Shareholder meetings and elections
As a shareholder, you have the right to attend and vote in shareholder meetings for the companies you own shares in. Voting by proxy allows you to cast your vote prior to the shareholder meeting without attending the meeting in person. Before each shareholder meeting you’re eligible to attend, you will receive an email from Robinhood@proxydocs.com with instructions on how to proxy vote. Eligibility is based on the settled shares you own as of the record date set by the issuing company. The record date is typically 30-60 days before the shareholder meeting. If you have a margin balance, there may be a reduction of voting rights. You can read more about this below in the Shares on Loan: Reduced Voting Rights section.
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Important: You will never be asked to enter your Robinhood username and password to vote or sign in to any of the sites above. Instead, the site may ask for your unique proxy control number as listed in the email.
Shareholder meetings can take place physically or virtually at the discretion of the issuing company. If you would like to attend a meeting, physically or virtually, for a security you own, you can do so by reaching out to support@robinhood.com after you receive the proxy email. We will provide instructions on how you can attend the shareholder meeting. We recommend that you reach out at least 10 business days prior to the meeting date to allow time for processing. If within 10 days, it will be on a best efforts basis.
As a shareholder as of the record date, you have a few options when it comes to voting and attending a shareholder meeting:
When you utilize margin to purchase securities, Robinhood is lending you money. As part of the margin agreement, you are using your purchased shares as collateral for such loans and may give up some or all of your voting rights with respect to such shares held as collateral.
You also may not receive proxy materials for a shareholder meeting for such shares.
You can read more about this in the Robinhood Customer Margin and Short Account Agreement.
Voting by proxy means that you can cast your shareholder vote without actually attending the shareholder meeting in person. Your vote, cast by proxy, counts the same as if you voted directly at the shareholder meeting.
You should expect your proxy voting instructions 30 to 60 days prior to a shareholder meeting.
The proxy control number is unique to you and allows you to access your proxy materials and information at www.proxypush.com. If you decide to attend a shareholder meeting, you may be provided an additional control number for access.
Yes! Please let us know if you’d still like to attend the meeting for informational purposes. Remember, you won’t be able to vote a second time if you already voted by proxy.
Yes. You can request a Legal Proxy, which nullifies the proxy vote and allows you to vote at the shareholder meeting instead:
Ownership of cryptocurrency doesn’t constitute ownership of shares of a company, which means there are neither shareholder meetings nor votes for crypto owners.
All Robinhood customers are beneficial shareholders because the shares Robinhood customers own are held by Robinhood Securities in “street name” (under Robinhood Securities’ name, rather than the names of the individual legal owners). This is why we provide you with the proxy materials to participate in a shareholder meeting.
“Registered shareholders” are owners of shares that are directly “registered” with the issuing company in the shareholder’s name. This type of ownership is not something Robinhood currently supports on our platform.
There are two reasons you may not have received an email to vote by proxy even if you own the shares:
You can read more about this in the Robinhood Customer Margin and Short Account Agreement.
Proof of ownership that is used to attend a shareholder meeting.
Third-party shareholder communications firm at www.proxypush.com that allows you to participate in shareholder meetings. Mediant also sends various notifications to Robinhood customers, such as prospectus and corporate action notifications.
Information provided by the issuer to the shareholder to inform them of what is to be discussed and voted on at the meeting.
Casting your vote online in advance of the shareholder meeting.
The date used by the issuing company to determine which shareholders are eligible to vote.