By Ethan Klingsberg and Elizabeth Bieber ( May 21, 2018, 11:01 AM EDT) -- Many clients are now turning from their annual meeting to plans for off-cycle engagements with their institutional investors, including the passive-strategy behemoths (BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, which tend to own, in the aggregate, around 20 percent of many of our mid- and large-cap clients), traditional actively managed funds, pension funds and hedge funds.[1] The rationale for these meetings is that postponement of outreach until a threat of a contested situation (such as a short-slate proxy contest or aggressive shareholder proposal) may be "too little, too late" and that these one-on-one meetings on "sunny days" (and even "partly cloudy days") are critical, if not for locking up support, at least for establishing a foundation for obtaining support if and when the storm clouds arrive....