Using Your Shareholder Power
Shareholder engagement is using your power as an investor to encourage companies to become more responsible and sustainable.
Investors work with companies that meet their positive and negative screens to make them even better. Sometimes just simply talking to senior management can result in creating change.
Sometimes companies need the added incentive of an investor filing a shareholder resolution. Using your proxy votes is an important way to keep companies accountable for their actions.
As Ashley Hamilton of SHARE (a not-for-profit organization that provides shareholder engagement services for Meritas Mutual Funds) states, “Voting is something that all funds are required to do, but sadly many of them simply give their investment managers discretion to cast votes. Funds that have more oversight of their proxy voting can help communicate their values to companies when shareholder proposals are presented.”
Some SRI mutual fund companies, like Inhance, Meritas and Ethical Funds are very active in shareholder engagement, others are not.
At Stephen Whipp Financial we encourage our clients to encourage the great companies they hold in their portfolios to become even better.
Shareholder Engagement Resources
Shareholder Resolution Database – SHARE
Canadian Institutional Shareholder Activism in an Era of Global Deregulation – SHARE
