Dimensional Fund Advisors, L.P. (branded Dimensional abbreviated DFA) is a privately-owned investment firm headquartered in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. Dimensional was founded in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

in 1981 by David Booth, Rex Sinquefield and Larry Klotz. The company has 15 international offices in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Singapore, and Japan. Dimensional maintains additional U.S. offices in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

and

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. The company's founders studied at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

under Eugene Fama. Kenneth French is co-chair of the firm's investment research committee. DFA's investment strategy is based on application of the

efficient market hypothesis The efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) is a hypothesis in financial economics that states that asset prices reflect all available information. A direct implication is that it is impossible to "beat the market" consistently on a risk-adjusted basis ...

. Dimensional was one of the earliest firms to offer passive investing and "runs the oldest small-cap index fund" in the United States. However, the firm's versions of index funds have the flexibility to trade daily and skew towards smaller company stocks and value stocks; They operate differently from most index funds which rebalance on specific dates and are weighted by market capitalization. This strategy results in regulators, such as the SEC, and some analysts describing the funds as actively managed. The company offers equity and fixed income mutual funds,

Exchange-traded fund An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a type of investment fund that is also an exchange-traded product, i.e., it is traded on stock exchanges. ETFs own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, debts, futures contracts, and/or comm ...

s, separately managed accounts, and model portfolios. In 2009, Dimensional acquired SmartNest, a retirement planning computer software company. Researcher

Robert C. Merton Robert Cox Merton (born July 31, 1944) is an American economist, Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences laureate, and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, known for his pioneering contributions to continuous-time finance, especia ...

left SmartNest's board after the purchase and became a Resident Scientist at Dimensional. In November 2020, the firm announced it was augmenting its strictly advisor-access and institutional only mutual fund business model by offering openly-accessed exchange-traded funds.

Board of Directors

Board of Directors of the general partner of Dimensional Fund Advisors LP: * David Booth * Eugene Fama * Kenneth French * John "Mac" McQuown * Gerard K. O'Reilly * Dave Butler Board of Directors, Dimensional Mutual Funds and ETFs, US: * Reena Aggarwal,

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

* Dave Butler, Co-CEO * Douglas W. Diamond, University of Chicago * Darrell Duffie, Stanford University Graduate School of Business * Francis A. Longstaff,

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

* Gerard K. O'Reilly, Co-CEO & Co-CIO * Abbie J. Smith, University of Chicago * Heather E. Tookes,

Yale School of Management The Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. The school awards the Master of Business Admi ...

* Ingrid M. Werner,

The Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

References

External links

Official siteFama/French ForumDavid Booth Interviews
{{Major asset management companies Investment management companies of the United States Financial services companies established in 1981 Companies based in Austin, Texas Asset management companies