The team at a 45-year-old, $944-billion-AUM, 1,600-employee* fund firm in the Lone Star State are preparing to roll out a pair of mutual funds with both exchange-traded fund and traditional open-end mutual fund versions.

David Paul "Dave" Butler Dimensional Fund Advisors Co-CEO

Last Friday (March 13), the folks at DFA [profile] filed to launch the Dimensional US Core Equity Market Portfolio and the Dimensional US Equity Market Portfolio. Austin, Texas-based Dimensional Fund Advisors LP will serve as investment advisor to both funds.

The filing does not reveal when the DFA team will launch the two funds, nor what their tickers will be or what exchange(s) the ETF versions will list on. The filing also does not list which providers will serve the planned funds in several other roles, including:

administrator;

custodian;

dividend disbursing agent;

fund accountant;

independent accounting firm; and

transfer agent.

Both planned funds will come in two flavors each: institutional mutual fund shares and ETF shares. For the Dimensional US Equity Market Portfolio, ETF shares will come with an expense ratio of 17 basis points, while institutional shares will cost 18bps. For the Dimensional US Core Equity Market Portfolio, ETF and institutional shares will both cost 12bps.

The same trio of portfolio managers will PM both planned funds. Those PMs are:

Jed Fogdall, global head of portfolio management, investment committee chair, vice president, and senior PM;

Joseph Hohn, VP and senior PM; and

Joel Schneider, deputy head of portfolio management, VP, and senior PM.

The Dimensional US Equity Market Portfolio and the Dimensional US Core Equity Market Portfolio will both be series of Dimensional Funds Trust. The planned funds' other service providers will include:

DFA Securities LLC (DFAS) as distributor and principal underwriter; and

Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young LLP as counsel.

Last week's DFA filing comes after the SEC gave its blessing last fall to DFA's ETF-mutual-fund dual share class plans. *As of December 31, 2025. 

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