In this 13-minute video, Broadridge’s Cathy Conlon discusses the retail voting programs popularized by ExxonMobil, including:
1. What are the essential steps of the ExxonMobil program?
2. Will the SEC allow other companies to follow ExxonMobil’s program? What if a company wanted to change some of the parameters?
3. What is Broadridge’s universe of “retail holders” – why might a company’s retail base be bigger than it thinks? Does a company have to send the same message to all of these shareholders? Or it can a company ‘segment’ the communications by sending different messages to different groups?
4. When do you expect companies will solicit their retail holders to opt in? And how often?
5. How does the ExxonMobil program work in practice – how much would a company need to do to run the program? Who runs the microsite?
6. How much would it cost to run a program like the ExxonMobil program for the first year? And how much of this expense relates to the solicitation of participation versus the other administrative components?
7. Do you have a sense of what the ongoing administrative costs would be for future years compared to the first-year expense?
8. Do you anticipate that only very large companies like ExxonMobil will be interested in the program, or are you hoping to find models that may be attractive to smaller companies?
9. How are proxy advisors and institutional investors reacting to the program?
10. Are you planning to accept additional companies into this program at this time, and if so, how many companies do you expect to try a program like ExxonMobil this proxy season?
Authored by
Broc Romanek