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Proxy voting and American Funds

A proxy authorizes someone other than the owner of a stock to cast a vote on his or her behalf at the issuing company’s shareholder meeting. Proxies typically are used by shareholders to elect a company’s board of directors, select independent auditors, approve executive compensation, and vote on other management- or shareholder-sponsored proposals.

With responsibility for millions of shares of stocks, American Funds routinely votes by proxy. Through this process, we aim to promote the long-term financial interests of our shareholders.

Our proxy voting procedures and principles

We view proxies of companies held by the portfolios as significant fund assets — and proxy voting as an integral part of the overall investment process. Our procedures and principles summarize our views on various corporate governance proposals.

View the procedures and principles for American Funds and American Funds Insurance Series^® (PDF) , as well as American Funds Target Date Retirement Series^® (PDF) .

Our proxy voting results

Throughout the year, we vote on thousands of proposals from all types of companies: from small businesses to international corporations.*

Links to the most recent proxy voting results for equity securities held in each American Funds portfolio are listed below.

Please note: To view the linked documents below, you’ll need Adobe^® Reader^®, which you can download for free from Adobe. Because of the numerous stocks held by many of the funds, some of the proxy results reports are large. You may experience delays in downloading them.

*

In some situations, we don’t vote proxies for companies outside the U.S., particularly when the expense outweighs the benefit to shareholders, liquidity issues exist, documents are not sufficient to make an informed decision, or if we are not notified of a scheduled meeting.

†

No equities held in the fund during the reporting period.

‡

The Tax-Exempt Money Fund of America converted from a money market fund into the American Funds Short-Term Tax-Exempt Bond Fund effective August 7, 2009.

If you have questions about our proxy procedures and principles or voting results, please contact your financial professional or call us at 800/421-0180 ext. 4 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

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Investors should carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the American Funds. This and other important information is contained in each fund’s prospectus and/or summary prospectus, which can be obtained from your plan’s financial professional or downloaded and should be read carefully before investing.