The Informed Board Podcast | Pass-Through Voting: Empowering Shareholders or Increasing the Influence of Proxy Advisors?
ERISA Plan Fiduciaries’ Proxy Voting: Regulatory Updates
What are ISS and Glass Lewis and Why Should My Bank Care?
As Maryland public companies begin preparing for their 2024 annual meetings, we recommend that each consider the voting results of its 2023 annual meeting of shareholders. Maintaining awareness of institutional investor and...more
Following a series of accounting and audit scandals in recent years and what has been described as a “crisis of trust”, the UK Government, regulatory bodies, and institutional investor groups have set out to reform the UK’s...more
“ESG month” may not be exactly what you think. It’s the moniker, according to Politico, ascribed to the plan of the House Financial Services Committee, reflected in this interim report from its ESG Working Group, “to spend...more
For many insiders at a newly formed public company, a large portion of their net worth is potentially tied up in holdings of their company’s publicly-traded shares. These insiders often face challenges obtaining liquidity...more
At an open meeting yesterday morning, the SEC welcomed new Commissioner Mark Uyeda and bid farewell to Commissioner Allison Herren Lee. The SEC also voted to adopt new amendments to the rules regarding proxy advisory firms,...more
As companies finalize materials for annual shareholder meetings, we recommend consideration of the following key requirements and disclosures: SEC proxy filing requirements; website and submission requirements; proxy...more
With regulators increasingly focusing on algorithmic discrimination, human intervention in predictive model programming and artificial intelligence (AI) will be more important than ever. Although the list of positive uses of...more
On November 17, 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed amendments to its rules governing proxy solicitations. The proposals seek to address concerns by investors and others that the current rules may...more
[This post revises and updates my earlier post primarily to reflect the contents of the proposing release.] - At an open meeting on November 17, the SEC voted, three to two, to propose amendments to the proxy rules that...more
On November 3, 2021, the staff (“staff”) of the Division of Corporation Finance (“Division”) of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) published Staff Legal Bulletin No. 14L which reverses a series of...more
As COVID-19 rages on, companies are again flocking to virtual annual meetings for the 2021 proxy season, but with one important difference: the luxury of time. Many companies are already exploring retention of virtual annual...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on September 23 adopted final rules amending the shareholder proposal rules in Rule 14a-8 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The final rules: - Require that a shareholder...more
Across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is causing governments, companies, associations and colleges and universities to take unprecedented steps to address the spread and transmission of COVID-19. These steps...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued rule updates and guidance in 2019 that are intended to simplify certain public reporting requirements, clarify the staff’s expectations with respect to no-action relief...more
New Rules, Proposed Rules, Guidance and Alerts - PROPOSED RULES – SEC Proposes Rule Changes for Proxy Advisory Firms – On November 5, 2019, the SEC issued a release proposing amendments to the federal proxy rules...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed amendments to the proxy solicitation rules, directly targeting proxy advisory firms (Release No. 34-87457). Consistent with the updated interpretative guidance the SEC...more
Stinson has prepared an analysis of proposed rules recently adopted by the SEC at an open meeting on November 5. SEC Commissioners voted 3-2 to propose potentially significant changes to the shareholder proposals...more
At the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (the “Commission”) open meeting yesterday, the Commissioners approved two new proposed rules in their ongoing efforts to modernize proxy solicitation and shareholder proxy access,...more
Nearly five years after the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Act”) was enacted in July 2010, the SEC narrowly approved proposed rules required under Section 953(a) of the Act. Section 953(a) of...more
The SEC’s Divisions of Investment Management and Corporation Finance issued Staff Legal Bulletin No. 20 (the “Guidance”) which provides guidance from the Division of Investment Management to investment advisers on their...more
Registrants and investors are increasingly placing greater focus on proxy statement presentation. As a result, over the last few years, proxy statements have evolved into more effective disclosure and marketing tools as...more