Fee pressure - who can afford good Corp Governance?

As an afterthought to the previous entry just one question: if more and more assets move to passive instruments and fee income of the investment fiduciaries is under sustained pressure, who can then afford to pay for detailed corporate governance? The work cannot just be done by some second-rate professionals as the task requires detailed analysis, maybe even more so than the task of buying or selling shares at the right time. And letting a few proxy agencies take over the whole process it not that cheap either when you consider wafer-thin fees on passive products. This is apart from the question of who monitors the proxy agencies and competitive aspects if two or three providers dominate the field. Activist Investors to the rescue? But they want more than a pound of flesh! And are their motives aligned with the interests of the ordinary saver and investor?

Who asks the REAL Investor for his opinion on Pay?

All very well for the Investment Association to claim that 'Investors' hold cards for AGM season. But apart from the fact that the season is basically over the big question remains: how much - if any - influence do the real end investors that the article refers to ("those of us who ....through pensions and savings are (trying) to get the best possible return on their hard-earned money") have with respect to corporate governance, and the most critical and topical issue, that of (excessive) executive pay?

Tired old cliches on Exec Pay

UK bosses need high pay to be competitve with US pay? That might be so, but then it is high time that someting is done about pay over there. Ban investment in non-compliant companies (a task for the Index providers if they would not just be chasing $$$ but be responsible, or is talk of socially-responsible investing just that?) or thrown USA out of WTO (again, social dumping parallel, just in reverse). All 'Fiduciaries' that do not put their weight behind reform should be excluded from soliciting investors. And please spare us the comparison with sports or media people, soccer and copyright regulation are also crying out for reform!
Drastic, but do you have an alternative that could work?