Proxies

OCIE has issued its second-ever ComplianceAlert, a letter addressed to CCOs discussing areas of concern identified in recent SEC adviser and broker-dealer examinations. The letter highlights a number of weaknesses to avoid as well as best practices to adopt. Many of the letters observations will be familiar to experienced compliance professionals. Heres a quick overview:Personal […]

Comments on the SECs Form ADV Part 2 proposal were due last month. Heres what you might want to know: There were a lot of good, substantive comment letters. As of press time, the SEC had posted 69 comment letters on its website. Most of those letters raised valid, constructive points – there were relatively […]

In a win for shareholder activists, the Division of Investment Managements Office of Disclosure and Review has informed Fidelity that it cant exclude a shareholder proposal requiring various Fidelity funds boards to “institute oversight procedures” to screen out investments in companies that “substantially contribute” to genocide and human rights violations. This past fall, various activists, […]

Reminder: When voting your ERISA clients proxies, resist the temptation to become a corporate activist, unless you think it would improve your clients investment returns. If you wade into a proxy fight for any other reason, such as to advance a particular public policy, you could run afoul of ERISA. That was the message in […]

The Government Accountability Office has issued a report assessing the level of conflicts presented by proxy voting services, such as Institutional Shareholder Services, Egan-Jones, and Glass Lewis. The report did not make any specific recommendations to the SEC or Congress. Nor did it assess the firms policies and procedures for mitigating conflicts, or the SECs oversight […]

Attention back office jocks: The Asset Managers Forum recently published a draft paper on processing corporate actions, such as exchanges, tender offers, and merger announcements. The 27-page “Corporate Actions Best Practices Initiative: Aid to Public Comment” identifies a number of current flaws in the current method of processing corporate actions and suggests best practices. Written comments […]

The SECs Boston Office is conducting a new proxy sweep. Heres a copy of the request letter.

Short answer: probably not. But you should pin it down one way or another in your contracts.At the October 20 ISS conference, following a presentation by plaintiffs lawyer Randall Pulliam of Baron & Budd PC (see IM Insight, October 24, 2005), Investment Adviser Association general counsel Karen Barr discussed the role of non-mutual fund advisers […]

Remember that list of sample “to-dos” published in IM Insight on July 4, 2005? As promised, heres an expanded list, based on many helpful comments from industry participants. Use it to jog your memory, spark ideas, and/or give you a sense of what other firms are up to. Many of these to-dos are not explicitly […]

Last week, the SEC sent out a proxy voting mini-sweep letter. Also making the rounds: a sweep letter for wrap fee managers, believed to have been sent out early July to a very small number of firms.