The Wall Street Journal published an article on October 21, 2016 written by Jason Zweig that highlights the mutual fund company Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA). DFA is one of the two mutual fund companies that we use at The Financial Planning Company. Vanguard is the other.

Read the article to better understand why we love these mutual fund companies and why new assets keep flowing their way. We have requested permission with the Wall Street Journal to share a link to the article and are awaiting a response.

Some of our favorite excerpts from the article can be found below:

"The Austin, Texas, firm remains all but unknown to the general public, since its funds are available exclusively through financial advisers or to big institutions. But the firm manages $445 billion and already holds at least 5% of the total shares outstanding of 545 U.S.- listed companies, it says.

Here is how DFA invests: It designs its own indexes, often of small-capitalization stocks, then waits- for weeks, if necessary- until an eager seller is willing to unload shares at below the prevailing asking price in the market. Such tactics can minimize and in some cases even erase transaction costs, providing a small but meaningful boost to returns"

"Since its launch in late 1981, DFA's flagship fund has returned an average 11.8% annually; the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks has gained an average of 10.3% annually. Two-thirds of the firm's approximately 50 stock funds have beaten their benchmark since inception, according to data from DFA".