Gathered bright and early, 250 participants on the grass in Philadelphia arranged ourselves as the Living Liberty Bell when viewed from above. Among us were Miss America and her 50+ state delegates in addition to those like me were dressed in red, white and blue. I’m in red, 8th row, to the left of the blue crack.
250 years to the day after the Second Continental Congress, July 2, approved Richard Henry Lee’s resolution to declare independence. The Liberty Bell, made in 1751 in England, with its inscription “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.”
Our gathering was followed by a flag-raising ceremony at the Betsy Ross House, concerts, a parade of mayors and an assembly of Congressional representatives. I attended as many events as I could, a longtime goal of mine since I was six years old amidst the Bicentennial. Conversations among heretofore strangers were had, patriotism in its best traditions!
No more than an anecdote, I received a letter from a mutual fund group that they’ve “been trying to contact” me about our investment in their funds. “We would like to speak with you regarding an important matter. The call will only take a moment.”
When I called, as I suspected, it was regarding an annual proxy vote by shareholders and asking that we vote yes, in alignment with the funds’ board of directors’ recommendation, to change the funds’ fundamental investment policy from a diversified one to non-diversified. This would allow the funds to hold a more concentrated position in a single stockholding.
I didn’t know this when I called. The shareholder service rep asked only if “I wanted to vote with management’s recommendation, in favor”. Of course, since I hadn’t read what the vote was about at that time, because I hadn’t yet received the notice by mail, I declined and said, “I’ll call back after I’ve read what I’d be voting on.” The shareholder service rep wasn’t pleased. On my end, somehow this fund vote hadn’t yet been entered into my queue.
That’s how democracy works in the fund world, where shareholder democracy is except in rare occasions a rubber stamp at best, and an inconvenience for the board and their investment managers at worst.
Before I ended the call, the irony was that the fund shareholder services representative warned me that an extended proxy voting process would result in higher expenses paid by shareholders of the fund -- that’s you and me! Sometimes you can’t win, especially so when democracy is treated like an inconvenience. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to handle these votes. In this case, I did vote yes.