Company: FFWM
Filing Date: 2025-04-17
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-036041
Chunk: 6

Company: First Foundation Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-17
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 6
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 broker, bank, or other nominee. Please follow the instructions from your broker, bank, or other nominee included with these proxy materials, or contact your broker, bank, or other nominee to request a legal proxy. If you hold your shares in “street name,” please instruct your broker, bank, or other nominee how to vote your shares using the voting instruction form provided by your broker, bank, or other nominee so that your vote can be counted. The voting instruction form provided by your broker, bank, or other nominee may also include information about how to submit your voting instructions over the Internet or by telephone, if such options are available. What Are Broker Non-Votes and How Will They Affect the Voting at the Annual Meeting? A broker non-vote occurs when the broker holding shares for a beneficial owner has not received voting instructions from the beneficial owner and does not have discretionary authority to vote the shares. Under rules applicable to securities brokerage firms, a broker who holds your shares in “street name” does not have the authority to vote those shares on any “non-routine” proposal, except in accordance with voting instructions received from you. On the other hand, your broker may vote your shares on certain “routine” proposals, if the broker has transmitted proxy-soliciting materials to you, as the beneficial owner of the shares, but has not received voting instructions from you on such proposals. A broker non-vote occurs when a broker does not vote on a particular proposal because it does not have discretionary voting power with respect to that proposal and has not received voting instructions from the beneficial owner. If your broker receives proxy materials only from the Company, your broker firm is entitled to vote shares held for a beneficial holder on “routine” matters, such as the ratification of the selection of Crowe LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm, without instructions from the beneficial holder of those shares. On the other hand, your broker is not entitled to vote shares held for a beneficial holder on “non-routine” matters such as the election of directors, the vote to approve the Amended and Restated 2024 Equity Incentive Plan, the vote to approve, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation paid to our named executive officers, or the vote to approve, on a non-binding advisory basis, the frequency of future advisory votes on the compensation of our named executive officers. Proposal 3 is considered to be a “routine” matter and thus if you do not return voting instructions to your broker, your shares may be voted by