Description of the Company's common stock

The following description of the common stock of Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (“Brookdale,” “we,” “us,” “our” or “the Company”) is a summary. This summary is subject to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the “DGCL”) and the complete text of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws filed as Exhibits 3.1 and 3.2, respectively, to our Annual Report on Form 10-K. We encourage you to read our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and our amended and restated bylaws and the applicable provisions of Delaware law for additional information.

Our authorized capital stock consists of 400,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share and 50,000,000 shares of preferred stock, par value $0.01 per share.

Each holder of common stock is entitled to one vote for each share of common stock held on all matters submitted to a vote of stockholders. Except as provided with respect to any other class or series of stock, the holders of our common stock possess the exclusive right to vote for the election of directors and for all other purposes. The amended and restated certificate of incorporation does not provide for cumulative voting in the election of directors. The holders of common stock have no preemptive, subscription, redemption or conversion rights. All outstanding shares of our common stock are fully paid and nonassessable.

Subject to any preference rights of holders of our preferred stock that the Company may issue in the future, the holders of our common stock are entitled to receive dividends, if any, declared from time to time by our board of directors out of legally available funds. In the event of our liquidation, dissolution or winding up, the holders of our common stock are entitled to share ratably in all assets remaining after the payment of liabilities, subject to any rights of our holders of preferred stock to prior distribution.

Our common stock is listed and principally traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “BKD.”

Our board of directors has the authority, without action by our stockholders, to issue preferred stock and to fix voting powers for each class or series of preferred stock, and to provide that any class or series may be subject to redemption, entitled to receive dividends, entitled to rights upon dissolution or convertible into, or exchangeable for, shares of any other class or

classes of capital stock. The rights with respect to a series or class of preferred stock may be greater than the rights attached to our common stock. It is not possible to state the actual effect of the issuance of any shares of our preferred stock on the rights of holders of our common stock until our board of directors determines the specific rights attached to that preferred stock. The effect of issuing preferred stock could include one or more of the following:

No shares of our preferred stock are currently issued and outstanding and we currently have no plans to issue any of the 50,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock.

The following is a summary of certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws that may be deemed to have an anti-takeover effect and may delay, deter or prevent a tender offer or takeover attempt that a stockholder might consider to be in its best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares.

The authorized but unissued shares of our common stock and our preferred stock will be available for future issuance without approval by our stockholders. These additional shares may be utilized for a variety of corporate purposes, including future public offerings to raise additional capital, corporate acquisitions and employee benefit plans. For our preferred stock, the board of directors is authorized to determine and alter all rights, preferences, privileges, qualifications, limitations and restrictions without limitation. The existence of authorized but unissued shares of our common stock and our preferred stock could render more difficult or discourage an attempt to obtain control over us by means of a proxy contest, tender offer, merger or otherwise.

We are organized under Delaware law. Some provisions of Delaware law may delay or prevent a transaction that would cause a change in our control.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that Section 203 of the DGCL, an anti-takeover law, will not apply to us. In general, this statute prohibits a publicly held Delaware corporation from engaging in a business combination with an interested stockholder for a period of three years after the date of the transaction by which that person became an

interested stockholder, unless the business combination is approved in a prescribed manner. For purposes of Section 203, a business combination includes a merger, asset sale or other transaction resulting in a financial benefit to the interested stockholder, and an interested stockholder is a person who, together with affiliates and associates, owns, or within three years prior, did own, 15% or more of voting stock.

Our board of directors may consist of not less than three nor more than nine directors. In an uncontested election, directors are elected by a majority of the votes of the shares present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote on the election of directors. In a contested election, a plurality voting standard applies to director elections. Until the election of directors at our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders (the “2021 Annual Meeting”), our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides for a staggered board of directors consisting of three classes of directors. Each director elected at or prior to our 2018 annual meeting of stockholders was elected for a term expiring on the date of the third annual meeting of stockholders following the annual meeting at which the director was elected. Each director elected at the 2019 annual meeting of stockholders was elected for a one-year term expiring at the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders. Each director elected at the 2020 annual meeting of stockholders will be elected for a one-year term expiring at the 2021 Annual Meeting. At the 2021 Annual Meeting and each annual meeting of stockholders thereafter, all directors will be elected for a one-year term expiring at the next annual meeting of stockholders. Prior to the 2021 Annual Meeting, if the number of directors is changed, any increase or decrease will be apportioned among the classes so as to maintain the number of directors in each class as nearly equal as possible, and any additional director of any class elected to fill a vacancy resulting from an increase in such class will hold office for a term that coincides with the remaining term of that class. There is no cumulative voting in the election of directors.

Until the election of directors at our 2021 Annual Meeting, the classified board provision could have the effect of making the replacement of incumbent directors more time consuming and difficult. Thus, the classified board provision could increase the likelihood that incumbent directors will retain their positions. The staggered terms of directors may delay, defer or prevent a tender offer or an attempt to change control of us, even though a tender offer or change in control might be in the best interest of our stockholders. In addition, until the 2021 Annual Meeting, directors may be removed only for cause by a majority in voting interest of our stockholders entitled to vote.

Certain provisions of our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may make a change in control of the Company more difficult to effect.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws also provide that our stockholders are specifically denied the ability to call a special meeting of the stockholders. Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and

restated bylaws also do not provide for the right of stockholders to act by written consent without a meeting.

Our amended and restated bylaws require that advance notice must be provided by our stockholders to nominate persons for election to our board of directors as well as to propose actions to be taken at an annual meeting.

The amendment of any of the provisions in the certificate of incorporation requires approval by a stockholder vote by the holders of at least a majority of the voting power of the then outstanding voting stock. The bylaws may be amended by the affirmative vote of at least a majority of the whole board of directors or by the affirmative vote of the holders of at least sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of the voting power of the then outstanding voting stock.

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation provides that our directors will not be personally liable to us or our stockholders for monetary damages for breach of a fiduciary duty as a director, except for:

Our amended and restated certificate of incorporation allows us to indemnify our directors and officers to the fullest extent permitted by Delaware law. Our amended and restated bylaws also obligate us to advance expenses incurred by a director or officer in advance of the final disposition of any action, suit or proceeding, and permit us to secure insurance on behalf of any officer or director for any liability arising out of his or her actions in that capacity regardless of whether we would otherwise be permitted to indemnify him or her under our amended and restated certificate of incorporation.

We have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and executive officers. We believe that these bylaw provisions and indemnification agreements are necessary to attract and retain qualified persons as directors and officers.

The limitation of liability and indemnification provisions in our amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may discourage stockholders from bringing a lawsuit against the directors and officers for breach of their fiduciary duty. They may also reduce the likelihood of derivative litigation against the directors and officers, even though an action, if successful, might benefit the Company and its stockholders. Furthermore, a stockholder’s investment may be adversely affected to the extent that we pay the costs of settlement and damage.

The transfer agent and registrar for our common stock is American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC. The telephone number of American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC is (718)  ###-###-####.