DWS Group Inc., the asset-management business of Deutsche Bank AG, recently raised $843 million in a single day for a new fund that tries to invest in the best corporate citizens in the U.S. Source: Painstaking Progress for Funds That Aim to Do Good – WSJ
Financial Advisor IQ – Broker-Dealers Rebuked for “Web of Toxic Incentives” in Congressional Hearing on Reg BI
The broker-dealer business model is broken and won’t be fixed by the SEC’s proposed Regulation Best Interest. That was the picture painted by all but one of five witnesses called to testify on the effectiveness of the proposed rule at a Congressional hearing Thursday.“The brokerage business model, with all of these and other perverse incentives,…
Why Proxy Votes are Important for ESG Investing | ThinkAdvisor
When investing client assets in ESG-focused funds, don’t just consider a fund’s investment strategy and holdings; look also at its proxy voting history and current votes on shareholder resolutions, now that the proxy voting season is underway. What you find may surprise you and/or your clients. According to a new report from Morningstar focused on…
Mutual funds start to put their mouth where their money is | Reuters
Corporate America’s biggest shareholders have traditionally been content with sharing their views on a company’s strategy privately with management. But now some mutual funds are beginning to rethink their stance, amid pressure from investors for them to justify the fees they charge and a push to boost the performance of their holdings. Wellington Management Company…
Many S&P 500 CEOs Got a Raise in 2018 That Lifted Their Pay to $1 Million a Month – WSJ
The strong U.S. economy has created millions of jobs and pushed up wages for many Americans. It also helped many big-company CEOs secure another raise and total compensation worth $1 million a month.Median compensation for 132 chief executives of S&P 500 companies reached $12.4 million in 2018, up from $11.7 million for the same group…
CalSTRS anchors Impactive’s responsible-investing hedge fund | ImpactAlpha
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System is committing $250 million to Impactive Capital, a new activist hedge fund that will focus on responsible, long-term investing.Impactive was launched by Lauren Wolfe and Christian Asmar, who previously worked at Blue Harbour Group, a 15-year-old fund that built a reputation on being a collaborative activist fund. Impactive’s founders intend…
Glass Lewis Launches Pilot Program for New Report Feedback Statement Service; Registration Now Open — Sidley Austin LLP
Yesterday Glass Lewis & Co. announced that it will pilot a new Report Feedback Statement (RFS) service to a limited number of U.S. public companies and shareholder proponents during the 2019 proxy season. According to Glass Lewis, the purpose of the RFS service is to allow companies and shareholder proponents to “more fully and directly…
Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan Got 5% Pay Raise In Spite Of Scandals | Fortune
In spite of the scandals upon scandals that Wells Fargo dealt with last year—and continues to deal with—the bank submitted a security filing Wednesday which revealed that CEO Tim Sloan received a 5% pay raise between 2017 and 2018, totaling to an $18.4 million salary.Sloan’s compensation, which Reuters reports included a $2 million bonus for…
Jim McRitchie’s Draft Petition to the SEC on Disclosure of Proxy Votes
Jim McRitchie (jm@corpgov.net) is seeing comments on his draft rulemaking petition for real-time disclosure of proxy votes. Corporations have facilitated the most dynamic economic growth in history. Addressing adverse externalities, like dark money and climate change, has been hampered by dispersed ownership. Mechanisms are needed to define common values and increase individual empowerment within corporate dominated…
RBA’s climate change speech hints at radical policy shift
The supply shocks associated with climate change must force a radical rethink in the way central banks set monetary policy, shifting focus away from inflation onto nominal growth.That is the view of Warwick McKibbin, an economist at the Australian National University and former board member of the Reserve Bank of Australia, whose work on the…
