Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS

401(k) Plan - The Company maintains a 401(k) Plan (the "Plan") for the benefit of its employees. Company contributions are made annually as approved by the Board of Directors. Such amounts are not in excess of amounts permitted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

Plan participants may make voluntary after-tax contributions of their considered earnings as defined by the Plan. In addition, participants may make pre-tax contributions up to the statutory limits through the 401(k) provisions of the Plan. The annual addition from contributions to an individual participant's account in this Plan cannot exceed the lesser of 100% of base salary or $66,000.

New employees become eligible to participate in the Plan and make employee contributions on the first day of the calendar month following the completion of 30 days of employment. Such eligible employees do not become eligible for profit sharing or matching contributions until the first day of the quarter (January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1) following completion of 1 year of service. A “year of service” is defined as a 12-month period in which the eligible employee works at least 1,000 hours of service and the first eligibility service period starts on the first day of employment.

The Plan provides for a guaranteed safe harbor matching contribution equal to 100% of the first 4% of compensation that employees contribute to their account and this amount is immediately vested. The safe harbor match is not subject to the six year vesting schedule of the profit sharing contribution. This provides plan participants more investment flexibility. Additionally, the Company anticipates that all eligible employees, regardless of personal plan participation, will continue to receive an annual discretionary profit sharing contribution from the Company.

Company contributions to the Plan amounted to $8,648,000, $10,559,000 and $9,905,000 for the years ended 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan - Upon approval by common shareholders, the Company implemented an Employee Stock Purchase Plan ("ESPP") in 2023 in which substantially all employees of the Company are eligible to participate. The ESPP provides participants the opportunity to purchase common stock of the Company at 95% of the closing stock price on the last day of the purchase period. Purchase periods are three-month periods that are set as January 1 through March 31, April 1 through June 30, July 1 through September 30, and October 1 through December 31 of each year. A total of 500,000 shares were made available for issuance. Participants of the ESPP purchased 7,027 shares for $177,021 during 2023. At September 30, 2023 there were 492,973 shares remaining for purchase under the ESPP.

Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan - Also approved by our shareholders, the Company implemented a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan ("SERP") during 2023. This non-qualified deferred compensation plan provides retirement benefits to certain highly compensated executives. The SERP credits, if vested, will be distributed in the form of WaFd, Inc. common stock, in ten (10) substantially equal annual installments, following retirement of the executive officer. $11,700,000 in common stock units, and related dividend equivalents, were authorized with each unit having a value equal to one share of WaFd, Inc. common stock. These units will vest based on the age of each participant as follows:


			Attained Age						Vested Percentage
			Before 62						—%
			62						80%
			63						90%
			64						100%

On March 9, 2023, the date of distribution, a total of 368,966 common stock units were credited to participant accounts based on the closing share price of $31.71. An additional 7,292 units were credited to accounts during 2023 as a result of dividends paid subsequent to the initial distribution. As a result, there were a total of 376,258 share units with a weighted average grant date fair value of $31.59 held within SERP accounts at September 30, 2023. SERP related expense recognized during the year was $625,000. There were no shares paid during 2023 and there were no participants vested.