Company: BWFG
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001505732-25-000079
Chunk: 38

Company: Bankwell Financial Group, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-08
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 38
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 with both renewing annually for successive one-year terms on January 1 of each successive year, provided the Company gives the executive written notice of its election to extend for an additional one year by October 1 of the current year. Each executive is also subject to non-compete and non-solicitation covenants for the six months (12 months in the case of Mr. Gruseke) following termination.

#### Clawback Provision
The employment agreements of the named executive officers provide that incentive-based compensation or other compensation paid to the executive under any agreement or arrangement with the Company will be subject to such deductions and clawback as may be required pursuant to any applicable law, government regulation or stock exchange listing requirement (or any policy ado pted by the Company pursuant to any such law, government regulation or stock exchange listing requirement). The Company has adopted a clawback policy in accordance with Nasdaq listing requirements. Under the Company’s clawback policy, all “incentive-based compensation” within the meaning of Section 10D of the Exchange Act will be subject to clawback by the Company in the manner required by Section 10D(b)(2) of the Exchange Act.

#### Other Benefits
In addition to the plans described above and the severance benefits described below under “Severance Benefits”, our executives are also entitled to benefits that are available to all of our employees. These include medical and dental benefits, group term life insurance, and short- and long-term disability protection. In addition, our named executive officers are provided supplemental disability benefits and split-dollar life insurance with a maximum $250,000 benefit. The economic benefit of employer-paid premiums for split-dollar life insurance agreements and group term life insurance are disclosed under “All Other Compensation” in the Summary Compensation Table.

#### 401(k) Retirement Plan
We maintain a defined contribution 401(k) retirement savings plan for our employees. The 401(k) plan is intended to qualify as a tax-qualified plan under Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code so that contributions to the plan and income earned on those contributions are not taxable to participants until withdrawn or distributed from the plan. Employees may elect to contribute through salary deduction s on a before tax and after-tax basis. We provide a discretionary matching contribution, which totaled $337,599 for 2024. Our match is 50% of the first 6% of employee contributions.

#### Severance Benefits
We believe that companies should provide reasonable severance benefits to employees. With respect to executive management, these severance benefits should