The annual meeting season is upon us. While there will be more shareholder resolutions up for a vote than ever before, it's a fair bet that top mutual funds will most often side with management. This cozy alliance has vexed shareholder activists for years. A study by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has found, as one example, that funds vote in line with management 74 percent of the time when it comes to pay issues. Fidelity Investment backed Home Depot's Bob Nardelli on most key issues last year. Putnam, AIM, Federated and Fidelity were found by another study to be the most management-friendly. There's now a law that requires funds to disclose their votes. But I doubt that will be enough to change their tune.

For more:
- here's a New York Post column
- more mutual funds news