2023 Policy Survey

In August and September 2023, Glass Lewis conducted its inaugural Policy Survey to help inform our understanding of evolving market sentiment on noteworthy areas and to best align our Benchmark Voting Policy Guidelines to our clients’ expectations. In total, Glass Lewis received 140 responses from institutional investors, and 417 responses from corporate issuers, corporate advisors, shareholder advocates and other stakeholders. The survey questions spanned a variety of areas, including executive compensation, ESG and shareholder proposals, capital structure/voting rights, and director commitments, among others. Below are notable findings from the survey.

Investors view financial results, excluding total shareholder return (TSR), and incentive payouts relative to TSR as the most important factors when reviewing executive pay-for-performance alignment.

Overwhelmingly, respondents indicated that companies should set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets. However, there was a split on exactly which companies should set targets — and exactly which types of targets they should set.

More than 40% of investors would vote against boards that use plurality voting for uncontested director elections, and over two-thirds view the practice as problematic.

Most investors believe all board-level roles should be considered when assessing whether directors’ commitments are overstretched.