“Individuals in the U.S. have more than $7 trillion invested in mutual funds. By and large, the major mutual fund companies are generally unresponsive to investor needs and most of their customers are too busy to carefully scrutinize their practices anyway. This is why it is important for retail investors to have the basic information and tools to challenge the major mutual funds in order to maximize their retirement savings. Because individual investors often feel isolated and disempowered to challenge the industry, collective action is the only way to improve the system so it works for all investors. In our report, Compensation Accomplices: Mutual Funds and the Overpaid American CEO, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Corporate Library and the Shareowner Education Network (SEN) have analyzed mutual fund voting patterns on compensation issues in 2007 and 2008. The report finds that mutual funds are increasingly supportive, as a group, of management positions on proposals dealing with executive pay.”