The Responsible Wealth resolution, which called for real, contested Board elections at AIG, was the most ambitious of the three. At this time, few U.S. corporations hold contested elections for all Board seats. The other two resolutions concerning insiders on the AIG Board received 27 and 26 percent of the vote. This indicates serious shareholder concern with the makeup of the AIG Board.
Shareholder resolutions face a variety of obstacles.
Rather, filers use these resolutions to get management's attention, and to raise the issue with other shareholders. They hope to achieve a vote sufficient to allow them to return the next year. Responsible Wealth member Anne Ellsworth will present a shareholder resolution at AIG's annual meeting on Wednesday, May 17, in New York City, asking the company to make elections more meaningful by nominating 50 percent more candidates for director than seats available on the Board. The resolution requests that when choosing additional nominees the Board gives special consideration to candidates with connections to diverse stakeholders. At present, shareholders have no choices in the election of directors as there are the same number of nominees as seats.