The 'Big Three' asset managers use auditor-sharing for portfolio management

Phys · May 14, 2026 · 744 words · By Benjamin Kessler

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What to know about The 'Big Three' asset managers use auditor-sharing for portfolio management

The article discusses a research paper by Young Hoon Kim regarding the practice of 'auditor-sharing' among companies with common institutional investors, specifically the 'Big Three' asset managers. The research suggests that common owners may encourage portfolio companies to use the same audit firm to improve audit quality and financial reporting comparability.

Propaganda risk 10%

Claims checked 11

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center75%

Right25%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

The 'Big Three' asset managers use auditor-sharing for portfolio management Lisa Lock Scientific Editor Andrew Zinin Lead Editor The "Big Three" institutional investors—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA)—have burgeoned into…

Why it matters

With great power comes great responsibility, as well as a risk-averse investment strategy that favors common ownership—i.e., owning equity stakes in multiple companies within the same industry.

Common ground

What all this means for the future of competition under capitalism remains to be seen.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: The 'Big Three' asset managers use auditor-sharing for portfolio management?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The "Big Three" institutional investors—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA)—have burgeoned into load-bearing pillars of the U.S. economy?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-big-asset-auditor-portfolio.html

analyticsAnalysis

10%

Propaganda Score

confidence: 95%

Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 11 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 4

verified Verified 3

help Insufficient Evidence 2

check_circle Corroborated 1

schedule Pending 1

check_circle

Claim 1: “The "Big Three" institutional investors—BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Global Advisors (SSGA)—have burgeoned into load-bearing pillars of the U.S. economy.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources identify BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street as the dominant 'Big Three' asset managers with trillions in assets under management.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's larg…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street collectively manage over $30 trillion and dominate fund investing. This analysis examines how each firm built its position, where their strategies diverge, and wh…
https://icfs.com/specialists-desk/big-three-blackrock-vangua…

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web search NEUTRAL — Most BlackRock shareholders are institutional investors like Vanguard Group and State Street Corp. Individual BlackRock shareholders include investors like Susan Wagner, Laurence Fink and Robert Kapit…
https://admiralmarkets.com/education/articles/shares/largest…

help

Claim 2: “co-owned companies based in the same city were more likely to use not just the same auditor but also the same audit office.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for this specific claim.

verified

Claim 3: “The paper, forthcoming in Contemporary Accounting Research, identifies auditor-sharing as a key coordination tool.”

VERIFIED

A specific web search result explicitly mentions the paper 'Common Ownership and Auditor Sharing' by Young Hoon Kim, forthcoming in Contemporary Accounting Research (2026), identifying auditor-sharing as a key coordination tool.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The paper, forthcoming in Contemporary Accounting Research, identifies auditor-sharing as a key coordination tool.More information. Young Hoon Kim, Common Ownership and Auditor Sharing, Contemporary A…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-big-asset-auditor-portfolio.ht…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Log in to your ResearchGate account to access 160+ million publication pages and connect with 25+ million researchers.
https://www.researchgate.net/login

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web search NEUTRAL — In this session, I provide a very short preview of what I aim to do in this class, and why I think less is more when it comes to accounting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbp3-AU9v_g

info

Claim 4: “Young Hoon Kim, assistant professor of accounting at Costello College of Business at George Mason University, recently published a solo-authored paper that examines a related issue: the governance practices that large asset managers (including but not limited to the "Big Three") employ to monitor their portfolio companies.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While web results confirm that an assistant professor exists at the Costello College of Business at George Mason University, the specific claim about Young Hoon Kim's solo-authored paper on governance practices is only found in the context of the research summary provided in the evidence for claim 2.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assistant_professor

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web search NEUTRAL — Assistant Professor and Director of Minor Programs at the Costello College of Business, George Mason University, 2w.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/yena-kim-641603190_another-we…

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web search NEUTRAL — George Mason University, a top-ranked public university, is just 24 km from Washington, DC. George Mason leads in industry connections at the crossroads of culture, technology and business.
https://www.gmu.intostudy.com/

verified

Claim 5: “Kim analyzed stock market and audit information, as well as holdings reports from asset managers, related to U.S.-based companies during the period 2001–2021.”

VERIFIED

The evidence explicitly states that Kim analyzed stock market, audit information, and holdings reports for U.S.-based companies from 2001–2021.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Kim analyzed stock market and audit information, as well as holdings reports from asset managers, related to U.S.-based companies during the period 2001–2021.Young Hoon Kim, Common Ownership and Audit…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-big-asset-auditor-portfolio.ht…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — researchers studied Mercury's singing and speaking voice.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/14015439.2016.1…

info

Claim 6: “Kim examined the effects of BlackRock's acquisition of Barclays Global Investors in 2009. He found that, after the merging of the two institutions, newly common-held companies were 7.9% more likely to share an audit firm with same-industry peers.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the acquisition of Barclays Global Investors by BlackRock in 2009 is verified by The New York Times and Wikipedia, the specific finding that newly common-held companies were 7.9% more likely to share an auditor is not corroborated by the provided snippets.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company.BlackRock has been criticized for investing in companies involved in fossil fuels, the arms industry, the People's Liberation Army, and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — #BlackRock. There’s a good chance you have never heard of them. In less than 30 years, this American financial firm has grown from nothing to becoming the wo...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4foal20UTA

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web search NEUTRAL — The deal to acquire Barclays Global Investors for around $13.5 billion would create an asset management giant.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/business/global/12barclay…

info

Claim 7: “Company pairings with at least one investor in common were 4.2% more likely to use the same auditor, a statistically significant result.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The specific statistical finding (4.2% more likely) is not present in the provided search snippets, although the general topic is discussed in the research summary. The provided search results for this claim are irrelevant (Quora, Motley Fool).

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Quora is a place to gain and share knowledge. It's a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers. This empowers people to learn from each other…
https://www.quora.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — They say it takes two to tango, and likewise, there's always two sides to every argument. With stocks, I find that there's usually a valid perspective on the other end of the trade. For every good bul…
https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/05/02/dont-fall-for-this…

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web search NEUTRAL — In the auditing profession, there are five major threats that may compromise an auditor’s independence. If an auditor is exposed to a certain.
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/t…

schedule

Claim 8: “the paper also finds that auditor-sharing is higher among companies that also share a board member”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 9: “The likelihood of auditor-sharing was lower for companies with multiple co-owners, and for those with a lower combined market value of co-owned equity.”

VERIFIED

The evidence explicitly states: 'The likelihood of auditor-sharing was lower for companies with multiple co-owners, and for those with a lower combined market value of co-owned equity.'

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — The likelihood of auditor-sharing was lower for companies with multiple co-owners, and for those with a lower combined market value of co-owned equity. To develop the hypothesis, Kim first cites the w…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-big-asset-auditor-portfolio.ht…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Enterprise Value (EV) is the measure of a company’s total value. It looks at the entire market value rather than just the equity value, so all ownership interests and asset claims from both debt and e…
https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/capital_mark…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — If a company creates regular financial reports, it's easy to figure out its book value. Subtract liabilities from assets, and divide the result by the number of outstanding sh.
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/causes-companys-intrinsic-va…

info

Claim 10: “Kim found that company pairs that shared both an investor and an auditor experienced fewer restatements, higher accruals quality, lower abnormal accruals, and less questionable earnings management”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence for this claim consists of irrelevant results about the city of Henderson, NV, and does not address the findings of Kim's paper regarding restatements or accruals quality.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — May 1, 2026 · We're tracking Zura Bio, P-1 AI and more companies in Henderson from the F6S community. Henderson is the 693rd most popular location globally to start a company or startup and ranks 201s…
https://www.f6s.com/companies/united-states/nevada/henderson…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Henderson Chamber of Commerce promotes community growth in Henderson, Nevada, and represents businesses across Southern Nevada.
https://www.hendersonchamber.com/

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Whether you're looking to grab a bite to eat, indulge in some retail therapy, or simply want to support the local economy, Henderson has a diverse array of businesses to fulfill your needs. YP.com loc…
https://www.yellowpages.com/henderson-nv

help

Claim 11: “economically distinct companies—for which apples-to-apples comparisons would be less appropriate—were less likely to share an auditor.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for this specific claim.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.