Westwood Holdings Group

Westwood Holdings Group

Westwood Holdings Group was founded in 1983 and operated for decades as a Dallas-based wealth management and trust company before restructuring its corporate identity. President and CEO Brian Casey now leads a firm that divested its trust bank in 2022, signaling a clean break from fiduciary banking services to concentrate entirely on institutional asset management and wealth advisory. The move separated the firm from slower-growth banking capital requirements. The firm's investment strategy spans value, growth, and multi-asset disciplines, deployed primarily through equity portfolios across large-cap, SMid-cap, and global mandates. Westwood's strategies are weighted toward energy, financials, and real assets, reflecting the economic drivers of its home market. The group manages mutual funds, institutional separate accounts, and private wealth portfolios. Public filings have shown holdings including ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and Crown Castle Inc., illustrating a conviction-driven approach to energy infrastructure, financials, and income-producing real estate. The firm invests across North America and, through its global and international equity strategies, allocates capital to developed and emerging markets. In May 2023, Westwood reported assets under management and advisement of approximately $15.4 billion, a baseline that followed the post-divestiture simplification of its balance sheet (per the firm, May 2023). The firm operates from its Dallas headquarters, employing investment professionals specializing in research, trading, and client portfolio construction. Westwood distributes its capabilities through institutional consultants, defined contribution platforms, and registered investment advisors. Its mutual fund lineup, the Westwood Funds, serves as a public vehicle alongside its long-standing institutional separate account business. Philanthropic structures include donor-advised fund management for private clients. Westwood's structural differentiator is the explicit shedding of its banking arm — a transaction that transformed it from a diversified financial institution into a pure-play investment firm. By removing the regulatory and capital constraints of a trust bank, the firm freed its capital allocation and talent compensation models to compete directly with specialist institutional asset managers. This architecture allows Westwood to run concentrated, benchmark-agnostic portfolios without the drag of a banking entity's overhead.