ISS Unveils 2014 Policy Updates and More

ISS’s recently announced 2014 policy changes for U.S. companies are relatively limited in scope compared to past years. The updates, which are largely unchanged from the draft policies released in November, will take effect for annual meetings beginning in February 2014.More substantive policy revisions, however, are already in the works for the 2015 proxy season. ISS has opened a new consultation period through February 2014 to solicit feedback from governance stakeholders on five additional issues: independent chairman shareholder proposals, director tenure, director independence, auditor tenure, and equity plan scoring. Details of these and ISS’s 2014 policy updates are presented in this newsletter.