10 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE^ 05/
AHEAD
is increasingly making its
way to the rank and file,
especially at tech firms.
Shareholding employees
at Amazon submitted a
proposal in December ask-
ing execs to take action on
climate change. Last year,
Alphabet employees joined
a proposal that would have
linked executive pay to
diversity initiatives. Em-
ployees who are also share-
holders have a better chance
of being heard on issues
that are important to them,
says Welsh.
Last year, shareholders
withdrew about 30% of all
proposals they filed. Oddly
enough, that indicates a win
for shareholders. If a resolu-
tion is withdrawn before it
can come to a vote, it’s typi-
cally a sign that management
has agreed to take action on
the proposed initiative.
Changing standards. The
bar for filing a shareholder
resolution is low. To qual-
ify, the Securities and Ex-
change Commission requires
investors to have held
$2,000 worth of company
stock for a year. But if you
want to file, read the rules
first (search for “SEC Staff
Legal Bulletin No. 14I”).
Companies often petition
the SEC to exclude propos-
als, and the agency can do
so for a litany of reasons.
In December, SEC chair-
man Jay Clayton said the
SEC would consider stricter
rules for shareholders wish-
ing to submit resolutions.
But similar proposals have
failed to gain traction in
Congress, and experts say
such changes aren’t likely
before the 2020 presidential
election.
INTERVIEWPERSONAL FINANCE
LESSONS FROM A PRO
An NFL linebacker shares his money playbook
with friends, family and students.tually. We start with bud-
geting—understanding
every dollar you have
coming in and going out.
People are shocked to see
how much they’re spending
on little things that pile up.
The other thing we do—and
this can be uncomfortable—
is have students interview
their parents or mentors
about their finances.
It’s not easy, but
when they apply
what we’re talk-
ing about in class
to their lives, itmakes it real and they start
to pay attention.You’re a professional athlete.
How does that translate to
the classroom? Personal
finance is a lot like personal
health. When problems
come up, we tend to push
them to the side and hope
they just go away. But for
health and finances, I think
you should attack your
problems. That’s something
you learn as an athlete:
When you attack injuries
with therapy, you beat
them. Personal finance
is a skill, and skills need
to be practiced.But don’t a lot of athletes
make a lot of bad money
decisions? How do you handle
that perception?
You hear
about athletes
blowing
their money,
but it’s not
an athlete-
specific
problem;
it’s a
general
popula-
tion
problem.
It’s news
when we
blow our
money be-
cause our
salaries are
in the news.
But everyone
is struggling
with personal
finance man-
agement
problems.
BRENDAN
PEDERSENBrandon Copeland is an NFL
linebacker who currently
plays for the New York Jets.
He teaches a college course
on personal finance to un-
dergraduates at his alma
mater, the University of
Pennsylvania.Early in your NFL career, you
traded stock options and
flipped houses in Detroit on
the side. Why jump to per-
sonal finance education
now? Something I’ve al-
ways wanted to do is to
make financial knowl-
edge public and accessi-
ble. Whether I’m talking
to family and friends
about investing or teach-
ing students about Roth
IRAs, the goal is to make
the information available
and humble—not over-
whelming.College students don’t
seem like the
most re-
ceptive
crowd for
retirement
planning. Where
do you start? You ’d
be surprised! These
things might be far
off, and it’s hard to
care about a decision
that’s years away,
but all of the stu-
dents know they’ll
have to deal
with it even-PHOTOGRAPH BY SONYA REVELL