Understanding the Shareholder Meeting Timeline

Proxy season is fast approaching.  Whether it is for an annual meeting or special shareholder meeting, clients are always asking how quickly they can schedule a shareholder meeting, or where action is taken by consent, how quickly the company can effectuate such consented upon action.  The answer depends on several factors, including whether the meeting is a special or annual meeting, if annual, whether there are any “non-routine” items on the agenda, and whether the company intends to mail out all proxy materials or just a notice of internet availability of such materials.  Although I have written about the proxy rules many times, this is the first blog where I drill down and focus on the timeline.

The federal proxy rules can be found in Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and the rules promulgated thereunder.  The rules apply to any company which has securities registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act. Section 14

SEC Publishes New C&DI On Proxy Rules

Back in fourth quarter 2023, the SEC published several new compliance and disclosure interpretations on various topics including cyber incident disclosure, proxy and information statements, the inclusion of securities in the filing fee exhibit, and Inline XBRL.  As my blog topic list tends to be very long, I am finally getting to this and will cover the various new C&DI topics over the next few weeks.

Proxy Rules

The federal proxy rules can be found in Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”) and the rules promulgated thereunder.  The rules apply to any company which has securities registered under Section 12 of the Act. Section 14 of the Exchange Act and its rules govern the timing and content of information provided to shareholders in connection with annual and special meetings with a goal of providing shareholders meaningful information to make informed decisions, and a valuable method to allow them to participate in the shareholder voting