The anticipated special stockholder’s meeting for CLI’s 122% stock dividend will happen on Feb 26, 2021. And most of us only owns shares that are lodged in an online broker like COL financial. This post will serve as a guide on how you can join the stockholder’s meeting of CLI and learn how to use a broker’s account so that you can get the proxy authorization / certification that you really do own the shares of a stock.
Stockholder Meeting Requirements
Certification to Attend
Most stockholder meetings require that you prove that you own the shares. Hence, stockholder’s meeting. Only people who owns the shares can join the meeting. But online brokerage are digital and in that, you don’t really have a physical copy of stock certificate where you can show and prove that you own one. You also can’t post a screenshot of your portfolio to show the investor relations division of the company.
You will have to ask your broker for a proxy authorization or certification that you own a certain stock that includes your name and the amount of shares you own.
An example of this using COL Financial is the own pictured below:
This certification is not mine. When I got mine from COL Financial, I also got a link to where I could register for the online stockholder’s meeting, in which I would receive a link to join via zoom.
Any Government Issued ID
You will need to prove that you are the person that is written in the Certification so the investor relations may also ask to show copy of your government ID. Have this one ready.
- Passport
- Driver’s License
- Voter’s ID
- TIN ID
- Any other government ID
How to Get Certification to Attend?
I’ll be using COL Financial in order to get a certification but the steps are almost the same for any broker. If you have questions for a particular broker, just contact them. I will also update this post for new information when I have time.
To be eligible to attend a Stockholders’ Meeting, you must own shares of the stock at least one (1) trading day before the given Ex-Date. Shares bought on or after the ex-date are not qualified. You can sell the shares on or after the Ex-Date and still be eligible to attend as long as the shares were bought before the Ex-date. Please note that attendance requires pre-registration which starts from Ex-Date until a week before the ASM date. Here’s how you can register:
- Log in to your COL account and then proceed to QUOTES > Calendar > Stockholders’ Meeting section
- Click on the “Register” button next to the stock code. Please note that this will only be available if you are eligible to attend the meeting.
- Confirm your agreement by clicking the “I Agree” button and then click “OK”.
- Click the “Print” button. You will then see that the request status has changed to “Accepted.”
- Read the attached guidelines on the same page where you register as some companies also requires a separate registration from their website too, apart from registering with your broker.
Once you click “Print” you’ll be able to print or download the Certificate and you can show that to Investor’s Relations. You can also read the guidelines for attending,
Usually there is a specific instructions for attending as different companies have their own protocols. Makes sure to read the guidelines.
Once you have that, you’ll be able to have a certificate like this one:
Notes:
Shareholders of the stock at least one (1) trading day before the given Ex-Date are eligible to attend the meeting. Those who bought shares on or after the ex-date are not eligible. Even if you sell the shares on or after the Ex-date, you are still eligible to attend if you bought them before the Ex-date.