The Advisors' Blog

I’ve been curious about the direction of Glass Lewis since it was reported earlier this year that they were being acquired by a private equity firm. Yesterday, the proxy advisor announced the launch of an Equity Plan Advisory service – through a newly formed affiliate, Glass Lewis Corporate. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

Public companies can work with a Glass Lewis Corporate advisor to model their equity compensation plan against the Glass Lewis model. Advisors will review plans with customers, testing different new-share requests and equity plan amendments against Glass Lewis’ methodology, examining multiple what-if scenarios. Glass Lewis maintains a strict separation between Glass Lewis Corporate advisors and Glass Lewis research analysts in order to ensure the continued independence of our proxy advice.

With its Report Feedback Statement and “self-serve” engagement calendar, Glass Lewis seems to be working to accommodate companies and address some of the concerns that have been raised over the years about issuers’ ability to verify information in proxy reports. Yet, this new business model may draw some criticism. Some companies harbor cynicism against ISS – the other major proxy advisor – for having a business arm that offers issuer consulting services like this. That’s the case even though – or maybe especially because – working with ISS Corporate Solutions in no way guarantees that you’ll get a favorable recommendation from ISS on your ballot item. Now, you can also engage Glass Lewis Corporate to try to make sure your plan will pass the models.

– Liz Dunshee