Proxy Advisory Services

Extracted Attributes

• Clientele

  Institutional investors

• Influence

  Outsize importance and impact on governance across the corporate sphere

• Key Service

  Research and recommendations for shareholder votes

• Market Role

  Significant role in corporate governance

• Expertise Area

  Corporate governance

• Areas of Advice

  Board composition, executive compensation, board diversity, Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG)

• Primary Function

  Provide research and recommendations to institutional investors on shareholder matters

• Benefit to Investors

  Help make informed voting decisions, efficiently manage votes, reduce costs

• Market Position (Glass Lewis)

  Second-largest firm behind Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)

• Market Share (Glass Lewis, mutual funds, Spring 2019)

  28%

Timeline

• Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) was founded. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia)

  2003-01-01

• Glass Lewis acquired Sydney-based proxy advisory firm Corporate Governance International (CGI), which then became known as CGI Glass Lewis. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2006-09-01

• Glass Lewis acquired Washington Analysis, a political and economic advisory firm based in Washington, D.C., US. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2008-11-01

• Glass Lewis acquired IVOX GmbH, Germany's leading independent provider of proxy advisory and governance services for institutional investors. (Source: Wikipedia)

  2015-06-01

• As of Spring 2019, Glass Lewis controlled 28% of the proxy advisory market for mutual funds, making it the second-largest company in the market. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia)

  2019-03-01

• Glass Lewis was acquired by Peloton Capital Management and Stephen Smith from its previous owners, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Alberta Investment Management Corp. (Source: Summary, Wikipedia)

  2021-03-01

Glass Lewis

Glass, Lewis & Co. (Glass Lewis) is a major American proxy advisory services company. As of spring 2019, Glass Lewis controlled 28% of the proxy advisory market for mutual funds; this makes it the second-largest company in the market behind Institutional Shareholder Services. The primary services provided by Glass Lewis are research and recommendations for shareholder votes by institutional investors, including a digital platform for managing these votes and reporting. A large fraction of those investors follow the recommendations of Glass Lewis in lockstep, giving it outsize importance and impact on governance across the corporate sphere. Founded in 2003, Glass Lewis is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in New York, Washington DC, Kansas City, Ireland, Germany, and Australia. In September 2006, Glass Lewis acquired Sydney-based proxy advisory firm Corporate Governance International which then became known as CGI Glass Lewis. In November 2008, Glass Lewis acquired Washington Analysis, a political and economic advisory firm based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973 and rated among the Best Analysts of the Year by Institutional Investor magazine, Washington Analysis anticipates and analyzes the impact of political, legislative and regulatory developments on the financial markets. In June 2015, Glass Lewis acquired IVOX GmbH, Germany's leading independent provider of proxy advisory and governance services for institutional investors. Until March 2021, Glass Lewis was owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, and the Alberta Investment Management Corp. In March 2021, Peloton Capital Management, a private equity firm, and Stephen Smith, a financial services entrepreneur, acquired Glass Lewis from Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the Alberta Investment Management Corp.

Web Search Results

• Proxy firm

  A proxy firm (also a proxy advisor, proxy adviser, proxy voting agency, vote service provider or shareholder voting research provider or proxy voting advisory businesses (PVABs)) provides services to shareholders (in most cases an institutional investor of some type) to vote their shares at shareholder meetings of, usually, listed companies.

• Proxy advisory firms: What they are & why you should care

  Proxy advisory firms provide a valuable service in helping investors make wise choices about their shareholder votes. In addition, by the nature of their industry, proxy advisors are experts in governance, and their recommendations often set the stage for best practices for good governance. Investors rely on proxy firms all year round, not just during proxy season. [...] 1. Uphold good governance: Proxy advisors are regarded as governance experts. They can help boards identify governance improvements that increase board effectiveness and improve the board-shareholder relationship. 2. Recommend new initiatives: Proxy firms largely led the charge on board composition and compensation, ensuring boards remain responsive to the desire among shareholders for greater board diversity and fair remuneration. [...] Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS): ISS is the U.S.’s largest proxy advisory firm, providing recommendations on 40,000 shareholder meetings each year. Glass Lewis & Co: The second largest firm in the U.S., it advises on proxy voting for 20,000 shareholder meetings in 100 countries. Egan-Jones Proxy Service: A subsidiary of a credit-rating agency, this firm is lesser-known, largely because it doesn’t disclose how many meetings it advises.

• What Are Proxy Advisors And What Do They Do?

  Proxy advisors provide their clients - who are usually institutional investors - with research, data intelligence, as well as recommendations, pertaining to management and shareholder resolutions that are submitted for voting at annual and special meetings held by companies. Due to their autonomous operating nature, proxy advisors are able to digest and evaluate lengthy and complex filings on common corporate events, including mergers & acquisitions, executive remuneration, and more. [...] As well as providing proxy research, following their review of complex filings and high volumes of data, proxy advisors are able to provide research to support their clientele in these following areas: Environment, social, and governance (ESG) Proxy voting Executive compensation models Board diversity The four main proxy advisory firms in the UK are namely: [...] This delivery of successful proxy advisor management service and advice, which in turn delivers the receipt of a good outcome at the issuers’ annual and special meetings, is relevant because it takes proactive identification of potentially contentious matters coupled with good advance planning to ensure that the outcome sought is achieved.

• The Big Thumb on the Scale: An Overview of the Proxy ...

  Proxy advisory firms also exist that specialize in non-U.S. markets. Examples include Pensions & Investments Research Consultants (United Kingdom), Manifest (United Kingdom), Proxyinvest (France), GES Investment Services (Sweden), Nordic Investor Services (Sweden), and Institutional Investor Advisory Services (India). [...] are driven from the market. Proxy advisory firms, however, are insulated from these forces, primarily because many institutional investors rely on their services as a cost-effective method to satisfy the obligation imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission to develop guidelines that are free from conflict and to vote all items on the proxy. Institutional investors do not appear to use their services to improve investment decisions. [...] “Our findings suggest that, rather than identifying and promoting superior compensation practices, [proxy advisory firms] play a key economic role in processing a substantial amount of executive pay information on behalf of institutional investors, hence reducing their cost to making informed voting decisions.”

• The Role of Proxy Advisors in Investor Decision-Making

  How and Why Investors Use Proxy Advisors In order to help them make informed voting decisions, most large institutional investors generally hire one or more proxy advisors to provide research reports on their portfolio companies and the proposals to be voted. Proxy advisors provide investors with extensive research, data, analysis, peer-comparative information and voting recommendations in their reports. They also support their clients by making the research gathering and analysis process more [...] Large institutional investors rely on proxy advisors to efficiently manage and analyze the tens of thousands of votes they cast at companies annually during the brief proxy season. Proxy advisors provide investors with extensive research, data, analysis, peer-comparative information and voting recommendations in their reports. They also provide value by making the research gathering and analysis process more efficient, to minimize costs for the ultimate beneficiaries, including pension [...] hire proxy advisors for efficiency and to minimize costs for their ultimate beneficiaries, i.e. pension recipients and retail investors. Without the proxy advisors’ services, investors themselves would need to procure meeting information, ensure they receive their ballots in a timely fashion, analyze the issues, transmit their votes for tabulation, confirm the votes were received and, in some cases, translate meeting materials for thousands of companies in just a few months.