An initial Phase 1 trade deal was struck between the US and China, which helped fuel confidence and an improving 2020 economic environment, both here and abroad.
LargeCap Value and LargeCap Select finished the year ahead of the benchmark by approximately 170 basis points and 130 basis points, respectively.
SmallCap delivered another strong year of outperformance, finishing over 600 basis points ahead of the Russell 2000 Value benchmark.
Our Institutional strategy also has attractive peer rankings with top 20 performance for the trailing one and five-year periods and top decile rankings for annualized seven and 10-year periods, and since exception in 2004.
Our SMidCap strategy finished the fourth quarter ahead of its Russell 2500 Value benchmark and 700 basis points better for the year.
The trailing three-year returns are ahead of the benchmark, and SMidCap has improved its peer rankings with a top quartile institutional ranking for 2019 and a 26 percentile ranking over the trailing three years in the eVestment universe.
It also ranked in the top 10% for the trailing three, seven and 10 years as of year-end.
In emerging markets, most markets posted strong rallies over the fourth quarter to cap off one of their best years since the global financial crisis of 2009.
Our EM SMidCap strategy underperformed the MSCI Emerging Markets SMID Cap Index in the fourth quarter, but finished the full year more than 400 basis points ahead of its benchmark.
Client retention was high at 96%.
And in total, our Wealth Management group had over $400 million in new inflows for the year.
In institutional and intermediary sales, our institutional and retail business had fourth quarter inflows of approximately $400 million that were offset by outflows of $800 million, producing net outflows of $400 million.
Our Alternative Income strategy, also known as Market Neutral, had net inflows of over $100 million and was our largest gainer for the fourth quarter, as our partner Aviva Investors allocated additional assets to the strategy.
Some highlights include the following: the completion of the build-out of our institutional and intermediary sales teams and the establishment of dedicated client relationship managers and client portfolio managers; the creation of well-defined territories and top quartile activity levels with over 900 meetings held during the quarter; the pursuit of additional platform approvals to make our funds more widely available to investors.
Equally important, the value of our investment in our partner, InvestCloud, has increased by more than 50% in the past year.
While disappointed with our financial performance over the last year, we have made several investments and executed on numerous initiatives to strengthen our foundation for the future, namely: we partnered with InvestCloud to build, test and install a cutting-edge portfolio accounting system that has increased our efficiency and reduced our operating cost; we produced excellent investment performance for US Value and Multi-Asset strategies by delivering alpha generation with high active share; we created a partnership with Charis Bank, forming Westwood Private Bank with the new space delivered on schedule and under budget; we partnered with Blackstone to give our clients access to Blackstone private equity opportunities at attractive investment minimums; we enhanced our financial planning and estate planning capabilities with new hires in Dallas and Houston; we became a signatory to the UN PRI and improved our firmwide ESG rating; we addressed industry fee challenges by introducing a flexible and innovative fee construct known as Sensible Fees to meaningfully improve investor alignment; we expanded our Multi-Asset capabilities to include multiple strategies that allow us to demonstrate skill and judgment across a broad spectrum of risk; we received SEC approval to utilize Sensible Fees in three of our public mutual funds; we launched SMA accounts on several platforms and have increased platform availability for our mutual funds; we achieved a 70% year-over-year increase in social media impressions and website sessions; we built an institutional, intermediary and marketing team of over 30 people to grow future sales and build our brand; and finally, we're pleased to be recognized by Pensions & Investments Best Places to Work for the sixth consecutive year.
With over $100 million in cash and investments, we are ideally positioned to execute on an accretive acquisition.
Today, we reported total revenues of $18.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to $26.1 million in the prior year's fourth quarter and $19.9 million in the third quarter of 2019.
Fourth quarter net income of $2.5 million or $0.30 per share compared to $5.4 million or $0.64 per share in the prior year's fourth quarter.
Economic earnings, a non-GAAP metric, was $5.4 million for the current quarter or $0.64 per share compared to $9.5 million or $1.12 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Fourth quarter net income of $2.5 million was higher than the third quarter 2019 net income of $1.1 million.
Economic earnings of $5.4 million was also higher than $3.9 million in the third quarter.
For fiscal 2019, total revenues of $84.1 million compared to $122.3 million in 2018.
The decrease was due to a $32.3 million decrease in asset-based advisory fees, a $3.5 million decrease in trust fees reflecting lower average AUM, and a $2.2 million decrease in performance-based advisory fees earned in 2019.
Fiscal 2019 net income was $5.9 million or $0.70 per share compared to $26.8 million or $3.13 per share in the prior year.
Economic earnings, a non-GAAP metric, was $18.2 million or $2.15 per share compared to $43.9 million or $5.14 per share in 2018.
Firmwide assets under management totaled $15.2 billion at quarter-end and consisted of institutional assets of $8.7 billion or 57% of the total, private wealth assets of $4.4 billion or 29% of the total, and mutual fund assets of $2.1 billion or 14% of the total.
Over the year, we experienced net outflows of $4.4 billion and market appreciation of $3 billion.
Our financial position continues to be strong with cash and short-term investments at quarter-end totaling $100.1 million and a debt-free balance sheet.
Today, our Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.43 per share, payable on April 1, 2020 to stockholders of record on March 6, 2020.
This represents an annualized dividend yield of 6% as of the closing price on February 4.

Summary:
Today, we reported total revenues of $18.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2019, compared to $26.1 million in the prior year's fourth quarter and $19.9 million in the third quarter of 2019.
Fourth quarter net income of $2.5 million or $0.30 per share compared to $5.4 million or $0.64 per share in the prior year's fourth quarter.
Economic earnings, a non-GAAP metric, was $5.4 million for the current quarter or $0.64 per share compared to $9.5 million or $1.12 per share in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Firmwide assets under management totaled $15.2 billion at quarter-end and consisted of institutional assets of $8.7 billion or 57% of the total, private wealth assets of $4.4 billion or 29% of the total, and mutual fund assets of $2.1 billion or 14% of the total.