More “Hot Issues for Your Annual Meeting”
There is still time to bone up – and maybe right now is the very best time to do so – to be sure you are up to snuff on what really IS hot on the shareholder meeting scene…
Some Early Returns from The Shareholder Meeting Scene: What’s Hot – And What’s Not
What’s the hottest thing for corporate citizens to be worried about as we head into the big spring meeting season?
Virtual Meetings Gain Traction
This year, through June, Broadridge has enabled 140 Virtual Shareholder Meetings – almost all of them “virtual-only” – with no in-person attendees
What To Do If The Power Goes Off At Your Shareholder Meeting… While The Fire Alarms Shriek Alarmingly
How’s this for a shareholder meeting horror-story to take to heart?
The Weirdest Events To Cross Our Desk During The Spring Meeting Season
Despite the relatively quiet season on the whole, we, and our Team of 50 Independent Inspectors of Election, experienced more weird and wacky events than ever before – and more events where corporate managers, and in many cases their outside counsel too, seemed way behind the curve.
A Quick Overview Of The Big Spring Meeting Season…Plus Our Bets On Next Year’s Hottest Meeting Issues
The big spring meeting season was surprisingly uneventful on the whole – with lots of proxy-access proposals passing – or being adopted voluntarily – and with most says-on-pay sailing by with 90%+ margins…much as we’d predicted.
Now’s the Time to Start on Your Annual Meeting Briefing Book, as Ethics and Compliance Issues Jump to the Top of Activist and Issuer Agendas
Back when the Volkswagen scandals first began to break – which seems like ages ago now – we warned readers that ethics and compliance issues were certain to move to the top-of-mind where shareholders of every stripe are concerned.
Re-Tooling your IR and Governance Tool-Kits
How we communicate with each other, investors, and consumers is rapidly changing
Our Newly Revised Primer on Tabulation and Reporting Shareholder Meeting Votes
We last issued our primer on tabulating and reporting on shareholder meeting votes in 2009 – and, since then, there have been so many changes in the landscape, we realized that an updated version was due…right about now…so here it is:
Transfer Agents & Issuers: Are You Prepared For The Future?
The 2015 Industry Index Helps Us Get To Safe Shores
TWO PROPOSED STEPS TOWARD A BETTER RESOLUTION OF THE “STRANDED DRP PROBLEM”
The first, and perhaps the most urgently needed step, we say, is for issuers to review the Terms and Conditions governing their own plan, and revise them so that any time the Plan balance is less than one full share, the Plan Agent will, henceforth, liquidate the fractional share, send a check, and close the account.
“STRANDED DRPS” ARE COSTING ISSUERS BIG BUCKS – LITERALLY “FOR NOTHING”
As we’ve noted in previous issues, your editors, and many of our savvier and busier friends, have been trying to clean up most of our smallish DRP and DSPP accounts. Why? Because of all the paperwork they generate – but also to be able to consolidate all our investments in a single place.
Another Look at Transfer Agent Market Share; The Real Decider, We Say, of Transfer Agent Success… and Survival
Recently, a reader sent us a link to a web-posting from a firm called Auto Analytics, which has been tracking Transfer Agent market share since 2012, based on the number of companies that are active SEC registrants. This way of measuring market share produces very...Stock Transfer Agents – Coping With a Shrinking Universe of Providers
Transfer agents take a lot of heat – from shareholders – and sometimes from their clients too, although, after all, that’s what you really pay them to do.
Q&A With Abby Cowart
New Executive Director of the Shareholder Services Association
The Return Of The Telephone
An Interview with Ellen Philip & Cal Donly Of Ellen Philip Associates
The Optimizer Interviews Jay McHale & Bill Jackson Of Computershare/Georgeson
“Gentleman: 2015 set an all-time record for mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs. With a truly astonishing $4.7 trillion in deals announced, and with so many of the deals involving “mega-cap companies”, we imagine that the impacts on Computershare and on Georgeson Were significant ones. So… for starters….”
The World Of Shareholder Meetings
An Interview With Michael Mackey, President, Alliance Advisors, LLC
The Unforgettable Wilma Soss
The first person ever to demand that directors put women on their boards Wilma Porter Soss (b. March, 1900 in San Francisco, d. Oct. 1986 in Brooklyn) was one of the most colorful, persistent and totally unforgettable people ever to storm an Annual Shareholder...The SSA Announced This Year’s James R. Smith Scholarship Winner – Its 12th!
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.
Here’s The Optimizer’s Roadmap for Better Governance of the Corporate Cash Register – and Share Buyback Programs in Particular
This exercise requires deep thinking – and some somewhat elaborate math that needs to be ‘made simple’ for readers who are not professional economists.
Beefs On Buybacks Finally Gain Some Traction
At long last, the problems and perils of poorly-conceived and poorly executed share-buyback programs are starting to get the attention they deserve.
The Auditor “Blooper Of The Year”?
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:
Berkshire Hathaway Will Stream Its Annual Meeting Via Yahoo…YAHOO! We Say… But Add a Tiny Boo or Two Too
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.
Some Tips for Choosing a Proxy Solicitor/Advisor
“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.
Podcast Alert: Annual Meeting Season 2026 — Expert Advice from Carl & Peder Hagberg
Carl and Peder Hagberg of The Shareholder Service OPTIMIZER join Meredith Ervine from TheCorporateCounsel.net to discuss proxy season risks, virtual meetings, and shareholder engagement for 2026.
Listen to hear their insights on this year’s annual meeting season.