Company: BWFG
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001505732-25-000079
Chunk: 1

Company: Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 1
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258 Elm Street

New Canaan, Connecticut 06840

(203) 652-0166</div>

### NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS

#### TO BE HELD ON MAY 21, 2025
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Annual Meeting (the “Annual Meeting”) of Shareholders of Bankwell Financial Group, Inc. (the “Company”) will be held at Woodway Country Club * , 540 Hoyt Street, Darien, Connecticut 06820, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at 8:00 a.m. for the following purposes:

1. To ele ct ten ( 10 ) directors of the Company to serve until the 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are elected;

2. To consider and approve an advisory (non-binding) proposal on the Company’s executive compensation;

3. To ratify the selection of RSM US LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accountants for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025; and

4. To transact such other business as may properly come before the Annual Meeting, including adjourning the Annual Meeting to permit, if necessary, further solicitation of proxies or any adjournment thereof.

The Board of Directors is not aware of any such other business.

Only shareholders of record of outstanding shares of common stock of the Company at the close of business on March 27, 2025, are entitled to notice of, and to vote at, the Annual Meeting or any adjournment or postponement thereof.

A list of the Company’s shareholders will be open to the examination of any shareholder at 258 Elm Street, New Canaan, Connecticut, for any purpose germane to the Annual Meeting, during ordinary business hours, beginning two (2) business days after the notice date of the Annual Meeting through the date of the Annual Meeting.

We will be providing access to our proxy materials over the internet under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “notice and access” rules. As a result, on or about April 8, 2025, we will mail to our shareholders a notice instead of a paper copy of the Proxy Statement and our 2024 Annual Report.

We hope you will vote as soon as possible. You may cast your vote over the internet or during the Annual Meeting. Alternatively, you may vote by mail or telephone by requesting hard copies of proxy materials by May 12, 2025. If your