Voting on stock funds

[UpQuark]

Does anyone respond to voting / proxy voting for their various investment funds? Do you do some sort of homework to know what way to vote? So far I've always ignored the letters or emails, and I can't imagine I own enough of anything for my vote to make any difference at all.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Does anyone respond to voting / proxy voting for their various investment funds? Do you do some sort of homework to know what way to vote? So far I've always ignored the letters or emails, and I can't imagine I own enough of anything for my vote to make any difference at all.

I always respond because I don't want to waste money on having to redo the election due to lack of enough votes.

I usually just agree with the party line.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I vote.

 

[rk911]

The only mailing I get is from the insurance company that holds my long term care policy. I ignore it.

 

[sengsational]

I always vote my shares.

Knowing that the majority of shares are voted without any significant research, and along management recommendations, I always vote to throw out the board, and to deny their requests for more compensation. And I usually vote for the shareholder proposals, even if management says not to. Very contrarian here, but I have some reasoning.

The way I figure it, the wild majority of shares are voted along management's recommendation. But let's say there is a bad apple or two and there's a campaign to oust them. I could either spend a lot of time to discover that there IS a campaign, or simply join it by voting against all of them.

 

[imjustawarrior]

I have never voted. I don't see that changing. As a passive investor, I want to stay that way.

 

[jazz4cash]

I vote. I look through the proposals to be informed. I vote AGAINST all the compensation proposals. I usually go online but its actually easier to mail a paper proxy if I get one.

 

[COcheesehead]

I vote just to stop the annoying notices.

 

[Koolau]

I no longer know enough about my old Megacorp to vote my shares. So I don't bother. In any case, my decimal fraction of voting shares runs to several .0's and aren't noticed one way or the other.

 

[frank05]

Always vote against any politician up for a board of directors seat, any director with a number after his name and about 50/50 for shareholder proposals.

 

[orbops]

I always vote for the board members, but vote against any proposals that the company wants me to vote YES on.

 

[Agapostemon]

I vote against any board member that's a CEO or ex-CEO, if they sit on the compensation committee. If the CEO is getting more than seven figures, I vote against the compensation package and *everyone* on the compensation committee. Very few polticians or athletes have any business credentials, and they usually get my NO vote, too. I don't vote for all the shareholder proposals, but I do enjoy reading them.

It all seems so quixotic, though. I wish there was a place for individual investors to talk about proxy votes.

 

[jollystomper]

I vote, but as others I never vote the "party line" and will vote against some of the recommendations based on my research and bias .

 

[ARW44]

I vote against lawyers and purely finance people for the bard. I vote for people who have had technical jobs in the corporation, or people from the corporation's technical area.

 

[Ozz]

I check who is invested in the company and only vote for the people who have "skin" in the game.
Ozz

 

[hotwired]

I sometimes vote, sometimes delete depending how busy I am. I get no fewer than three of these things a week on average. That's probably a sign that I have too many positions and need to consolidate a little. Is there some sort of aggregator or you can go in once a month and just vote on whatever you want? That would make life easier and I bet it would triple if not quadruple the number of small shareholders that actually voted.

 

[schellem]

Does anyone respond to voting / proxy voting for their various investment funds? Do you do some sort of homework to know what way to vote? So far I've always ignored the letters or emails, and I can't imagine I own enough of anything for my vote to make any difference at all.

I look at the executives salaries and if more than a couple million I always note against the 'Advisory vote to approve executive compensation' otherwise I vote the recommendations.

 

[Agapostemon]

Is there some sort of aggregator or you can go in once a month and just vote on whatever you want? That would make life easier and I bet it would triple if not quadruple the number of small shareholders that actually voted.

There are a number of proxy vote aggregators available to institutional investors. Their clients can set proxy policy and let the aggregator take care of the voting. These services are not cheap.

The only one I can find that offers proxy voting services to the individual investor is As You Sow. I'm going to try it out. Thanks for raising the question!

 

[Flute McG]

I primarily invest in funds. When a fund I own has done poorly compared with its "peers", I vote against everyone. Rights offerings ALWAYS get me to vote against everyone. I HATE paying extortion to prevent my shares from being diluted.

(I am not a robot),

Flute

 

[marko]

I vote. Mostly with the party line.

I used to be one of the ones people voted for/against. Feel the need to be responsible.

 

[Koolau]

I've just been ignoring it. I'm a poor excuse of a stock holder!