Dimensional Fund Advisors

Dimensional Fund Advisors, L.P. (branded Dimensional abbreviated DFA^[3]) is a privately-owned investment firm headquartered in Austin, Texas. Dimensional was founded in Brooklyn^[4] 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.^[5] Dimensional maintains additional U.S. offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and Santa Monica, California.

Dimensional Fund Advisors

Company type	Private
Industry	Finance
Founded	1981; 44 years ago (1981)
Founders	David G. Booth Rex Sinquefield
Headquarters	Austin, Texas, United States
Key people	David G. Booth (Executive Chairman) Dave Butler (Co-CEO) Gerard K. O'Reilly (Co-CEO)
Products	Money Management and Investment
AUM	$794 billion (Sept 30, 2024)[1]
Number of employees	1,500+ (2024)[2]
Website	www.dimensional.com

The company's founders studied at the University of Chicago under Eugene Fama. Kenneth French is co-chair of the firm's investment research committee.^[6] DFA's investment strategy is based on application of the efficient market hypothesis.^[7] Dimensional was one of the earliest firms to offer passive investing and "runs the oldest small-cap index fund" in the United States.^[8] However, the firm's versions of index funds have the flexibility to trade daily^[9] 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.^[10] This strategy results in regulators, such as the SEC,^[11] and some analysts^[12][13][14] describing the funds as actively managed. The company offers equity and fixed income mutual funds, Exchange-traded funds, separately managed accounts, and model portfolios.

In 2009, Dimensional acquired SmartNest, a retirement planning computer software company.^[15] Researcher Robert C. Merton left SmartNest's board after the purchase and became a Resident Scientist at Dimensional.^[16][17][18]

In November 2020, the firm announced it was augmenting its strictly advisor-access^[19] and institutional^[20] only mutual fund business model by offering openly-accessed exchange-traded funds.^{[21][22][23][24]}

Board of Directors

Board of Directors of the general partner of Dimensional Fund Advisors LP:^[25]

• David Booth
• Eugene Fama
• Kenneth French
• John "Mac" McQuown
• Gerard K. O'Reilly
• Dave Butler

Board of Directors, Dimensional Mutual Funds and ETFs, US:^[26]

• Reena Aggarwal, Georgetown University
• Dave Butler, Co-CEO
• Douglas W. Diamond, University of Chicago
• Darrell Duffie, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
• Francis A. Longstaff, UCLA
• Gerard K. O'Reilly, Co-CEO & Co-CIO
• Abbie J. Smith, University of Chicago
• Heather E. Tookes, Yale School of Management
• Ingrid M. Werner, The Ohio State University