According to NIRI’s study, about 56percent of the 482 of 3,137 corporate members that responded are planning toadopt the electronic method via rules that were adopted last July by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which require companies to provide shareholders withmaterials in electronic or in hard-copy form. The remaining 44 percent havetake a “wait-and-see” approach, hoping to await lessons learned from the early adopters, the study finds.
The Commission’s rules, though, allow issuers of proxymaterials to have the option of providing them via a “notice-only option,” a “full-setdelivery” option, or a combination of the two.
The decision by these companies was determined by the highexpectation of cost savings, the study shows, but whether the promise ofsignificant savings becomes a reality has yet to be seen. Seventy-nine percentof those companies adopting the new rules report that they expect to save moneyin the process, which was the key driver for their decision.
What’s more, the greatest proportion of respondentsindicated that they expect to spend less than half of what they did in 2007 onhard-copy distribution; 91 percent intend to print fewer meeting materials as aconsequence of notice and access.