Company: SFB
Filing Date: 2025-04-25
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001193125-25-094691
Chunk: 23

Company: STIFEL FINANCIAL CORP
Filing Date: 2025-04-25
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 23
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 developments and practices   u   The Committee monitors and assesses named executive officer performance in making year-end pay decisions   u   In evaluating our executive compensation program, the Committee annually considers shareholder advisory vote and feedback from its meetings with shareholders |

Balancing Short- and Long-Term Incentives with “Realized” and “At-Risk”Compensation The Committee recognizes the importance of striking a balance between long-term incentives linked to shareholder returns and retention and short-term incentives linked to the annual performance of the Company. The Committee considers such factors as the level of cash base salary, annual incentive compensation, long-term incentive compensation, and the overall equity ownership of the Company’s CEO and other named executive officers. On balance, the Committee strives to emphasize long-term incentives linked to shareholder returns and retention while recognizing the importance of annual performance compensation. In doing so, the Committee assesses each

| Proxy Statement for the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders |     | 38 |

component of compensation as to its emphasis on short-term verses long-term incentives. However, the Committee does not target any specific mix of short- and long-term incentives over the course of years. In addition, when assessing the incentive of various components of compensation, the Committee considers whether the compensation is “Realized” (meaning that it is not forfeitable) or “At-Risk”(meaning that it is potentially forfeitable because it is subject to time- or performance-based vesting). The Importance of Stock Ownership The Committee considers the overall level of equity ownership maintained by an executive officer as important indicia of the alignment of that individual with shareholders. The Committee understands the importance to shareholders of share value and total stock returns and, therefore, takes into consideration the stock ownership of the CEO and the other named executive officers when determining the compensation system. More generally, the Committee views share ownership and participation in share value as an important factor that, even before compensation decisions for a particular year are made, aligns the senior management with shareholders. We maintain stock ownership guidelines for our officers. The Committee also takes note of our officers’ high level of stock ownership relative to these guidelines. For our CEO, these guidelines set a target stock ownership level of at least 10 times his cash base salary. Mr. Kruszewski’s stock ownership greatly exceeds that target. For our other named executive officers, these guidelines set a target ownership level of at least 7 times cash base salary. For each of our other named executive officers, stock