Company: SWZ
Filing Date: 2025-01-27
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000894189-25-000453
Chunk: 20

Company: Total Return Securities Fund
Filing Date: 2025-01-27
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 20
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 to influence the management of the applicable portfolio companies to take actions to increase the market price of the Fund’s investments in such companies’ securities (e.g., by repurchasing such securities, paying a special dividend, or by considering restructuring actions, such as selling or liquidating the company). Bucket 3 involves the purchase of securities whose issuer is undergoing a corporate event such as mergers, liquidations, reorganizations, or spin-offs that, in the opinion of Bulldog, will provide attractive returns relative to the risk-free rate. The Non-Bulldog Directors discussed the fact that Bulldog has provided similar investment advisory services to Special Opportunities Fund, Inc. (“SPE”) since 2009, to High Income Securities Fund (“PCF”) since 2024 and to the Bulldog SMAs. The Non-Bulldog Directors further considered that Bulldog has proposed highly qualified senior executives to serve (or to continue serving) as the Fund’s President and Chief Executive Officer and the Fund’s Chief Financial Officer and, in that capacity, to certify certain Fund reports as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, at no cost to the Fund. Bulldog proposed that Andrew Dakos, a principal of Bulldog, would continue to serve as the Fund’s President, Thomas Antonucci, the Director of Operations of Bulldog, would continue to serve as the Fund’s CFO, and Rajeev Das would continue to serve as the Fund’s Secretary, all at no cost to the Fund. In particular, Bulldog proposed to deduct from its investment advisory fee all officer and director fees paid to those officers and directors of the Fund (other than the Fund’s Chief Compliance Officer) affiliated with Bulldog. -12- Performance, Fees and Expenses of the Fund and Comparisons to Other Clients The Non-Bulldog Directors noted that Bulldog was not yet providing services to the Fund; therefore, there were limitations on the Non-Bulldog Directors’ ability to evaluate the performance of Bulldog in managing the Fund. Based, however, on the performance of the proposed portfolio management team in managing other securities portfolios and with closed-end investment companies, as well as its experience in identifying investment opportunities that have attractive risk reward characteristics, the Non-Bulldog Directors concluded that, while recognizing that past investment performance may not be indicative of future returns, there was reason to believe that Bulldog could achieve above-average risk-adjusted returns for the Fund over the long term in managing the Fund. In particular, the Non