Modernizing Shareholder Communications: Executive Survey on the OBO/NOBO Framework

Leveling the Playing Field for American Companies by Removing Barriers to Shareholder Access

Survey Findings on Shareholder Communications Reform

Purpose of the Survey

This survey was designed to gauge the perspectives of corporate governance executives on the OBO/NOBO shareholder designation framework. As shareholder engagement grows increasingly critical to corporate governance, this survey sought to quantify what many executives have long experienced firsthand, that the OBO designation creates meaningful barriers to effective,
cost-efficient shareholder engagement.

Survey Overview

Alliance Advisors distributed this survey during the month of June 2026 to corporate governance executives at approximately 4,100 NYSE and Nasdaq listed companies as well as mutual fund families. The response rate was approximately 7.4%, yielding a meaningful cross-section of public companies and fund families across market capitalizations¹.

Respondent Profile

Responding companies spanned a wide range of sizes, with an average market capitalization of $21.8 billion and the largest respondent reaching $347 billion. Approximately 24% of respondents qualify as large-cap companies (market cap above $10 billion), with an average market cap among that cohort of $83.7 billion. The remaining 76% were mid- to small-cap companies, averaging $1.7 billion in market capitalization — underscoring that the OBO/NOBO framework creates challenges across the full spectrum of public issuers¹.

Survey Results

The results reflect an overwhelming consensus in favor of reform:

• Q1 — Added difficulty and cost: 82.84% (251 of 303) of respondents said the OBO vs. NOBO designation has added difficulty and/or cost to their shareholder meeting and communications efforts¹.
• Q2 — Improved engagement: 95.11% (292 of 307) believe that eliminating the OBO designation and allowing full access to all shareholder identities would improve the shareholder engagement process¹.
• Q3 — Reduced proxy costs: 92.48% (283 of 306) believe eliminating the OBO designation would reduce proxy solicitation costs for meetings requiring active outreach to retail and institutional shareholders¹.
• Q4 — Universal NOBO designation: 93.11% (284 of 305) support having all shareholders designated as NOBO¹.

Across all four questions, support for eliminating the OBO designation exceeded 82%, with three of four questions surpassing the 92% threshold. The data make a compelling case that corporate governance executives at both large-cap and smaller public companies, view the current OBO framework as a material obstacle to effective, cost-efficient shareholder engagement¹.