Company: WTFCN
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001015328-25-000093
Chunk: 134

Company: WINTRUST FINANCIAL CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 8
Chunk 134
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trust otherwise lacks sufficient information to estimate the amount of any potential liability.

148

Wintrust Financial ERISA MatterOn July 29, 2022, a former Wintrust employee filed a class action in the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois asserting claims under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) against Wintrust Financial Corporation. Plaintiff alleges Wintrust breached its fiduciary duty in the selection of BlackRock Target Date funds for inclusion in its 401(k) plan, that Wintrust failed to monitor the performance of those funds, and in the alternative, Wintrust should be liable for breach of trust. Plaintiff’s sole basis for the allegations is that BlackRock Target Date funds allegedly performed more poorly than two comparable funds over a three-year period. Wintrust is one of several public companies that were sued on identical grounds within the same week by the same plaintiff’s law firm. On November 8, 2022, Wintrust filed a motion to dismiss the entire complaint. On July 14, 2023, the District Court granted Wintrust’s motion to dismiss and gave Plaintiff until August 2, 2023 to file an amended complaint. Plaintiff timely filed an amended complaint which Wintrust moved to dismiss on September 14, 2023. On August 14, 2024, the district court granted Wintrust’s motion with prejudice. On September 9, 2024, Plaintiff timely appealed to the Seventh Circuit. In December 2024, Plaintiff proposed the parties agree to dismiss the appeal and on December 18, 2024, the court entered and approved the joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice which ended the litigation.Other MattersIn addition, the Company and its subsidiaries, from time to time, are subject to pending and threatened legal action and proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business.Based on information currently available and upon consultation with counsel, management believes that the eventual outcome of any pending or threatened legal actions and proceedings described above, including our ordinary course litigation, will not have a material adverse effect on the operations or financial condition of the Company. However, it is possible that the ultimate resolution of these matters, if unfavorable, may be material to the results of operations or financial condition for a particular period.

(21) Derivative Financial Instruments

The Company primarily enters into derivative financial instruments as part of its strategy to manage its exposure to changes in interest rates. Derivative instruments represent contracts between parties that result in one party delivering cash to the other party based on a notional amount and an underlying