David A. Bell, Ran Ben-Tzur, and Elizabeth Gartland are Partners at Fenwick & West LLP. This post is based on their Fenwick memorandum.
What You Need To Know
- Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has released its benchmark voting policy updates for 2026, with notable shifts in board accountability for capital structures and responsiveness, executive compensation assessments, evaluation of equity plans, and ISS’s approach to key environmental and social shareholder proposal topics.
- The updated policies will generally apply to shareholder meetings taking place after February 1, 2026.
ISS updated its benchmark proxy voting policies on November 25, 2026. The updates applicable to U.S. companies are briefly summarized below.
