Reply To: ISAs, SIPPs and falling tax free allowances

[Martin Silman]

Stephen, Cannot argue about the institutional control and lack of governance on the part of fund managers, that is another insurmountable problem on our collective ‘To Do’ list. However, I would say the ‘activist investor’ and ‘small investor’ seems to be much more influential under the US system. I voted shares for PepsiCo and Lockheed Martin this week and those, just like all the others I have seen recently, had motions from small shareholders asking for more control or transparency or objecting to remuneration or whatever. They may usually not get sufficient votes to be enacted, but they always cause the relevant boards to discuss them and to draft reasons why they are against it, etc which must influence their thinking going forward a tiny bit and if it does, that is better than the UK situation.