Broadridge-led team simplifies e-proxy notice

Jan 27, 2009

Redesign aimed to better grab attention of potential voters

After the steep drop-off in retail voting at companies that chose to deliver proxy materials over the internet, Broadridge Financial Solutions and other key players went back to the drawing board to see how they could better communicate the shift to e-proxy.

There has been concern that retail shareholders, long used to getting thick proxy packages in the mail, were simply missing the notice telling them how to access materials online or were confused by the instructions. Now the Broadridge-led team has come up with a redesigned notice containing a simpler message, and it has plans for a shareholder education website.

On the first try, companies struggled with the SEC’s restrictive rules governing the content, which produced legalistic fine print any reader would gloss over. The new template increases the font size and clarifies the wording.

‘A goal was to make the envelope more appealing, so that greater numbers of shareowners look inside,’ sums up Chuck Callan, senior vice president for regulatory affairs at Broadridge. ‘To this end, the messaging on the outside of the envelope highlights the importance of voting. It also calls out the positive environmental benefits associated with the notice.’

There was also an effort to make the new notice look ‘less crammed’, include clearer instructions and drive home the point that it is not a ballot, Callan says. The new notice is the same size and costs the same to send as before, he adds. A direct mail design consultant, institutional investors, custodian banks, broker-dealers, Broadridge staff and SEC officials had input on the changes.

Broadridge is further set to introduce a shareholder education program linked to proxy voting pages at ProxyVote.com to further explain the shift to e-proxy. ‘We will also soon provide tools for companies to create a notice online,’ Callan says.

By Anna Snider