Lord Abbett maintains complete control over our voting process and manually votes all proxies.
Lord Abbett has retained Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) to analyze proxy issues and recommend how to vote on those issues, and to provide assistance in the administration of the proxy process, including maintaining complete proxy voting records. While Lord Abbett takes into consideration the information and recommendations of ISS, Lord Abbett votes all proxies based on its own proxy voting policies, including Lord Abbett’s conclusions regarding the best interests of the Funds, their shareholders, and other advisory clients, rather than basing decisions solely on ISS' recommendations.