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ShareOwners.org Barclays, Northern, State Street and Vanguard Top List of Mutual Funds Enabling Excessive CEO Pay

Washington, DC ― In a new report, “Compensation Complicity: Mutual Fund Proxy Voting and the Overpaid American CEO,” the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), The Corporate Library and Shareowners.org analyzed mutual fund voting patterns on compensation issues in

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Added by ShareOwners.org on July 21, 2010 at 9:30am — No Comments

Sanford Lewis Should shareholder proposals serve as an early warning system for emerging risks and retail challenges?

The socially responsible investment community views the shareholder resolution process as a vehicle for allowing investors to raise and debate issues that may eventually impinge on the corporate bottom line. However, a recent meeting with the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that such a view is not necessarily shared by the SEC staff.

First, some legal background. Shareholders that hold over $2000 of shares in a company for over a year are entitled under SEC r… Continue

Added by Sanford Lewis on July 16, 2010 at 8:00am — No Comments

Tracy Stewart Goldman agrees to record SEC penalty over subprime business practices

The SEC announced a record penalty for a Wall Street firm to Goldman Sachs over its business practices surrounding subprime mortgage investments. $250 million will be returned to harmed shareowners and $300 million will go to the US Treasury.

Shareowners suffer large net losses in cases like this, all the more reason to monitor companies to prevent these incidents from happening in the first place. I wish the SEC wou

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Added by Tracy Stewart on July 15, 2010 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Maureen Thompson Wall Street Reform bill passed by the Senate; awaits President's signature

The Senate passed the financial reform bill today (Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act) and sent it President Obama, who is expected to sign it into law in the next few days. ShareOwners.org and its members played an active role in pushing Congress to include in the legislation important new tools for investors to hold corporate boards and management accountable, inclu

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Added by Maureen Thompson on July 15, 2010 at 8:52pm — No Comments

Tracy Stewart Proxy Governance Mulls Change to Non-Profit That Would Bring Benefits to Individual Owners

Take a look at this story from Pensions and Investments Online concerning Proxy Governance. They are considering a big change in their ownership model that would transform the company into a non-profit entity. The change would potentially allow individual owners to access the automated voting capabilities and company-level proxy research that larger institutions have, tools that now have been out of the reach of the individual investor and even some smaller institutional investors.

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Added by Tracy Stewart on July 14, 2010 at 5:46pm — No Comments

James McRitchie Investment Clubs as Active Ownership Funds

Calgary, of course, has more than oil and tar sands. The Calgary Herald recently carried an interesting article on investment clubs. (New breed of Investment club goes big, 7/4/10) Traditionally, investment clubs have up to about 12 people who meet over lunch or dinner for as much a social function as for investing. As those clubs have declined, we now see a new type rising. Podium, a new club in Calgary,… Continue

Added by James McRitchie on July 8, 2010 at 3:43pm — No Comments

Tracy Stewart Proxy Access Threshold of 5% is too high--info from CII

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Added by Tracy Stewart on June 24, 2010 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Maureen Thompson CONTACT HOUSE CONFEREES ON WALL STREET REFORM BILL AND URGE THEM TO REJECT SENATE OFFER ON PROXY ACCESS

For those of you following the House-Senate conference on the Wall Street reform bill, you will know that both the House and Senate bills included provisions reaffirming the authority of the SEC to issue rules related to proxy access. The provisions were nearly identical and everyone expected the provision would be part of the final package. The Senate bill also included a majority voting provision, but the word for several weeks now was that that provision would come out of any final bill.

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Added by Maureen Thompson on June 17, 2010 at 1:28pm — 2 Comments

Andrew Shapiro (Lawndale) SEC makes clear Reg FD does NOT prohibit director - shareholder communications

New compliance and disclosure interpretation from SEC was just issued on June 4, 2010 that includes new guidance regarding director shareholder communications. The full document can be found at:
http://www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/guidance/regfd-interp.htm

Question: Does Regulation FD prohibit directors from speaking privately with a shareholder or groups of shareholders?

Answer: No. Regul… Continue

Added by Andrew Shapiro (Lawndale) on June 15, 2010 at 1:35pm — No Comments

Andrew Shapiro (Lawndale) Lawndale amends P&F Industries 13D ; sends letter to Board; votes to WITHHOLD ALL directors;

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Added by Andrew Shapiro (Lawndale) on May 27, 2010 at 12:28am — No Comments

Andrew Shapiro (Lawndale) more expansive view re director independence

Following Post from HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation raises a potentially powerful opening for shareholders

Director-Management Relationships under Stock Exchange Independence Standards

Executive summary:
A recent disclosure by Black & Decker Corp. and a subsequent clarification as a result of a complaint by the New York Stock Exchange provide helpful insight regarding how business, and possibly other, relationships between directo
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Added by Andrew Shapiro (Lawndale) on April 9, 2010 at 11:28am — No Comments

James McRitchie Abusive Practices Continue as VIFs Tilt Voting in Favor of Management

SEC Rule 14a-4(a)(3) states the proxy "shall identify clearly and impartially each separate matter intended to be acted upon, whether or not related to or conditioned on the approval of other matters, and whether proposed by the registrant or by security holders."

Broadridge claims they don't have to follow the rules required for proxies because they use a Voter Information Form (VIF), not a legal proxy. Broadridge can apparently… Continue

Added by James McRitchie on April 5, 2010 at 9:00am — No Comments

ShareOwners.org CURBING RUNAWAY WALL STREET PAY: THE KEY ACTION ITEMS

What steps should be taken now to rein in runaway pay on Wall Street? Click here to read the recommendations of John Wilcox, the chairman of Sodali, a director of ShareOwners.org, and the former head of corporate governance at TIAA-CREF. Wilcox posted his thoughts Friday on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation.… Continue

Added by ShareOwners.org on March 29, 2010 at 1:00pm — No Comments

Maureen Thompson CRUNCH TIME IN SENATE: SPEAK UP FOR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REFORMS!

It's time for shareowners to speak up and be heard! Today (March 22, 2010), the U.S. Senate Banking Committee begins work on a bill to address the causes of the financial crisis. Please call your Senators TODAY at 202-224-3121 and urge them to support the corporate governance provisions of the Dodd bill. Tell them we need real financial reform, which includes important and much-needed corporate governance reforms, including proxy access, majority voting and "say on pay." You can get talking… Continue

Added by Maureen Thompson on March 22, 2010 at 12:36pm — 1 Comment

Frank Hay Executive Compensation

Are stockholders being ripped off by excessive executive compensation?

The compensation paid to the CEOs of some of the largest banks and auto manufacturers, all of whom have been having big problems with profitability recently, were reportedly:

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Added by Frank Hay on March 17, 2010 at 2:10pm — No Comments

Frank Hay Executive Compensation

Are stockholders being ripped off by excessive executive compensation?

The compensation paid to the CEOs of some of the largest banks and auto manufacturers, all of whom have been having big problems with profitability recently, were reportedly:

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Added by Frank Hay on March 17, 2010 at 12:38pm — No Comments

Shelley Alpern Proxy voting for the masses

Moxyvote.com has produced a 2-minute video that not explains why it's important for individuals to vote their proxies, but manages to amuse greatly at the same time. Please view it and share it widely: http:/tinyurl.com/yguzsww.
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Added by Shelley Alpern on March 2, 2010 at 10:02am — No Comments

Maureen Thompson CHECK OUT THE SEC EFFORT TO BOOST INDIVIDUAL INVESTOR PROXY VOTING!

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking action to promote greater investor participation in corporate elections. The Commission is hoping to “get the vote out” from individual or mom and pop investors.

As the SEC notes, investor participation in the elections of companies they own is c

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Added by Maureen Thompson on February 24, 2010 at 2:30pm — 1 Comment

Alex Higgins Wall Street Bonuses Rose 17% in 2009

Today, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli announced that Wall Street paid out $20.3 billion of bonuses in 2009, up 17% from 2008. Bonuses at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley rose by 31%.

Given the lingering problems in the economy and high unemployment, one wonders what these executives could have done to merit these awards. Let's not forget that these are the same banks that had to be bailed out with taxpayer money in order to avoid collapsing.

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Added by Alex Higgins on February 23, 2010 at 11:15am — No Comments

John Chevedden When companies know better than shareholders

When companies know better than shareholders
By LOREN STEFFY Houston Chronicle
Feb. 6, 2010, 12:18AM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/6854111.html

Extract:
John Chevedden says he owns 50 shares of Houston-based Apache Corp. But when he tried to submit a shareholder proposal last month, the company not only rej… Continue

Added by John Chevedden on February 8, 2010 at 11:23am — No Comments

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