Why Proxy advisers are losing their power

Annual general meetings (agms) of shareholders used to be dull affairs. A company’s owners would gather to elect board members or, after the global financial crisis of 2007-09 exposed the gulf between fat-cat bosses and their workers, cast (mostly non-binding) votes on executive compensation. In the past few years, though, they have turned into corporate confessionals, with nothing short of a company’s soul at stake. Motions are proliferating on decarbonisation and diversity targets, political donations, workers’ rights and much else besides. A record 592 environmental and social proposals were filed in America ahead of this year’s agm season, which spans May and June. In the 20 years from Amazon’s initial public offering in 1997, the e-empire’s shareholders voted on 22 resolutions brought by fellow investors. At the latest agm on May 25th they were asked to weigh in on 14. How can the harried fund manager keep track?