• We view markets as an ally, not an adversary. Traditional managers strive to beat the market by taking advantage of pricing “mistakes” and attempting to predict the future. Too often, this proves costly and futile. Predictions go awry and managers miss the strong returns that markets provide by holding the wrong stocks at the wrong time. Capital economies thrive—not because markets fail but because they succeed. Accordingly, rather than trying to take advantage of the ways markets are mistaken, we take advantage of the ways markets are right —the ways they compensate investors. We design portfolios to help investors capture what the market offers in all its dimensions.

• Financial economists lead the way.Our clients benefit because Dimensional works with some of the academic community's most innovative and respected financial economists. Dimensional maintains close links with the University of Chicago and other research centers for financial economics including some of the nation’s most distinguished academic theorists, including Eugene Fama―University of Chicago, Kenneth French― Dartmouth College, Roger Ibbotson―Yale University, Donald Keim―The Wharton School, and Nobel Laureates Merton Miller―Harvard University and Myron Scholes―Stanford University.

• Returns come from risk, but not all risks carry a reliable reward. The futility of speculation is good news for the investor. It means that prices for public securities are fair and that persistent differences in average portfolio returns are explained by differences in average risk. It is certainly possible to outperform markets, but not without accepting increased risk. We employ the financial science that, over the last fifty years, has brought us to a powerful understanding of the risks that are worth taking and the risks that are not. Successful investing means capturing risks that generate expected return and reducing risks that do not . Avoidable risks include holding too few securities, betting on countries or industries, following market predictions, and speculating on “information” from rating services. To all these, diversification is the antidote. It washes away the random fortunes of individual stocks and positions your portfolio to capture the returns of broad economic forces.

• With diversification, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For many investors, the S&P 500 represents the first equity asset class in a diversified portfolio. Although the S&P 500 Index is diversified in large US companies, investors can benefit further by adding components. Take, for example, a portfolio that holds just US stocks (S&P 500 Index), a portfolio that holds just Japanese stocks (MSCI Japan Index), and a portfolio that holds both. The diversified portfolio has not only provided higher historical return than either alone, but it has done so with fewer negative quarters. We focus on the factors that drive investment returns and reduce excess and undesirable risk.

• Our approach is different from indexing. We employ a portfolio strategy designed to capture the return behavior of an entire asset class. While conventional index managers also employ this passive approach, DFA differs in several key respects. The portfolios do not necessarily track popular market benchmarks, but are designed to capture separate dimensions of worldwide returns which are accompanied by independent sources of risk. These dimensions are identified by rigorous academic research.

• Managing retirement withdrawals is just as important as managing portfolio growth. Because you may live in retirement longer than you worked, you need a solid distribution plan to ensure you will not out live your nest egg. Our Asset Harvest Process™ converts your assets into income while protecting your core asset base, minimizing tax consequences, and granting you maximum flexibility to take advantage of future opportunities. We’ll help you to take your income from the right sources so you can enjoy more of what you earned -- and maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle.

For individuals, we enhance the solid foundation from Dimensional portfolios with handpicked preferred stocks, Exchanged Traded Funds, and other appropriate investment alternatives.