Closed End Funds should not be exempt from having annual meetings. CEFs need more oversight, not less. They are issued to investors at NAV, and the majority end up trading shortly after at a large discount to NAV. While investors are stuck with a loss of value, issuers are raking in huge fees. The boards are too friendly with the issuers and enable issuers to not act in the best interest of investors. The push by managers to eliminate the annual meetings is an attempt to keep activist investors from forcing them to buy back funds trading at a huge discount to NAV. If a fund is trading at a 10% to 15% discount to NAV, buying back shares is certainly in the best interest of the investors. The board should be pushing managers to do this rather than protecting the issuers - after all the board is supposed to be there to protect investors, not the issuers!