 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Finance |
| Founded | 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 |  $1 trillion (Feb 9, 2026) [1] |
Number of employees | 1,500+ (2024) [2] |
| Website | www |
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.
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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]
