Richardcyoung.com

  • Home
  • Debbie Young
  • Jimmy Buffett
  • Key West
  • Your Survival Guy
  • How We Are Different
  • Paris
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • The Swiss Way
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • Dick Young
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool
  • Anti-Gun Control
  • Anti-Digital Currency
  • Joel Salatin & Alfie Oakes
  • World Gold Mine Production
  • Fidelity & Wellington Since 1971
  • Hillsdale College
  • Babson College
  • Contact Us

What Does That Have to Do with Your Dividend?

May 24, 2023 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By Sasun Bughdaryan @ Shutterstock.com

You know Your Survival Guy loves dividends and values his fiduciary duty to clients. But Richard Vanderford writes in The Wall Street Journal that this year companies will be voting on issues like “abortion, guns and climate change.” What does any of that have to do with your dividend? Vanderford continues:

A backlash against companies taking on issues ranging from climate change to abortion rights is helping to push shareholder proposals to record numbers this year.

More advocacy groups are using these resolutions to try to inject their voices into the corporate agenda, questioning companies’ adoption of policies that some view as being overly political. One group, for example, put forward a resolution requesting that Eli Lilly report on the risks of supporting abortion. Last year, the drugmaker expressed its opposition to Indiana’s near-comprehensive abortion ban.

Such proposals questioning companies’ stances on social and environmental issues have come in record numbers, surging to 74 for annual meetings held before May 31, up from 43 last year, according to data from ISS Corporate Solutions, a unit of proxy-advisory firm ISS.

“The incredible dissension in the political arena is spilling over into the capital markets,” said Heidi Welsh, executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute, a U.S.-based nonprofit that says it provides nonpartisan analysis of sustainability issues. “Companies are getting dragged into partisan fights that they don’t want to be in, but they can’t avoid it anymore.”

Companies are facing proposals from both sides of the political spectrum, dragging them into the increasingly fractious conversations over environmental, social and governance issues. In total, 682 shareholder proposals were filed for annual meetings being held through May 31, according to ISS Corporate Solutions.

“This is becoming a focal point of our society as a whole,” said Jun Frank, an ISS Corporate Solutions managing director and lead author of a paper on the topic scheduled to be published this week.

As Republican politicians including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis continue to push back on ESG, conservative-leaning shareholders have put forward proposals questioning, for example, the prudence of corporate diversity policies and the feasibility of decarbonization. Businesses should focus on the bottom line, they say.

“Companies are abandoning their fiduciary duties to shareholders to adopt the hard left position,” said Scott Shepard, a fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, a Washington-based conservative think tank that has put forward a number of anti-ESG proposals. “We’re just trying to get them back to sanity and neutrality.”

Action Line: “Abandoning their fiduciary duty?” Your Survival Guy doesn’t like the sound of that. Either you’re a fiduciary, or you’re not. Companies and asset managers owe it to shareholders and clients to put their interests first. When you’re ready to talk to someone who puts your interests first, I’m here.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy. 

Is Your Family Prepared for the Next Disaster? Click Here to Survive and Thrive

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Dividend “Suspensions” Not Dividend Cuts Coming Fast
  • Dividend Religion, Hallelujah!
  • Dividend Paying Stocks and Taxes
  • Dividend Growth is Key
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998.

E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention.

E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris.

Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com

Click here to sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic? - June 17, 2025
  • A Classic Issue from Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report - June 16, 2025
  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah - June 13, 2025

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • The Swiss Way
  • My Favorite Arrondissements in Paris
  • Who Wants to Depopulate the Earth?
  • “I Need Preservation of Principal and Growth”
  • “Take Cover! Get Out of the Market!”
  • “The Losses are Taking a Toll on Their Health”
  • Families to Step up and Be Family Again
  • DIGITAL ID: You Are More than a Soulless Digital Identity
  • Americans Must Demand an End to the Welfare-Warfare State
  • The Common Ground of Democracy is Sinking Beneath Americans’ Feet

Our Most Popular Posts

  • The Night of the Living Dead
  • Whoa, Hang on Here. There’s Trouble in Culver City
  • People Are on Edge
  • TRUMP: "Everyone Should Immediately Evacuate Tehran!"
  • Is Salt Bad for You?
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?
  • A Classic Issue from Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report
  • A Nationwide Day of Defiance
  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah
  • Best Bang for Your Buck: Top 5 AR-15s of 2025

Compensation was paid to utilize rankings. Click here to read full disclosure.

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?
  • Canadian Shipbuilder Targets U.S. Arctic Contracts
  • Israel-Iran Conflict Triggers Freight Rate Surge and Maritime Caution
  • US Export Prices Drop Sharply in May
  • Retro Meets Futurism: Dacora’s Ultra-Luxury EV Channels 1930s Elegance
  • A Classic Issue from Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report
  • The Strait of Hormuz: Oil’s Global Chokepoint
  • AWS’s New Data Center Strategy
  • Trump Mobile Targets Conservative Consumers with U.S.-Made Service
  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • The Sound of Silence?
  • Are You Familiar with the EF and Arithmetic?
  • “Happy I Found Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report”
  • A Classic Issue from Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report
  • The Rich Man “Doesn’t Need the Markets”
  • Is Bitcoin Really Digital Gold?
  • Epic Man Cave with Car Elevator in Utah
  • Is Private Capital Appropriate for 401(k)s?
  • Strikes Expose Israel’s Hidden Drone Operations Inside Iran
  • Even If You Don’t Golf: Part 2

US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

My Key West Garden Office

Your Retirement Life: Traveling the Efficient Frontier

Live a Long Life

Your Survival Guy’s Mt. Rushmore of Investing Legends

“Then One Day the Grandfather was Gone”

Copyright © 2025 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives