| 29 July 2009

The Securities and Exchange Commission investment advisory panel met for the first time on Monday and agreed to a broad set of what it called "discussion topics" that the group will cover in future meetings. Thanks to the SEC's announcement today we're getting our first glimpse of a potential new agenda focused on the needs of individual investors.

The committee was formed in early June to "give investor a voice" at the commission. Members include executives at Charles Schwab (SCHW), Nuveen, and Barclays (BCS), professors from the University of Mississippi and Yale, and several leaders from non-profit investor organizations such as Proxy Democracy and the Consumer Federation of America. There are 17 members in total and the committee is co-chaired by Richard Hisey, President of AARP Financial Incorporated and AARP Funds, and Hye-Won Choi, Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Governance for TIAA-CREF.

Items on the agenda include fiduciary duty, disclosures and technology. There was some discussion of financial literacy and the distinction between "information" and "education." There were several issues covering communication, including proxy voting, director-investor communication and majority voting. Finally, the question was raised whether the SEC had adequate resources to effectively achieve its investor protection initiatives.

While it's great they formed the committee and laid out the issues it was unclear to us when the committee would meet again and what they would actually accomplish. It was noted in the release that they are forming subcommittees to focus on the discussion points and perhaps bring in other representatives or experts. But there was no schedule mentioned.

A broadcast of the meeting is available here (part 1) and here (part 2). The meeting was open to the public but we didn't see a single guest. Sad and ironic. Let us know if you can think of any issues the committee should address and we'll send along the ideas.