Shareholder meetings are important events when it comes to the direction of your company. These meetings allow your stockholders to better understand the company’s current trajectory, objectives, and strategy, while also allowing them to make their voices heard and directly impact the company’s future. This impact comes mainly in the form of voting on the company’s board of directors, proposed programs and initiatives, and more.
The way your shareholders vote at an annual meeting will have major effects on the way your company operates for the following year. That’s why it’s of the utmost importance to make sure as many of them are participating in the process as possible. This participation ensures that your company’s governance structure and process doesn’t stagnate, and that any proposals or resolutions you’re attempting to pass have a better chance at doing so.
When you need help making this aspect of running your company work, you need a proxy advisory firm. In this blog post, you’ll learn more about what exactly this kind of firm can do to help you, the benefits you may see from their work, and what you should look for in a firm to determine if they’re the right fit for helping to advise you in matters of communicating with and engaging your shareholders.
As the name would partially imply, a proxy advisory firm works with you to guide the way you help your shareholders engage with the governance process of your company. These advisory services are grounded in expertise regarding matters of regulatory compliance, effective communication protocols, and more.
They don’t necessarily just assist you when it comes to annual meetings, either; an advisory firm may be a useful resource for a variety of special meetings and major transactions that may take place throughout the year. That’s because the skills these firms rely on are important for a number of different functions that will need to be performed at various points in time.
The “proxy” part of the term refers to the practice of shareholders designating another entity to vote at a meeting on their behalf. One of the main services offered by a proxy advisory firm is to assist you in drafting a proxy statement, or a notice sent out to shareholders outlining the details of the issues and topics being voted on at the next shareholders meeting.
Proxy solicitation is the term used for the practice of distributing proxy notices to shareholders, and getting help for it from an advisory firm is beneficial to your annual meetings (and your company as a whole) for a number of reasons.
Engaging your shareholders is a matter of good communication. An advisory firm will bring this kind of professional expertise to the table and understand how to analyze proxy voting patterns and other data points to determine what kind of messaging is most effective for increased participation. This kind of firm is also a helpful resource when navigating an ever-shifting regulatory environment.
The kinds of skills that make a proxy advisory firm a worthwhile asset to your company are grounded in a mix of governance, operations, legal, and communications expertise. With that in mind, the firm you work with should give you access to a team with substantial combined experience in all of these areas.
Kingsdale Advisors may be the right Canada proxy advisory firm for your needs. We regularly provide our advisory services for meetings and transactions for major corporations across the United States, Canada, and Australia, and we’re ready to work with you to find the right strategy for engaging your shareholders. Contact us now or call directly at 888-683-6007 to learn more.
