The Advisors' Blog

This blog features wisdom from respected compensation consultants and lawyers

December 15, 2010

More on “Say-on-Pay: What Four Frequency Choices Looks Like”

Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com

A few days ago, I blogged about a sample VIF to illustrate how the four frequency choices can be displayed on a proxy card. Mike Andresino of Posternak Blankstein & Lund weighed in that if management is recommending triennial as the frequency, then instead of ordering the choices, reading left to right, as “1-yr / 2-yr / 3-yr / abstain,” he would put the one the company wants first, like this: “3-yr/ 2-yr /1-yr / abstain” (this obviously would be tricky if management recommended biennial).

I confirmed with Broadridge that their systems could indeed process this type of change in order for all of its voting formats: paper, telephone, ProxyVote.com, and ProxyEdge. Whether transfer agents and tabulators can handle that remains to be seen…