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ANNUAL MEETING AND PROXY CONSULTING
Annual Meeting & Proxy Statement Consultation Services
A complimentary annual meeting and proxy statement review can help you determine if your company’s processes are as cost-effective and efficient as possible. At Toppan Merrill, we offer a comprehensive review of your process to help you identify strategies to improve overall shareholder connectivity and stay on budget.
As part of the review, we will look at your peer group to share best practices in making your proxy statement more contemporary and easier to read. Plus, our team of experts will provide suggestions for ways to improve overall shareholder communication and responsiveness.
Our review focuses on five key areas that confront issuers each year
Project Management and Optimisation of Timelines
Production and Mailing Review
Notice & Access Evaluation
Vendor Review
Environmental Impact Statement Evaluation
Mike Spelman
With more than 40 years in the financial print industry and as a recognised thought leader in annual meeting services and solutions, Mike is Toppan Merrill’s Annual Meeting & Proxy Solution Efficiency Expert, specialising in helping companies to identify savings and improve shareholder connectivity.
“My role at Toppan Merrill enables me to assist publicly traded companies in eliminating redundancy in services as well as making sound choices regarding effective shareholder communication. Our primary mission is to comply, connect and communicate while reducing their AGM budgets.”
Project Management & Timeline
- Proactively review record, mail, and meeting dates. Establish a schedule for mailing hard copies and the Notice of Internet Availability that works for you, not your distribution agents.
- Maintain constant communication with your transfer agent and distribution agents. Confirm their understanding of when they are to receive commencement-related materials.
- Establish a timeline for producing and mailing the Notice of Internet Availability forms.
- Help determine the optimal timeline for distribution agents to follow. Not vice versa.
- Provide the means to reduce surplus materials by communicating accurate print quantities between record and mail dates.
- Help avoid workflow inefficiencies that impact timeline and delivery schedules.
Production & Mailing
- Reduce costs through production and material recommendations that will not compromise the integrity of your documents.
- Identify more cost-effective, efficient methods of mailing full set and Notice-only forms.
- Provide layout and format best practices, which often reduces pagination by 10-15%.
- Identify strategies to maximise deliverability while minimising postage expense.
- Provide best-practice guidance on how to avoid surprises by effectively understanding how the current project’s scope affects production and mailing costs.
Notice & Access
- Improve shareholder connectivity by focusing on favourable stratification levels for Notice & Access mailing.
- Review process-associated costs to verify that services are necessary and cost-effective.
- Offer a comprehensive understanding of Notice & Access ancillary services and which to accept.
- Demonstrate that Notice & Access, while cost-effective unlike printing and mailing, is more expensive than voluntary e-delivery.
Vendor Review
- Identify redundancies in services and fees occurring among the transfer agent and the distribution network.
- Ensure received and paid-for services are in line with your objectives in shareholder outreach.
Environmental Impact Statement
- Identify the current electronic delivery and online voting numbers. Promote the initiative by creating a call-to-action summary within the proxy.
- Quantify the fiscal and environmental impact of electronic delivery.
- Include a prepared, customised statement that illustrates the savings for your investors within the proxy.
- Education to create messaging that informs investors about the compelling reasons to choose e-delivery.
- Recommend strategies to drive investors to your website for easy enrolment in e-delivery and the ability to vote online.
