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At a recent ExxonMobil annual meeting, members of the Rockefeller family made news by backing a shareholder proposal to change company policy in an effort to alleviate global warming. The resulting media attention raised questions about the proper role of institutional investors in voting on political or social issues brought before the shareholders for consideration.

Because mutual funds hold more than $11 trillion in corporate securities, their voting policies receive greater scrutiny than the votes of any other group of institutional investors. They are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report their votes publicly, and mutual fund shareholders who strongly disagree with the funds’ positions are free to move their accounts elsewhere. At this event, Paul Stevens, president of the Investment Company Institute (ICI), will present the findings of a recent study of how mutual funds represent the interests of their shareholders in voting their proxies. ICI reviewed over 3.5 million votes cast by mutual funds in 160 of the largest fund families during a twelve-month period. Martin Lybecker of WilmerHale; Heidi M. Schooner, who served in the general counsel’s office at the SEC; and Michael Ryan of Proxy Governance, Inc., will respond. AEI’s Peter J. Wallison will moderate.