Mutual funds are being tagged as a major culprit behind excessive compensation for CEOs. According to a survey conducted by the Corporate Library and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, mutual fund firms – which invest in almost 25% of U.S. publicly traded companies – supported management compensation proposals 74% of the time. Voting supported pay packages or opposed executive pay reform, CNN reports. Among those pushing the pay packages were Morgan Stanley Funds, AIM Investments, Dreyfus Corp., AllianceBernstein and Oppenheimer Funds.
To the assertion that MS voted for management pay proposals 95% of the time, MS spokesman Chad Peterson told CNN that Morgan Stanley Investment Management votes all proxies solely based on its fiduciary duty to its clients. Mutual fund firms favoring pay-package challenges were TIAA-CREF, American Century, Federated Investors and The Vanguard Group.
