Category: Proxy Statements and Annual Meetings

ISS Provides 2019 Voting Policy Updates

ISS Provides 2019 Voting Policy Updates

ISS recently announced the 2019 updates to its proxy voting policies, which can be found here and which will be applied to annual meetings held on or after February 1, 2019. Among the various updates provided by ISS, the following policies are particularly relevant for our clients, because they expand the circumstances in which ISS may recommend votes against director candidates: Absence of Board Gender...

SEC Withdraws No Action Letters on Proxy Advisory Firms

SEC Withdraws No Action Letters on Proxy Advisory Firms

In order to facilitate discussion on the role of proxy advisory firms at the upcoming Roundtable on the Proxy Process, which is scheduled for November 2018, the SEC staff has determined to withdraw two no action letters that provided comfort to investment advisers in relying on proxy advisory firm recommendations: In Egan-Jones Proxy Services (May 27, 2004), the staff had confirmed that by voting based on the...

SEC Issues $1.75 Million Penalty Over Perks Disclosures

SEC Issues $1.75 Million Penalty Over Perks Disclosures

A recent SEC consent order against The Dow Chemical Company reminds companies that when evaluating whether or not to disclose a payment or benefit to an executive as a perk in a proxy statement, the fact that the item has a tangential business purpose, or is convenient for the company, is insufficient grounds to exclude the item as a perk.  In order to be excluded as...

SEC Expands on “Smaller Reporting Companies” Eligible for Scaled Disclosure

SEC Expands on “Smaller Reporting Companies” Eligible for Scaled Disclosure

The SEC announced that it has voted to amend the definition of “smaller reporting company,” or “SRC,” expanding the population of companies that qualify for a range of scaled (reduced) disclosure requirements. The rules will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Examples of scaled disclosure include that SRCs, in their annual reports on Form 10-K, are not obligated to include risk...

Disclosure Implications of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Disclosure Implications of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

As companies prepare their Form 10-K and proxy statement disclosures, they will be challenged with disclosing the impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on performance results for the purposes of financial reporting as well as for compensation measurement. Here is a short list of issues to be aware of. Form 10-K Disclosure Implications of Tax Reform: Sections in the MD&A likely to be...

Upcoming CLE Seminar: Preparing for the 2018 Proxy Season

Upcoming CLE Seminar: Preparing for the 2018 Proxy Season

On Tuesday, December 12, Dorsey will present our annual review of developments and disclosure requirements for the upcoming proxy season, including practical advice on how to prepare your proxy statement and annual report in 2018. Click here for more information or to register to attend in-person or via webinar: https://sites-dorsey.vuture.net/76/665/november-2017/12-12-preparing-for-the-2018-proxy-season(2).asp.

ISS Peer Group Submission Window Closes This Friday, for Companies with Fall/Winter Meetings

ISS Peer Group Submission Window Closes This Friday, for Companies with Fall/Winter Meetings

For U.S. and Canadian companies with annual meetings to be held between September 16, 2017, and January 31, 2018, the window for alerting Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) about changes to self-selected peer groups used for executive compensation benchmarking closes this Friday, July 21st, at 8:00 pm EDT. Information on self-selected peer groups may influence ISS as it constructs the peer groups that it uses in...

SEC Commissioner Addresses Prospects for CEO Pay Ratio

SEC Commissioner Addresses Prospects for CEO Pay Ratio

This week, during his opening remarks at the 2017 National Conference of the Society for Corporate Governance, SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar remarked on prospects for repealing or delaying the CEO pay ratio rule. Under the rule, most public companies must disclose the median of the annual total compensation of all employees (including non-U.S., part-time, temporary and seasonal workers), except for the CEO; the annual total...

Proxy Access “Fix-It” Proposals Fizzle

Proxy Access “Fix-It” Proposals Fizzle

As the 2017 proxy season winds down, one clear take-away is that shareholder proposals attempting to modify the terms of previously adopted mainstream proxy access bylaws did not fare well. Many of these proposals focused solely on the aggregation limit, seeking to increase the number of shareholders (usually 20) that are required to meet the minimum ownership threshold (usually 3% of outstanding shares) in order...