Make voting great again: Boards must up the ante to win over apathetic shareholders

Easier access and more engagement crucial

Voting and retail shareholder rights have become something of a hot topic. If you listen to pockets of the industry, this is something the end consumer desperately wants, needs and deserves. Investor rights are being denied, trampled and ignored. This is outrageous and something must be done.

Except there is a problem. Out here on the consumer coalface, that is not what I hear. At all. At least not yet. There are two types of individual or groups promoting this idea. One is platforms seeking competitive advantage alongside a doubtless noble motivation to get consumers engaged and interested and empowered. The other group is those who loosely fall into the club of "We Hate Hargreaves Lansdown" - the recent ire of some highly engaged but hugely atypical retail investors has been channelled this way, as a vocal minority complain they cannot vote on US stocks they hold.  St...