Dimensional Fund Advisors have now been in business for over 40 years. Over this time, they have continued to innovate in their field.

Their very first fund, the US Micro Cap Portfolio is still open to investors in the US. It was created in 1981 to offer access to small cap US stocks with index-like diversification. It was the first of it's kind.

Using the same investment philosophy which has guided Dimensional's investments over 40 years, the fund has outperformed it's benchmark by more than 1% p.a. since inception.

Now the company manages more than half a trillion US dollars of client funds, employs more than 1,400 and has offices in 13 major cities across the globe.

Executive Chairman and Founder David Booth shared his own thoughts on the company's successes in the article below.

Dimensional at 40: Timeless Lessons from My Decades in Finance.

Dimensional also celebrated this milestone by ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. You can read about this and see the video below.

Dimensional Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation

Dimensional Fund Advisors, a global leader in systematic factor investing, is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the firm’s founding. To reflect on its role in several industry transformations and highlight its commitment to innovation, Dimensional will ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) today, host Dimensional Week for employees, and launch an employee podcast featuring first-person stories from inside the company over its four decades. 

“We built the firm on the foundation of implementing the great ideas in finance,” said Founder and Executive Chairman David Booth. “For 40 years, we have trusted markets. And for 40 years, we have built trust with financial professionals and investors around the world. We will continue to work every day to transform the client and investor experience for the better.”

Booth started Dimensional in 1981 from the spare bedroom of his apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y. The new firm was built to apply an academic approach to investing and improve upon indexing. What seemed like a bold idea to many people at the time has become a cornerstone of a better way to invest. Over the past four decades, the industry has made significant progress toward driving down costs, encouraging diversification, and developing innovative solutions that benefit investors.

“Our clients are at the heart of everything we do,” said Dave Butler, Co-CEO of Dimensional. “We are committed to continuing to enhance the solutions and services we deliver based on our clients’ evolving needs, just as we have for the past four decades.”

“Dimensional has a deeply ingrained culture of asking questions, looking at the data, and applying insights that can help long-term investors,” said Co-CEO and Chief Investment Officer Gerard O’Reilly. “We seek to continually evolve while maintaining our focus on rigorous research and implementation.”

“Just as we have helped transform the investor experience through offering broadly diversified, low-cost, systematic portfolios and advocating for professional advice, we will continue to advocate and innovate for the best interests of clients and investors,” Butler added.

Following the NYSE bell ringing, Dimensional will kick off Dimensional Week, an annual event for its nearly 1,500 employees across the firm’s global offices. In addition to presentations, workshops, and conversations, Dimensional will commemorate its 40 years of innovation by giving employees a bespoke hardbound book celebrating the firm’s legacy and achievements and recognizing their central role. In addition, Dimensional will release a special internal podcast series featuring employees and their stories.