In our consideration of a voting decision, we look to balance the expectation that we set a high bar for board effectiveness while acknowledging the information asymmetry between shareholders and company management. This means that we must, at times, begin with the assumption that management and the board are carrying out their duties faithfully, however it does not mean that we are shy about voicing our concerns through engagement and voting. We feel it is important to reiterate that our public voting policy, and not deference to management, is always our default position.

We find ourselves opposing many proposals that are either unclear in their alignment with shareholder interests or at odds with our judgment of the best course for the company. This is reflected in both the 89% of management proposals that we supported in the last year and the 11% we opposed. We opposed management on at least one item at 42% of meetings. Some of the main areas of opposition for management proposals involved director elections, management compensation, and share issuances without a clear case for the dilution. Main drivers of management opposition for shareholder proposals were related to political spending and lobbying disclosure, the separation of chair and CEO, and the elimination of supermajority provisions.

• Mutual Funds Records
• UCITs Records
• 2021 Report