Enable CoSec to act strategically. Exceptional advice discusses the topics that matter most at the right time. They are often able to do this primarily through strategic planning led by their CoSec. This means working with chairs and committees to create a reasonable annual cycle. It`s about making sure the discussions are at the right level, and calculating what`s on the agenda and when – in consultation with the President and CEO, of course! “Another advantage of an external corporate secretary is that TMF Group does not overlook underperformance or lack of responsiveness.” The responsibility stops with us. Our clients – even those who deal with many of our offices – have a primary point of contact and a clear escalation plan, so if a particular employee is not doing their job in one country, we have the power to deal directly, unlike suppliers who depend on other companies and do not have the same responsibility and control. “Highlight opportunities for CoSecs to evolve through feedback on performance across domains. Keeping a great CoSec means making sure they have opportunities to continue growing, whether in terms of working in terms of investor relations, control functions or otherwise. Formal recognition and development are so important for seasoned professionals in a role that often goes unnoticed. And when you recruit, you`re posting an important and scalable position. A person with significant influence or control (a PSC) is a person who has the right to exercise or effectively exercise significant influence or control over a business.
This may include holding 25% or more of the shares and/or voting rights of a company, the right to appoint or remove a majority of the members of the board of directors, or other means by which that person can exercise significant influence or control over a company. Confused? We can help you determine whether your company has PSCs and, if so, comply with Companies House`s reporting obligations. One of the top priorities for in-house advisors and their teams is to help the firm maintain liquidity and compliance in all jurisdictions in which they operate. This means monitoring, controlling and anticipating business needs. Keeping everything in-house may seem like the optimal solution, but corporate governance and compliance for many subsidiaries around the world is an important and time-consuming task. Qualified specialists have to spend hundreds of hours monitoring deadlines, interpreting local regulations, and then preparing and sending these documents in the local language (after placement, notarization, and legalization). It is also necessary to carry out regular “health checks” of subsidiaries in order to assess their ongoing compliance. Even with excellent project management and a precise and individual schedule of international company meetings, the challenge starts again every time a subsidiary is incorporated into a new jurisdiction. “There are many new regulations and reports that multinational enterprises (MNEs) must submit to a local or central authority, for example the notary, the commercial register or the European Central Bank. And if you haven`t consolidated your information or presented it in the right format, multinationals may not be able to continue operating in certain countries.
Both for the multinational and its in-house legal counsel, your reputation at the service of the company may be threatened,” said Priscila Westerhof-Fittipaldi, Portfolio Manager General Secretariat Services at TMF Group. Recognize the importance of the role – perhaps through a specific discussion about the role the board and management would like to assign to CoSec in the coming year. Corporate secretaries can be underestimated because much of their work takes place behind the scenes. But focus on what they actually do, and they are the “glue that holds things together.” Our reports often include points of development that the CoSecs have highlighted in the past but have not been able to enforce. Unlike other secretarial services, we have developed a package where there are no hidden costs. The annual fee is intended to cover all registrations and the maintenance of your business registers. However, our prices are subject to fair terms of use. For example, if your company raises funds and wishes to add many new shareholders to its registry, we will charge an additional amount to prepare the confirmation statement and update the membership register and allocations that reflect the issuance of shares to those new members. We will always discuss any additional fees that we think should be charged and we will always charge on a fixed basis rather than on an hourly basis.
Please also note that if Companies House charges a fee to submit a quote, it will be charged to the Company at cost, unless it is the annual confirmation statement filing fee included in our annual fee. 9.30am: Now we turn to the UK team and after filling up my coffee, we get straight to the point, as most of us in the fund company world usually have a day of meetings ahead of us. We briefly discuss each other`s agenda for the day, including participation in various meetings scheduled by clients and ad hoc, board packs to be released, and other general questions to be answered today. The topic of conversation revolves around externally moderated board reviews, which have been a hot topic of conversation among our publicly traded client base over the past year. Covid-19 has changed many things, external evaluations have not been neglected. Some of our clients will start with external evaluations, and the question arises as to whether this is desirable or actually feasible, when physical board meetings are impossible, at least for now. We discussed as a team the pros and cons of continuing the process and agreed that it was entirely possible to conduct an evaluation, with evaluators able to attend virtual meetings and conduct interviews with the board, Cosec and investment manager using the same technology. While physical meetings are obviously preferable in these circumstances, you`ll find that people are actually much more relaxed and open in conversation, and this is the perfect opportunity to discover and assess the flexibility and confidence of everyone involved in the most difficult circumstances, which should lead to the desired outcome – good recommendations for everyone, that you can use and improve! Consult CoSec to create excellent interactions between the board and management. An important tool for this is, of course, the ship`s paper. Preparing the paper is a chance to ensure that management gives the board what it needs to generate a good discussion. But CoSecs can try to improve this relationship in other ways, by contacting NEDs between meetings and supporting them in advance to understand the major constraints facing management, preparing management for NEDs` expectations and needs before they start writing documents.
Both parties enjoy feeling connected and well informed. 1.15pm: After a short quarter of an hour for lunch, which usually scans emails received in the morning, I quickly call Belfast CEO Gerry Warwick to catch up on operational matters as we continue to integrate the company following the merger of Estera and Ocorian in February 2020. This has given us an expanded offering with specialist teams in major international jurisdictions offering a full range of corporate and fiduciary services, fund administration and capital markets. After leaving the call with a few shares, I quickly call our London office to discuss the company`s current secretarial offer and how we can support each other. 4.30pm: The UK Society Secretariat team usually meets with our Guernsey team once a week. This facilitates dialogue on current regulatory and governance issues and gives the team the opportunity to share workload and discuss upcoming bottlenecks. This allows us to remain efficient and ensure knowledge sharing within the team. This week, we discuss the alternative investment fund (AIF) space and the opportunities it could continue to present for us.
As investors want to diversify their portfolios more broadly, increase their returns and increase their income levels, it seems that AIFs can generally offer this solution. We already provide comprehensive services (Cosec, administration and accounting) to AIF in the private equity, real estate, renewable energy and infrastructure sectors, to name a few. However, it is too important for us to recognize future trends, as technology and digital infrastructure are two post-Covid-19 areas that we plan to bring to fruition. I agree to speak with the marketing and sales teams to determine possible next steps. We wish each other a good night and remind everyone to always shout when they need help! Give the CoSec explicit guidance on what is expected of the protocol. CoSec needs agreement with the Board on the level of detail required on how to demonstrate that the Board is fulfilling its responsibilities through minutes, how actions will be tracked, and when minutes are to be distributed and approved. Preparing good protocols is a tedious and time-consuming task, and CoSec deserves to know what to expect before they start writing. Technically, you don`t. Companies House has designed its deposit service in such a way that it can theoretically be operated by anyone. The problem is that it is often not easy to understand what your legal obligations are and therefore what you need to submit. Even if you know what to submit, the forms themselves can be a minefield.