Backward-planned SEC + state-law + exchange deadlines for your next annual meeting — record date, broker search, DEF 14A, Notice & Access, 8-K Item 5.07 — computed in your browser, with a downloadable .ics calendar.
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Most annual-meeting calendars are built forward from the fiscal year end, and that is exactly why they break. The binding constraints run backward from the meeting date: the record date must sit inside the state-law window (10–60 days before the meeting in Delaware under DGCL §213(a); no more than 60 days in Nevada under NRS 78.350), and the Rule 14a-13 broker search must go out at least 20 business days before that record date. Count real business days — weekends and federal holidays — and the search cards need to leave roughly five to six weeks ahead of the record date. Miss it and the street-name mailing sizing slips, and everything downstream slips with it.
Layered on top are the SEC filing deadlines. The Form 10-K is due 60, 75, or 90 days after fiscal year end depending on filer status (Exchange Act Rule 13a-1; Form 10-K General Instruction A(2)), and Rule 14a-3(b) requires the annual report to accompany or precede the proxy statement — so a late 10-K compresses the entire proxy calendar. If you use notice-and-access, Rule 14a-16(a) sets a hard 40-calendar-day floor between the Notice of Internet Availability and the meeting. A contested or non-routine agenda adds a preliminary Schedule 14A at least 10 calendar days before definitive materials go out (Rule 14a-6(a)).
Exchanges impose their own boundary: Nasdaq Rule 5620(a) requires an annual meeting within twelve months of fiscal year end, and NYSE and NYSE American expect a meeting each fiscal year — schedule past that boundary and a deficiency letter follows. After the meeting, Form 8-K Item 5.07 voting results are due within 4 business days.
This free calculator backward-plans the whole sequence from your fiscal year end, filer status, state of incorporation, and desired meeting date — flagging anything already missed, anything at risk inside ten days, and exporting the full timeline as an .ics calendar. Computation happens entirely in your browser; your dates never leave it unless you create an account to save the run.
For a Delaware corporation, DGCL §213(a) requires the record date to be not less than 10 nor more than 60 days before the meeting. Nevada (NRS 78.350) allows up to 60 days with no statutory 10-day floor. Your bylaws can narrow these windows, so check them too.
Rule 14a-13(a)(3) requires the broker search inquiry to go out at least 20 business days before the record date. It is the deadline calendars most often miss because it sits roughly a month ahead of the record date once weekends and holidays are counted.
Under Rule 14a-16(a), the Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials must be sent to shareholders at least 40 calendar days before the meeting date. Paper copies must follow within 3 business days of any holder's request (Rule 14a-16(j)).
Only if the agenda includes matters outside Rule 14a-6(a)'s exclusion list (contested or non-routine items). The preliminary Schedule 14A must be filed at least 10 calendar days before definitive materials are first sent — and the SEC can still issue comments after that minimum.
Form 8-K Item 5.07 requires voting results within 4 business days of the meeting. In a say-on-frequency year, the company's frequency decision is disclosed by 8-K amendment no later than 150 calendar days after the meeting and at least 60 calendar days before the next Rule 14a-8 deadline.
The normal Rule 14a-8(e)(2) deadline — 120 calendar days before the anniversary of last year's proxy release — stops applying if the company did not hold an annual meeting last year or the meeting date changes by more than 30 days from last year's meeting. The deadline becomes “a reasonable time before the company begins to print and send its proxy materials,” and Rule 14a-5(f) requires the company to tell shareholders the new dates in a timely manner (Item 5 of Part II of the earliest possible 10-Q, or other reasonable means — often an 8-K). Proxy-access companies also check Form 8-K Item 5.08 (Schedule 14N date, due within 4 business days of determining the anticipated meeting date). This tool checks the shift automatically when you enter last year's meeting date.