The Boston Business Journal found that in 2005, eight Massachusetts-based mutual fund firms studied voted for 92% of management proposals. The analysis also found that the funds turned down an overwhelming number of investor proposals made by unions, pension funds and the like. In one area, for example, mutual funds rejected 71% of shareholder proposals regarding executive compensation. “It’s long been recognized that mutual funds have been basically in the pockets of management,” Jackie Cook of The Corporate Library, which prepared the analysis, said in a BBJ interview. “Shareholders have not been able to rely on them.” Defenders of the mutual funds say the managers are acting responsibly and would not stick with a company whose management was poor. “Critics miss the fact that [funds] have confidence in these managers. If they didn’t have confidence in them, they wouldn’t invest in their companies,” attorney Geoffrey Kenyon of law firm Goodwin Procter told the BBJ. The firms involved in the study were Putnam Investments, Fidelity Investments, MFS Investment Management, MassMutual Financial Group, John Hancock Funds, State Street Bank & Trust, Pioneer Investments and Columbia Management, the mutual fund arm of Bank of America.