Nine leading US pension funds have announced that they will be disclosing their voting intentions for shareholder meetings on a new web portal, ProxyDemocracy. AFSCME Employees Pension Plan, CalPERS, CalSTRS, Calvert Investments, Christian Brothers Investment Services, Domini Social Investments, the Florida State Board of Administration, Green Century and Trillium Asset Management are making their individual proxy votes publicly available online. For a number of years many of these funds have made selective announcements about their voting intentions, the new partnership with ProxyDemocracy will open the process to all of their portfolio companies.
“CalSTRS has called for greater transparency from its portfolio companies and we intend to lead the way with comprehensive disclosure of our votes,” said Anne Sheehan, CalSTRS director of corporate governance. “Information is vital for shareholders to make informed decisions about the companies they own and CalSTRS intends to let fellow shareholders, as well as management, know how we intend to vote.”
ProxyDemocracy is a nonprofit organization that offers free online investor information about portfolio companies, their annual meetings and proxy ballots.