Weekly Wreck

Regulators Begin to Tip their Hand with New Concerns for Registered Investment Advisers

September 15, 2021
By: Kevin McManus As administrations have changed, so has their outlook on proxy voting and the associated rules and regulations. Many of the proposed rules from last year are now suspended and may never be implemented – at least in their current form. On the other hand, issues like ESG and t… Read More

Are You Ready for the New War on Carbon?

November 23, 2020
  By: Kevin McManus With the likely coming change in administration it is a safe bet that enormous change is coming to the regulatory and tax framework at the state and federal levels for both the producers and users of carbon-based energy … Read More

Is Your Proxy Voting Plan Working For or Against You?

October 28, 2020
As RIAs and other institutional investors ramp up for the Fall mini-season and the accompanying uptick in workload it brings, if you are responsible for proxy voting (or not voting) at your firm you want to ask if your current strategy is working now? Will it work with the n… Read More

Why So Many Institutional Investors Outsource Proxy Voting

October 14, 2020
If you are an institutional investor you have probably thought about it, indeed there is a very good chance you are already outsourcing proxy voting. Either way it’s worth looking at the cost and benefits of why outsourcing makes so much sense for this key compliance issue as … Read More

Why Paid Proxy Firm Consulting with Issuers is a Very Bad Thing

August 21, 2020
You have heard it for years, certain proxy firms, with the exception of Egan-Jones, have an unforgivable conflict of interest: they get paid to consult with the very firms they rate and recommend votes on. Sometimes called “pay for pay” instead of “pay to play,&rdq… Read More

CEO Compensation was a Joke Before Covid-19, Now It is Just Obnoxious

June 11, 2020
In an era of sacrifice, risk, and despair for many employees, one group of employees has yet again defied the norm, often with significant increases in actual compensation and wealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic and societal turmoil. Who are these lucky ducks—top execut… Read More

Tesla's Elon Musk - Yet another Example of why to Play Nice with Investors

May 08, 2018
With the price of oil on the rise, major auto companies like Ford essentially dropping out of the auto market you would think that the world would be Tesla’s [TSLA] oyster. Despite all these opportunities to begin the hard work of making the short sellers pay and pay dearly Elon Musk apparent… Read More

Ford - A One Trick Pony?

April 30, 2018
You would think with a number of directors who have been on the Board since the 80s and 90s Ford [F] would be a firm with some institutional memory. You would think that they would remember what happened the last time gasoline prices rose before phasing out almost all US car sales. Unfortunately j… Read More

Wells Fargo - Take Two - Still More Bad News for Shareholders

April 24, 2018
As we've said before we don't think Wells Fargo’s Board [WFC] is pursuing the smartest of strategies when it comes to putting the many issues it faces into the "closed" pile. That being said, in our opinion the latest $1,000,000,000 (actually two fines of half a billion each) fine is much be… Read More

The Writing on the Wall - Don't Count on Social Security?

April 16, 2018
With the return of trillion-dollar deficits, the question becomes what are the consequences? Probably not much in the short term, possibly an overheated economy from spending, but higher interest rates (another outcome) will probably fix that. Certainly, the will to cut costs on either the left or … Read More

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