Shareholder communication is the process by which a company sends its shareholders the information they are entitled to and receives their responses. The material includes notices of each shareholder meeting, the annual report, dividend and corporate action announcements, and takeover documents; the responses include votes and elections. Companies send material directly to holders named on the share register, usually through their registrar.
Most investors, however, hold through brokers and custodians, so information has to travel down the custody chain and instructions back up it. Each intermediary forwards a corporate action notification or meeting notice to its clients and relays their proxy voting decisions. In the European Union, the revised Shareholder Rights Directive requires intermediaries to pass this information on without delay in standard electronic formats and supports shareholder identification. In the United States, proxy materials reach investors holding through brokers under SEC rules, typically through a specialist agent.