James Moore: L&G has earned two cheers so far

Outlook One of the institutions that did kick up a stink with WPP last year was Legal & General, which in general rewards its executives with a shade more restraint than most of its rivals. It seems the concept of "fiduciary duty" is not unknown there because WPP wasn't the only company to find itself on the wrong side of the insurer's governance team.

You can see just how many others were in that team's cross-hairs in its corporate governance report which confirms, as I reported a while back, that L&G was one of the most active investors during last year's shareholder spring.

In addition to WPP, there was the Glencore-Xstrata merger on which it held 15 meetings and played an instrumental role in the bonfire of a controversial executive retention package that showered millions upon company bosses for doing nothing more than turning up at their desks. Then there was Barclays, 11 meetings and a principled vote.

So two cheers for L&G. Only two? The third is being deferred because last year's shareholder spring was only a job half done. I'll award it to L&G as part of my version of a long-term incentive plan if it keeps up the pressure over some of the corporate world's more excessive equivalents.