Fall is filing time for Responsible Wealth’s annual shareholder resolutions. Currently, Mike Lapham is working with the Center for Political Accountability to identify which corporations Responsible Wealth will file resolutions with.

Keep an eye out for upcoming action alerts. They will be reaching out to all Responsible Wealth members within the next few months to see who owns stock in the corporations we select to file with. If you’re a shareholder, you’ll have the opportunity to take action and hold corporations accountable for full disclosure of their political contributions.

To date, over 100 large public companies have adopted policies ensuring public disclosure of their political contributions. In 2011, RW members filed 5 resolutions and obtained new commitments from Apple, Hershey’s, and Aflac to disclose their contributions, along with a 26% vote from shareholders at Honeywell.

The issue of political contributions is certainly key but I’d like to see Responsible Wealth work on proxy access as well. Submitting proxy access proposals and electing directors who share their concerns might lead to solving more than one issue at a time. For example, directors nominated by Responsible Wealth members might help to not only fully disclose political contributions but might also advocate capping CEO pay based on a dollar amount, a ratio to average employee pay or as a percentage of profits, as Credit Suisse does.

To contact James McRitchie directly, please email jm@corpgov.net