UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) executives may soon find themselves under fire after an investment firm suggested that shareholders have a non-binding say on executive compensation. These plans are designed to put pressure on boards to reduce executive compensation by demonstrating shareholder sentiment, and are typically frowned upon by management as a result.

Walden Asset Management, a large UNH shareholder, intends to introduce the proposal at the health insurer's annual meeting in June. The proposal was also co-sponsored by a number of additional organizations, including Tides Foundation, the Funding Exchange network of social justice foundations, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston, and Gun and Thomas Denhart.

The shareholders demand that the board allow investors to vote on an advisory resolution to approve the compensation of top executive officers. The move follows more than 60 similar proposals put forth in 2007 alone, averaging a 43% vote. Unfortunately, only eight of the resolutions actually received the majority vote needed to pass.

"We believe that existing U.S. corporate governance agreements...do not provide shareholders with sufficient mechanisms for providing input to boards on senior executive compensation," Walden Asset Management said in a statement, disclosed in UnitedHealth's Schedule 14A proxy statement.