Fesette Neil E. 4

What Happened
Neil E. Fesette, a director of Community Financial System, Inc. (CBU), was granted 1,220 derivative units on March 17, 2026. The units are recorded at $0.00 per unit (award/grant), i.e., no cash was exchanged. These are phantom/deferred stock units that represent the economic equivalent of common shares and will be settled in Community Financial common stock at future dates.

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-03-17; filing date: 2026-03-19 (Form 4 filed within typical 2‑business‑day window).
• Transaction type/code: A — Grant/Award (derivative phantom stock units). Price reported: $0.00; total immediate cash value shown: $0.
• Settlement: Units are phantom/deferred stock units to be settled in common stock at future dates (see footnotes F2 and F4).
• Related footnotes in the filing: F1 (67.928 shares acquired 1/12/2026 via Dividend Reinvestment Plan), F3 (70.3453 phantom units from DCP dividend reinvestment on 1/12/2026), F5 (41.4544 phantom units under the LTIP received as dividend equivalents on 1/12/2026).
• Shares/units owned after this transaction: not specified in the provided excerpt of the filing.

Context

• These phantom/deferred units are a form of compensation or deferred pay for directors and are not an open‑market purchase (so they are routine compensation rather than a direct bullish purchase).
• Derivative awards like this will convert to actual shares only when settled per plan rules; they do not represent immediate shares traded in the market.