FP for IR Magazine: Leveraging IR to win the proxy vote of passive investors

Moira Conlon writes for IR Magazine: "The proxy statement may be the only investor communication document passive investors will read and is therefore one of the few opportunities to communicate directly with this important audience."

Index funds control 20 percent of total equity mutual fund assets in the US, which makes them a powerful block of voters at proxy time. While they are passive investors, they are active voters, and that can create a dilemma for companies with a significant percentage of index fund investors. This gives rise to the frequent question: how can we influence these passive investors that are essentially immune to IR communications efforts yet have the power to vote large blocks of our stock?...