climate shift eroded their ability to strong-arm businesses into adopting progressive positions, but what's to stop them the next time Democrats take office?

These two foreign-owned firms control 97% of the proxy adviser market. They have no fiduciary responsibility to investors, nor any oversight to require disclosure of their clients, conflicts of interest, or their research. With some of the country's largest mutual and index funds, pensions and foundations in their employ, this duopoly of destruction wields vast power to steer and shape industries to their liking.

Just as troubling as their reach is the firms' business model. Both offer consulting services in addition to voting recommendations, which could be considered a conflict of interest in and of itself. There are no laws or regulations to stop Big Tech from buying a recommendation that hurts one of its nascent competitors, or worse, allowing the Chinese Communist Party proxies to pay for corporate strategies that put U.S. businesses at a disadvantage to foreign competitors.

Glass Lewis and ISS are "a cancer" and "should be gone and dead and done with," JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said pointedly this year. Elon Musk has called them "corporate terrorists." And they are right.

These firms wield immense power to determine public companies' shareholder votes. One study found that the firms' recommendations can swing a vote by as much as 30 points. Yet they are currently beyond the reach of regulators.

Their influence not only hurts investors, it's stifling economic growth. Many U.S. companies are reluctant to go public because they know that doing so could force them to adopt Glass Lewis' and ISS's costly guidance. A public offering might unlock huge upside potential, but is it worth the costs of these proxy advisers' fanatical agenda? Many are saying "probably not." There are only 4,700 publicly listed companies in the U.S. today, compared to 7,800 in 2007.

Glass Lewis and ISS are backpedaling for good reason. Even before Trump took office, corporate America was beginning to shrug off their influence. In 2024 shareholders approved less than 2% of ESG resolutions, down from more than 20% two years earlier. Now, public leaders are taking on the duopoly, both from the top down and bottom up.

Under the leadership of Chairman Paul Atkins — who believes in making IPOs great again — the Securities and Exchange Commission has signaled that it will take up reforms to make proxy advisers more transparent. Texas, Missouri and Florida have initiated action to crack down on the Glass Lewis-ISS duopoly. And under Republican leadership, Congress is continuing to shine a light on these firms' nefarious control.

Now is the time to codify regulation to make these firms transparent and accountable and begin to unwind their grip on our economy. Democrats have shown they have no interest in doing so, and why would they? Glass Lewis and ISS peddled the Left's platform unchecked for years. But there's a new sheriff in town, and Trump, his advisers and Republicans in Congress can shut down this cartel once and for all.