SSA Update From Board Member Alvin Santiago

The Shareholder Services Association Addressing A Variety Of Issues Within A Rapidly Evolving Business Sector

An update from Alvin Santiago, SSA Board Member and Manager, Treasury Service, Fortune Brands Home Security Services.

Though established nearly 70 years ago — way back in 1946 — the Shareholder Services Association (SSA) certainly keeps busy addressing a host of new and evolving issues. Then again, as the SSA has worked diligently through the decades to fulfill its core mission of supporting and educating members in effectively meeting their varied responsibilities for shareholder recordkeeping and service, it has consistently recalibrated its focus to remain in sync with transitions in the economic and business environment.

In essence, evolutionary change is central to the shareholder services profession, and the SSA has never shied from tackling new developments that challenge its members.

And as we look ahead toward 2015, there are a range of items our association leadership will, respectively, either continue or begin to address.

The first of these - and it’s an issue that, broadly speaking,has been with our society for quite a while now - is cyber-security. From the shareholder services perspective, we’re talking about far more than the purloining of credit card numbers or hacking into social media accounts. These days, corporations need to be more savvy than ever to foil the efforts of increasingly dangerous online intruders. From implementation of technological safeguards, to preventing over-sharing of information, to pursuing  advocacy efforts related to passage of legislation aimed at thwarting cyber-crime, shareholder services professionals  need to play a role in strategy  development and implementation, particularly as it relates to protecting investment records.

Another serious issue in our sector relates to issues of abandoned property — specifically, unclaimed securities. Recent legislation - and connected state enforcement actions - have become significantly more aggressive, and protecting shareholders’ property from being escheated to the state is an increasingly challenging responsibility for shareholder services professionals. A great deal of what’s ultimately turned over to the state is deemed abandoned because of lack or loss of contact between the shareholder and the issuer/record-keeper, and each state has its own rules regarding contact. Now, more than ever, if a shareholder hasn’t in any way communicated with the issuer/record-keeper, they are considered lost and their property can become escheated. Previously, escheatment occurred mainly because of a name or address change, or even the death of the original owner. So, much of what we’re facing involves educating shareholders about the need to regularly monitor and update contact information, cash checks as soon as possible after issuance, and cast proxy ballots as frequently as they’re able.

Also of concern to many of our members - and we know this definitively based on results of a comprehensive member survey the association conducted in spring 2014 - is effective interaction with transfer agents, those entities engaged in tracking exactly who owns a given company’s publicly traded securities. This segment of the stock sector is rapidly evolving, likely with an emphasis on consolidation, and those providing services to shareholders need accurate information more than anything else to help them navigate what are becoming changeable waters.

Be it cyber-security or abandoned property issues, or dealing effectively with transfer agents, the SSA already is actively engaged and ready to support and educate our members, in whatever fashion they deem advisable. And with this in mind, we’re already making significant enhancements to our association’s capacity to share and exchange all sorts of crucial information.

Early in 2014, we initiated a comprehensive, new marketing program with multiple goals. These include expanding overall public and corporate awareness of the Association and the shareholder services profession, while also ensuring that members are well versed in the varied initiatives being pursued by the SSA. But, first and foremost, this marketing program is about making sure prospective members are aware of the SSA and the services it provides, and ensuring that current membership continues to be confident that they are receiving truly excellent support — support that helps them grow within their profession.

Alongside our marketing initiative, the SSA is also unveiling a completely redesigned Web site, featuring a broad range of improvements and upgrades. Simply put, there’s far more valuable, industry-specific information at our members’ fingertips than at any other time in our nearly 70-year history, and that’s exactly as we want it. After all, steadily increasing the value of what we provide to our membership is why the association exists — and why it has thrived since the 1940s.

Speaking of value, the SSA provides all its members with easy access to a broad network of influential industry leaders, issuers, and shareholder service providers, thus providing key resources and information ideally suited to expanding professional expertise and generating value within an individual’s company. In addition, the industry contacts made readily accessible through this network can be invaluable in terms of expanding and transforming a career.