[the bottle let me down]

I mean my fund never calls me up and says Abwehr we've got a proxy fight going on over at Corporation X and you own .000001% of that company, how do you want us to vote your stake?

That's because you own shares of the fund and not the companies owned by the fund. You do get to vote on fund management, auditing, etc.

You pay the fund manager to exercise his expertise in your best interest, including voting the shares owned by the fund in the way the manager thinks is in the best interest of the fund. The manager shouldn't give a damn about how you would vote the shares if you owned them directly.

[Arioch7]

Well said.