An 18-year-old Connecticut high-school senior with his sights set on a career in nursing has been named the winner of the 2016 award under the James R. Smith Scholarship Program of the Shareholder Services Association.
This exercise requires deep thinking – and some somewhat elaborate math that needs to be ‘made simple’ for readers who are not professional economists.
At long last, the problems and perils of poorly-conceived and poorly executed share-buyback programs are starting to get the attention they deserve.
In mid-February our good buddy Broc Romanek, editor of The CorporateCounsel.net forwarded a question he got from one of his many avid readers, as follows:
In last year’s wrap-up of the 2015 shareholder meeting season we predicted that more and more companies would go back to actually trying to make the meetings more inviting – and more useful to shareholders.
“Do not try this at home” – even if you think you have a good safety net: You will almost certainly find yourself “in over your head” one day, you will likely leave a lot of votes ‘on the table’ as unvoted…and, worst of all, your tabulation will have virtually no credibility if challenged.
We first published this article in 2003 and, believe it or not, it didn’t need much updating until recently, other than to note that there has been a very good market for buyers of TA services and a very difficult one for sellers throughout this long period of industry contraction.
Your editor-in-chief was fortunate to have been a witness to dozens and dozens of ‘performances’ by the Gilbert brothers at shareholder meetings, where he came to know them both.
Goodbye and Good Riddance We Say, To Those 20+ Page RFPs with their 200-Page Responses
Unclaimed Property Compliance Update. A review of the current unclaimed property enforcement environment and recent legislative developments.
After almost 30 years of no action, the SEC asked for comments on a “mega-list” of proposed initiatives to regulate the transfer agency industry, which has changed beyond recognition…
As we just learned at the SSA conference in July, a sweeping re-draft of the so-called Uniform Abandoned Property Act has been approved, that would, among other things, call for state treasurers to wait at least three years before selling any “underlying securities” deemed abandoned…
Interview with Bruce Goldfarb, President & CEO of Okapi Partners
And Those Dangerous “Floor Votes” Too… Very Badly Advised!
By Ron Schneider, Director, Corporate Governance Services, RR Donnelley
SCAMSTERS MASQUERADING AS INVESTORS MANUFACTURE PROXY VOTES IN A FAILED AT EMPT TO SEAL A DEAL…THE BIG SURPRISE? NOTHING REALLY NEW HERE: WHO’S WATCHING THE PROXY BIZ ANYWAY?
The biggest takeaway, by far, is how much smooth sailing those proxy access proposals with 3% ownership and 3-year holding periods encountered… pretty much as we predicted.
Let’s lead off on a high note, with some of the best meetings your editor attended – and where there were some nice innovations worth passing along:
For the majority of our readers, their annual meetings are six months or more away as we write this…
Nine shareholder resolutions will come to a vote in 2016 on The Holy Land Principles – “an 8-point corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Israel-Palestine” according to a press release signed by the fiery Irish-American priest and preacher, Father Sean Mc Manus.
Regular readers are well aware, we hope, of our frustration with the overall presentations of shareholder meeting and voting materials over the web.
