If you have a margin account with a broker, you should review it to ensure that your voting rights are protected. A margin account permits investors to borrow funds to purchase securities and also to engage in short sale transactions.
Many margin account agreements provide for the broker to "borrow" your shares for short selling and other transactions. If your shares are loaned out when a record date for a shareholder meeting is established, you lose your voting rights because you are not in possession of your shares at the time of the record date. Most margin account agreements permit this to occur without your knowledge or approval.
Here is a typical disclosure about voting rights in a margin account:
"If you hold a margin account, which allows you to invest with borrowed funds, it is possible that the number of shares shown in proxy voting materials may be less than the number of shares you own in your margin account. That is because securities purchased on margin may be loaned by [NAME OF BROKER] to itself or investors under the terms of a margin investor’s account agreement. Margin investors do not have voting rights on the loaned shares, although margin investors remain the actual owners of the shares."
Click here to review sample margin account agreements used by major brokerage firms.
Call your broker and obtain a copy of your margin account agreement. If you are concerned about losing your voting rights for shares you own in a company, you can cancel your margin agreement or seek to renegotiate the terms of your current agreement.
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