Policy Statement

Because Your Trust is So Important
Your trust is the cornerstone of our relationship. That is why we work so diligently to safeguard your privacy. The information that you provide us is kept in the strictest of confidence. We have no intentions of selling personal information about our clients to third-party businesses. We are proud to make that commitment to you, because your trust is the foundation of our business.

All business lines and all employees are expected to adhere to our policies regarding information security. The following statement explains how we use and protect the information about our clients. We ask that you read it carefully.

 

Notice of Your Financial Rights

We, our, and us, when used in this notice, mean Westwood Management Corp., Westwood Trust, and Westwood Holdings Group, Inc.

This is our privacy notice for our clients. When we use the words “you” and “your” we mean the following types of clients:

  • Our consumer clients who have a continuing relationship by purchasing or holding financial products or services such as a(n):
  • Self-directed Individual Retirement Account
  • Financial, investment, or economic advisory services
  • Mutual fund shares
  • All persons who use our trust department
  • All IRA accounts for which we act as custodian
  • Former clients

We will tell you the sources of the information we collect about you. We will tell you what measures we take to secure that information. We first define some terms.

Nonpublic personal information means information about you that we collect in connection with providing a financial product or service to you. To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, Federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. Therefore, when you open an account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth, and other information that will allow us to identify you. We may also ask to see your driver’s license or other identifying documents. Federal law requires us to screen new clients through the Office of Foreign Assets Control “Specially Designated National & Blocked Persons” list and/or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Nonpublic personal information does not include information that is available from public sources, such as telephone directories or government records. Hereafter, we will use the term “information” to mean nonpublic personal information as defined in this section. An affiliate is a company we own or control, a company that owns or controls us, or a company that is owned or controlled by the same company that owns or controls us. Ownership does not mean complete ownership, but means owning enough to have control. A nonaffiliated third party is a person we do not employ or a company that is not an affiliate of ours. This is also known as nonaffiliated third party, or simply, an “other party.”

The Information We Collect

We collect information about you from the following sources:

  • Information you give us on applications or other forms
  • Information about your transactions with us
  • Information about your transactions with our affiliates

The Information We Disclose About You

We do NOT disclose any information about you to anyone, except as permitted by law. This might include disclosures necessary to service your account, perform joint marketing or prevent unauthorized transactions.

Destruction of Sensitive Data. All records and data are properly shredded prior to disposal. Destruction of documents is handled by authorized employees and/or bonded companies when the shredding of large quantities of documents is required.

The Confidentiality, Security, and Integrity of Your Information

At Westwood, we restrict access to information about you to those employees who need to know that information in order to provide products and services to you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect this information. We also understand that clients play a critical role in the protection of online accounts from protecting passwords to keeping your computer updated and patched. We share occasional insights on our cybersecurity site that may be of interest in this regard.

Information About Our Former Clients

We have the same policy about disclosing information about former clients as we do about current clients. We do not retrieve account or personal information from visitors who browse the public areas of our website. Westwoodgroup.com does use “HTTP cookies” – tiny pieces of information that we ask your browser to store. However, we make very limited use of these cookies for website statistical information only. We do NOT use them to learn your e-mail address, or to view data in cookies created by other websites. We will not share the information in our cookies or give others access to it.

Social Media

Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. and its affiliates (collectively, “Westwood”) and select Westwood employees maintain profiles and/or pages on various social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Google My Business and LinkedIn (such social media platforms and any similar social media platforms added in the future are referred to hereinafter as the “platforms”). If you choose to “Follow” Westwood on any platforms or take any similar action on another similar platform, you are providing your consent to receive informational updates, including solicitations, from Westwood. To stop receiving this information from Westwood on a platform, you must follow the procedure established by the platform. For example, on Twitter, you must click “Unfollow” on Westwood’s profile page.

The information contained in Westwood’s social media profiles and pages is current as of the date of publication (or such earlier date as referenced) and is subject to change without notice. Westwood has no obligation to update any or all such information. Additionally, Westwood personnel other than the author(s) may provide oral or written market commentary or investment ideas to Westwood’s clients or prospects that differ from the views expressed.

All amounts, market value information and estimates have been obtained from outside sources where indicated or represent the good faith judgment of Westwood. Where such information has been obtained from outside sources, Westwood cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Past performance is not a guarantee or reliable indicator of future results. Westwood’s social media profiles and pages on the platforms are not intended to be an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase or sale of any security or other financial instrument or any investment management services. They are provided for information purposes only, do not constitute investment advice, and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. They also do not purport to provide any legal, tax or accounting advice.

The platforms are owned by third parties unaffiliated with Westwood. Westwood is not responsible for the terms of use or policies of any of the social media platforms on which it maintains a profile or page or any third-party platforms to which they are linked, and you use these platforms at your own risk. Westwood is not responsible for and does not endorse any content, advertising, products, advice, opinions, recommendations, terms of use or privacy policies, or other materials on or available from third parties.

While Westwood may monitor postings by third parties on its profiles and pages, Westwood is not able to review them before they are displayed, and any such postings are the views and responsibilities of the posters. Westwood does reserve the right to edit or remove any post for any reason and to block followers to the extent permitted by the platforms. If Westwood does not remove a third-party post, it is not an endorsement of the content.

Westwood does not provide customer service, conduct financial transactions or accept customer complaints through its social media profiles and/or pages. Never disclose account or other personal financial information on any of our social media profiles or pages.

Westwood Trust Department of Banking Disclaimer

Westwood Trust is chartered under the laws of the State of Texas and by state law is subject to regulatory oversight by the Texas Department of Banking. Any consumer wishing to file a complaint against Westwood Trust should contact the Texas Department of Banking through one of the means indicated below:

What You Can Do

To protect your nonpublic, personal information, we recommend that you do not provide your account information or WHG’s user name and password to anyone. If you become aware of any suspicious activity relating to your account, please contact us immediately at +1 (214) 756-6900.