In this post-Enron society, trust in companies has never been lower. The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act was designed to improve investor confidence by making CEOs and CFOs of public companies legally accountable for the veracity and integrity of their financial statements. Prior research has shown that the executive letter is the most widely read section of the annual report, and improving readability seems an obvious way to improve transparency whereby leading to improved trust. To identify changes, a content analysis for both before and after SOX was conducted using 50 annual report executive letters from the top 100 in the 2004 Fortune 500 list. The findings indicate little overall change, but there is some indication of improvement. According to Flesch Readability, the average annual report requires a college degree, but after SOX the number of executive letters requiring a postgraduate degree decreased by 10 percent. The findings also indicate changes in the use of passive voice. Additionally, the researcher found that 48 percent of the reports had a change in the signer of the executive letter.