Morrow Sodali's "The COVID-19 Impact on Retail Voter Turnout" (page 11) explains why retail investors turned out in lower numbers this proxy season, why that matters, and how companies can better anticipate and prepare for this potential for the upcoming proxy season. Given the tendency for retail investors to support management at a higher rate than institutional investors, building certain steps into the proxy timeline with the assumption that companies, service providers, and shareholders may still be dealing with certain COVID-19-related challenges is advised.
See also the discussion on virtual shareholder meetings on page 8 and additional resources on our Virtual Shareholder Meetings and Individual (Retail) Investors pages. This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!