Company: TROW
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001104659-25-028002
Chunk: 61

Company: PRICE T ROWE GROUP INC
Filing Date: 2025-03-26
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 61
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, are disclosed annually in the Proxy Statement (see "Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control" on page 71), and the Company is required to publicly disclose the material terms of any such agreement and actual termination payment. Furthermore, the Company is required to disclose the adoption, amendment, or termination of any material compensation contract or arrangement with an NEO. All such disclosures are to be made through a Form 8-K filing or as an exhibit to our quarterly or annual report. Stockholders can express their views related to these and the other elements of our compensation program through the annual Say on Pay vote as well. We also manage an active stockholder engagement program to maintain an open dialogue with and to directly solicit feedback from, our stockholders. As a part of these discussions, our stockholders have not raised specific concerns relating to our severance policies or practices. In fact, during our 2024 outreach, we received positive feedback concerning the changes to our CEO Incentive Compensation program that we disclosed in the 2024 Proxy Statement. Finally, as a public company listed on NASDAQ, we are required to seek shareholder approval of our equity compensation plans. If stockholders have a concern with the level of equity incentives that we have awarded to our NEOs, including the vesting of unvested equity awards upon an NEO's termination of employment, they could express those views in response to our request to replenish the number of shares available under the Company's 2020 Plan. When it was adopted, the 2020 Plan received support from approximately 95% of stockholders who voted, and in 2023 the increase of shares covered by our ESPP received support from approximately 97% of stockholders who voted. As a result, there already exist more than adequate means for our stockholders to express their views regarding with our severance policies, which makes the proposal unnecessary. The proposal discourages the use of long-term awards to align our NEOs' interests with stockholder value. The stockholder proposal should be rejected because it is not tailored to our compensation program and hinders our ability to effectively implement and measure its intended outcomes. Specifically, the proposal would require stockholder

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approval of severance packages (which the proposal defines to include the value of accelerated equity and other incentive awards) "that exceed 2.99 times the sum of the executive's base salary plus target short-term bonus." However, this formulation fails to consider that we award an annual equity grant as