Calvert Announces New Web-Based Campaign Enlisting Investor Support of Mutual Fund Proxy Disclosure; New Web Based Search Tool Shows Which Fund Companies Publish Proxy Practices.Business Editors BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2002 Calvert, the nation's largest family of socially responsible mutual funds, today launched an investor activism campaign on the Web site designed to encourage investors to support an SEC proposal on mutual fund proxy disclosure. Under the proposed rule, mutual fund companies would have to provide information both on their general policies for proxy voting Proxy voting is the delegation to another member of a voting body of that member's power to vote in his absence. It is essentially synonymous to delegated voting. Proxy voting is commonly used in corporations for voting by members or shareholders, because it allows members and on specific proxy votes Proxy vote Vote cast by one person or entity on behalf of another. cast on behalf of their funds. Investors who wish to support the proposal should go to www.calvert.com/commentary.html to use the search tool and sign the letter of support that is automatically forwarded to the SEC. "We believe that the proposed proxy disclosure rule is a major step forward in providing greater transparency (1) The quality of being able to see through a material. The terms transparency and translucency are often used synonymously; however, transparent would technically mean "seeing through clear glass," while translucent would mean "seeing through frosted glass." See alpha blending. to investors whose proxy assets are held in mutual funds," says Reggie Stanley Stanley, town (1991 pop. 1,557), capital of the Falkland Islands, S Atlantic Ocean, on East Falkland island. It is the main port and trading center of the islands. The name is sometimes written as Port Stanley. , Senior Vice President of Calvert. "Calvert shareholders have always valued the information on voting policies and votes cast that we provide on our web site and we want to encourage them to demand that other fund companies are also voting proxy assets in investors' best interests as well." On www.calvert.com, several tools are available to investors. -- Calvert Special Report on Rebuilding Corporate Ethics and Investor Confidence. Calvert also encourages shareholders to sign and send a letter to the SEC, urging the SEC to adopt the proposed proxy disclosure rules. The letter is available at www.calvert.com/sri_5189.html ?format=print. -- New Proxy Disclosure Tool that allows users to see which mutual fund companies currently publish their proxy voting guidelines and proxy voting records. -- Comprehensive briefing paper on this issue, is available at www.calvert.com/sri_648.html. Calvert is one of the largest mutual fund complexes in the Washington D.C. area with approximately $8.4 billion in assets under management Assets Under Management (AUM) is a term used by financial services companies in the mutual fund and money management or investment management business to gauge how much money they are managing. . Best known for its family of socially responsible mutual funds, Calvert offers twenty-nine funds that allow individual and institutional investors Institutional Investor A non-bank person or organization that trades securities in large enough share quantities or dollar amounts that they qualify for preferential treatment and lower commissions. to pursue a broad range of investment objectives within a single fund family. Calvert launched the Calvert Social Index The Calvert Social Index is a stock market index created by the Calvert Group as a benchmark of large companies that are considered socially responsible or ethical. It currently consists of 468 companies, weighted by market capitalization, selected from approximately 1,000 of the (TM), a benchmark for measuring the performance of large, U.S.-based socially responsible companies. For more information on Calvert, click on www.calvert.com. For more complete information about any Calvert mutual fund, call 800.368.2748 for a free prospectus or go to our Web site at www.calvert.com. Read it carefully before you invest. Calvert mutual funds are underwritten and distributed by Calvert Distributors Inc., member NASD NASD See: National Association of Securities Dealers NASD See National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). , a subsidiary of Calvert Group. (11/02, 4159) |
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