Company: BWFG
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001505732-25-000079
Chunk: 5

Company: Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 5
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If your shares are held through a broker, bank or other nominee, you may vote your shares by marking, signing and dating the voting instruction form provided to you by your broker, bank or other nominee. To be able to vote shares not registered in your own name in person at the Annual Meeting, you will need appropriate documentation from the record holder of your shares. If you hold your shares in "street name" through a broker or bank you may only vote in person or change your vote in person if you have a legal proxy in your name from Broadridge Financial Solutions or your broker or bank.

If you are the beneficial owner of shares held in “street name” by a broker and you do not give instructions to the broker on how to vote your shares at the Annual Meeting, then the broker will be entitled to vote the shares with respect to “discretionary” items, but will not be permitted to vote the shares with respect to “non-discretionary” items (in which case, the shares will be treated as a “broker non-vote”). The ratification of the selection of RSM US LLP as the Company’s independent registered public accountants (Proposal 3) is considered to be a discretionary item and your broker will be able to vote on that item even if it does not receive instructions from you. The other proposals to be considered at the Annual Meeting (Proposals 1 and 2) are “non-discretionary” items. If you do not instruct your broker how to vote with respect to these items, your broker may not vote your shares with respect to these items.

An abstention is a decision by a shareholder to take a neutral position on a proposal being submitted to shareholders at a meeting. A proxy marked as abstaining with respect to a proposal will be counted for quorum purposes, but will not be counted as a vote cast, and therefore will have no effect on the vote.

Broker non-votes are also counted in determining the number of shares represented for the purpose of determining whether a quorum is present at the Annual Meeting, provided that there are discretionary items to be acted upon at a shareholders’ meeting such as here with the ratification of the independent registered public accounting firm.

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#### Votes Required
The number of votes required to approve the proposals that are scheduled to be presented at the meeting is as follows:

|    |     | Proposal                                                                                 |     | Required Vote                                                     |
| 1. |     | Election of 10 directors                                                                 |