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Prospectus
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DIMENSIONAL ETF TRUST |
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Ticker: |
Exchange: | ||
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Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF |
DFAU |
NYSE Arca, Inc. | ||
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Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF |
DCOR |
NYSE Arca, Inc. | ||
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Dimensional US High Profitability ETF |
DUHP |
NYSE Arca, Inc. | ||
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Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
DFLV |
NYSE Arca, Inc. | ||
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Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF |
DFSV |
NYSE Arca, Inc. | ||
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Dimensional US Large Cap Vector ETF |
DFVX |
NYSE Arca, Inc. | ||
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Dimensional US Real Estate ETF |
DFAR |
NYSE Arca, Inc. |
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This Prospectus describes the shares of the Portfolio which are for long term investors. |
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The Securities and Exchange Commission has not approved or disapproved these securities or passed upon the adequacy of this Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. |
Table of Contents
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Additional Information on Investment Objectives and Policies |
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[THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]
The investment objective of the Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF (the “US Core ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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Management Fee |
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Other Expenses |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
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1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
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A
fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and
sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover
may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio's portfolio
turnover rate was
To achieve the US Core ETF’s investment objective, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Advisor”) implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The US Core ETF is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of readily marketable equity securities of U.S. companies that is composed of companies within the U.S. Universe that meet the Advisor’s investment criteria. The Advisor defines the “U.S. Universe” as a market capitalization weighted set (e.g., the larger the company, the
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greater the proportion of the U.S. Universe it represents) of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor. The Portfolio will invest in companies of all sizes, with increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies as compared to their representation in the U.S. Universe. The Portfolio’s increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies may be achieved by decreasing the allocation of the Portfolio’s assets to larger capitalization, higher relative price, or lower profitability companies relative to their weight in the U.S. Universe. An equity issuer is considered to have a high relative price (i.e., a growth stock) primarily because it has a high price in relation to its book value. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to their book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time. As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of U.S. companies. For purposes of the 80% policy, the Advisor considers a U.S. company to be an operating company that is principally traded on a securities exchange in the United States that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the US Core ETF’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum, short-run reversals, and investment characteristics. In assessing a company’s investment characteristics, the Advisor considers ratios such as recent changes in assets divided by total assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing a company’s investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The US Core ETF may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The US Core ETF may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The US Core ETF is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
Small and Mid-Cap Company Risk: Securities of small and mid-cap companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small or mid-cap company security at a desired time or price. As a result, small and mid-cap company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, small and mid-capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment
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strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
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January 2021-December 2023 | |
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Since |
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Inception |
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Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF |
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Since inception November 17, 2020. | |||||
Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2020).
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2020).
• Joel P. Schneider, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since 2024.
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Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 50,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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The investment objective of the Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF (the “US Core Equity 1 ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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Management Fee |
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Other Expenses1 |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement2 |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement |
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The Portfolio is a new portfolio, so the “Other Expenses" shown are based on anticipated fees and expenses for the first full fiscal year. |
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Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Advisor”) has agreed to waive certain fees and in certain instances, assume certain expenses of the Portfolio. The Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement for the Portfolio will remain in effect through February 28, 2025, and may only be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees prior to that date. Under certain circumstances, the Advisor retains the right to seek reimbursement for any fees previously waived and/or expenses previously assumed up to thirty-six months after such fee waiver and/or expense assumption. |
This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. The costs for the Portfolio reflect the net expenses of the Portfolio that result from the contractual expense waiver in the first year only. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
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1 Year |
3 Years |
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$ |
$ |
A
fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and
sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover
may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s
performance. During the period September 12, 2023 to October 31, 2023, the
Portfolio's portfolio turnover rate was
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To achieve the US Core Equity 1 ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The US Core Equity 1 ETF is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of equity securities of U.S. companies. The Portfolio invests in companies of all sizes, with moderately increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies as compared to their representation in the U.S. Universe. The Advisor generally defines the U.S. Universe as a market capitalization weighted set (e.g., the larger the company, the greater the proportion of the U.S. Universe it represents) of U.S. operating companies listed on a securities exchange in the United States that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor. The Portfolio’s increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies may be achieved by decreasing the allocation of the Portfolio’s assets to larger capitalization, higher relative price, or lower profitability companies relative to their weight in the U.S. Universe. An equity issuer is considered to have a high relative price (i.e., a growth stock) primarily because it has a high price in relation to its book value. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the US Core Equity 1 ETF will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of U.S. companies.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the US Core Equity 1 ETF’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum, short-run reversals, and investment characteristics. In assessing a company’s investment characteristics, the Advisor considers ratios such as recent changes in assets divided by total assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing a company’s investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The US Core Equity 1 ETF also may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices, to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The US Core Equity 1 ETF may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The US Core Equity 1 ETF is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
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Small and Mid-Cap Company Risk: Securities of small and mid-cap companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small or mid-cap company security at a desired time or price. As a result, small and mid-cap company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, small and mid-capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
Large Shareholder Risk: Certain shareholders, including other funds or accounts advised by the Advisor, may from time to time own a substantial amount of a fund’s shares. In addition, a third party investor, the Advisor, an authorized participant, a lead market maker, or another entity may invest in a fund and hold its investment for a
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limited period of time solely to facilitate commencement of a fund or to facilitate a fund achieving a specified size or scale. There can be no assurance that any large shareholder would not redeem its investment, that the size of a fund would be maintained at such levels or that a fund would continue to meet applicable listing requirements. Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on a fund. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on the listing exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the shares.
Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2023).
• John A. Hertzer, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2023).
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2023).
• Allen Pu, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since 2024.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 25,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
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Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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The investment objective of the Dimensional US High Profitability ETF (the “US High Profitability ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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Management Fee |
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Other Expenses |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
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1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
A
fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and
sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover
may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio's portfolio
turnover rate was
To achieve the US High Profitability ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The Portfolio is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of readily marketable securities of large U.S. companies that the Advisor determines to have high profitability relative to other U.S. large cap companies at the time of purchase. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits
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from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The Portfolio may emphasize certain stocks, including smaller capitalization companies, lower relative price stocks, and/or higher profitability stocks as compared to their representation in the large-cap, high profitability segment of the U.S. market. The Portfolio’s increased exposure to such stocks may be achieved by overweighting and/or underweighting eligible stocks based on their market capitalization, relative price, and/or profitability characteristics. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of U.S. companies. As of the date of this Prospectus, for purposes of the Portfolio, the Advisor considers large cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the highest 90% of total market capitalization or companies whose market capitalizations are larger than or equal to the 1,000th largest U.S. company within the U.S. Universe, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. The Advisor generally defines the U.S. Universe as a portfolio of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible operating companies within the U.S. Universe. Under the Advisor’s market capitalization guidelines described above, based on market capitalization data as of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of a large cap company would be $9,960 million or above. This threshold will change due to market conditions.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the Portfolio’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum and short-run reversals. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The Portfolio is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on
12
an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
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Dimensional US High Profitability ETF |
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Since inception February 23, 2022. | |||||
Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• John A. Hertzer, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Allen Pu, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since 2024.
14
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 50,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
15
The investment objective of the Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF (the “US Large Cap Value ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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Management Fee |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement1 |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement |
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1 |
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Advisor”) has agreed to waive certain fees and in certain instances, assume certain expenses of the Portfolio. The Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement for the Portfolio will remain in effect through February 28, 2025, and may only be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees prior to that date. Under certain circumstances, the Advisor retains the right to seek reimbursement for any fees previously waived and/or expenses previously assumed up to thirty-six months after such fee waiver and/or expense assumption. |
This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. The costs for the Portfolio reflect the net expenses of the Portfolio that result from the contractual expense waiver in the first year only. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
|
1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
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$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
A
fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and
sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover
may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s
performance. During the period December 6, 2022 to October 31, 2023, the
Portfolio's portfolio turnover rate was
To achieve the US Large Cap Value ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further
16
described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The Portfolio is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of readily marketable securities of large U.S. companies that the Advisor determines to be value stocks. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. Under a market capitalization weighted approach, companies with higher market capitalizations generally represent a larger proportion of the Portfolio than companies with relatively lower market capitalizations. The Advisor may overweight certain stocks, including smaller companies, lower relative price stocks, and/or higher profitability stocks within the large-cap value segment of the U.S. market. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of large cap U.S. companies. As of the date of this Prospectus, for purposes of the Portfolio, the Advisor considers large cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the highest 90% of total market capitalization or companies whose market capitalizations are larger than or equal to the 1,000th largest U.S. company, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible U.S. operating companies listed on a securities exchange in the United States that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor. Under the Advisor’s market capitalization guidelines described above, based on market capitalization data as of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of a large cap company would be $9,960 million or above. This threshold will change due to market conditions.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the Portfolio’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum and short-run reversals. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The Portfolio is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
17
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
18
shown are not relevant to investors who hold shares of the Portfolio through tax-advantaged arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts.
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Inception |
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Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
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1. |
Since inception December 6, 2022. | |||||
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2. |
Effective February 28, 2024, the Portfolio incorporated this broad-based securities market index to reflect the overall applicable securities market of the Portfolio. | |||||
Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• John A. Hertzer, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
19
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Allen Pu, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since 2024.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 50,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
20
The investment objective of the Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (the “US Small Cap Value ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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Management Fee |
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Other Expenses |
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses |
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This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
|
1 Year |
3 Years |
5 Years |
10 Years |
|
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
A
fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and
sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover
may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio's portfolio
turnover rate was
To achieve the US Small Cap Value ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The Portfolio, using a market capitalization weighted approach, is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of the readily marketable securities of U.S. small cap companies that the Advisor determines to be value stocks. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. Under a market
21
capitalization weighted approach, companies with higher market capitalizations generally represent a larger proportion of the Portfolio than companies with relatively lower market capitalizations. The Portfolio may emphasize certain stocks, including smaller capitalization companies, lower relative price stocks, and/or higher profitability stocks as compared to their representation in the small-cap value segment of the U.S. market. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of small cap U.S. companies. As of the date of this Prospectus, for purposes of the Portfolio, the Advisor considers small cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the lowest 10% of total market capitalization or companies whose market capitalizations are smaller than the 1,000th largest U.S. company within the U.S. Universe, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. The Advisor generally defines the U.S. Universe as a portfolio of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible operating companies within the U.S. Universe. Under the Advisor’s market capitalization guidelines described above, based on market capitalization data as of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of a small cap company would be below $9,960 million. This threshold will change due to market conditions.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the Portfolio’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum, short-run reversals, and investment characteristics. In assessing a company’s investment characteristics, the Advisor considers ratios such as recent changes in assets divided by total assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing a company’s investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The Portfolio is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
Small Company Risk: Securities of small companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small company security at a desired time or price. As a result, small company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, smaller capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment
22
strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
23
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Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF |
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Since inception February 23, 2022. | |||||
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Effective February 28, 2024, the Portfolio incorporated this broad-based securities market index to reflect the overall applicable securities market of the Portfolio. | |||||
Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
24
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Joel P. Schneider, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Marc C. Leblond, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 50,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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The investment objective of the Dimensional US Large Cap Vector ETF (the “US Large Cap Vector ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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The Portfolio is a new portfolio, so the “Other Expenses" shown are based on anticipated fees and expenses for the first full fiscal year. |
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2 |
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Advisor”) has agreed to waive certain fees and in certain instances, assume certain expenses of the Portfolio. The Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement for the Portfolio will remain in effect through February 28, 2025, and may only be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees prior to that date. Under certain circumstances, the Advisor retains the right to seek reimbursement for any fees previously waived and/or expenses previously assumed up to thirty-six months after such fee waiver and/or expense assumption. |
This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. The costs for the Portfolio reflect the net expenses of the Portfolio that result from the contractual expense waiver in the first year only. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
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A fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Portfolio shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s performance. Because the Portfolio is new, information about portfolio turnover rate is not yet available.
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To achieve the US Large Cap Vector ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The Portfolio is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of readily marketable securities of U.S. large cap companies that the Advisor determines to have higher profitability and lower relative price as compared to other U.S. large cap companies at the time of purchase. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The Portfolio may emphasize certain companies, including smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and/or higher profitability companies as compared to their representation in the large cap high profitability value segment of the U.S. market. The Portfolio’s increased exposure to such companies may be achieved by overweighting and/or underweighting eligible companies based on their market capitalization, relative price, and/or profitability characteristics. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of large cap U.S. companies. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. The Advisor considers large cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the highest 90% of total market capitalization within the U.S. Universe or companies whose market capitalizations are larger than or equal to the 1,000th largest U.S. company within the U.S. Universe, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. The Advisor generally defines the U.S. Universe as a portfolio of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible operating companies within the U.S. Universe. Under the Advisor’s market capitalization guidelines described above, based on market capitalization data as of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of a large cap company would be $9,960 million or above. This threshold will change due to market conditions.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the Portfolio’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum and short-run reversals. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The Portfolio is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
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Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
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Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2023).
• John A. Hertzer, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2023).
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2023).
• Allen Pu, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since 2024.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 50,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
29
The investment objective of the Dimensional US Real Estate ETF (the “US Real Estate ETF” or “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold or sell shares of the Portfolio. You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling shares of the Portfolio, which are not reflected in the table or Example that follows.
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Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement |
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1 |
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Advisor”) has agreed to waive certain fees and in certain instances, assume certain expenses of the Portfolio. The Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement for the Portfolio will remain in effect through February 28, 2025, and may only be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees prior to that date. Under certain circumstances, the Advisor retains the right to seek reimbursement for any fees previously waived and/or expenses previously assumed up to thirty-six months after such fee waiver and/or expense assumption. |
This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. The costs for the Portfolio reflect the net expenses of the Portfolio that result from the contractual expense waiver in the first year only. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs whether you redeem or hold your shares would be:
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5 Years |
10 Years |
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A
fund generally pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and
sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover
may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when fund
shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s
performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio's portfolio
turnover rate was
To achieve the US Real Estate ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions.
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The Portfolio, using a market capitalization weighted approach, will concentrate investments in readily marketable equity securities of companies whose principal activities include ownership, management, development, construction, or sale of residential, commercial or industrial real estate. The Portfolio will principally invest in equity securities of companies in certain real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and companies engaged in residential construction and firms, except partnerships, whose principal business is to develop commercial property. The Portfolio invests in companies of all sizes. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. Under a market capitalization weighted approach, companies with higher market capitalizations generally represent a larger proportion of the Portfolio than companies with relatively lower market capitalizations. The Advisor may adjust the representation in the Portfolio of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, size, relative price, profitability, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Portfolio’s net assets will be invested in securities of U.S. companies in the real estate industry. The Portfolio concentrates (i.e., invests more than 25% of its net assets) its investments in securities of companies in the real estate industry. The Portfolio generally considers a company to be principally engaged in the real estate industry if the company (i) derives at least 50% of its revenue or profits from the ownership, management, development, construction, or sale of residential, commercial, industrial, or other real estate; (ii) has at least 50% of the value of its assets invested in residential, commercial, industrial, or other real estate; or (iii) is organized as a REIT or REIT-like entity. REITs and REIT-like entities are types of real estate companies that pool investors’ funds for investment primarily in income producing real estate or real estate related loans or interests. The Portfolio will make equity investments in securities listed on a securities exchange in the United States that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
The Portfolio is an actively managed exchange-traded fund and does not seek to replicate the performance of a specific index and may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than such index funds.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
Risks of Concentrating in the Real Estate Industry: A fund that concentrates (i.e., invests more than 25% of its net assets) its investments in securities of companies in the real estate industry will be exposed to the general risks of direct real estate ownership. The value of securities in the real estate industry can be affected by changes in real estate values and rental income, property taxes, and tax and regulatory requirements. Also, the value of securities in the real estate industry may decline with changes in interest rates. Investing in REITs and REIT-like entities involves certain unique risks in addition to those risks associated with investing in the real estate industry in general. REITs and REIT-like entities are dependent upon management skill, may not be diversified, and are subject to heavy cash flow dependency and self-liquidation. REITs and REIT-like entities also are subject to the possibility of failing to qualify for tax free pass-through of income. Also, because REITs and REIT-like entities typically are invested in a
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limited number of projects or in a particular market segment, these entities are more susceptible to adverse developments affecting a single project or market segment than more broadly diversified investments. The performance of a fund may be materially different from the broad equity market.
Small and Mid-Cap Company Risk: Securities of small and mid-cap companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small or mid-cap company security at a desired time or price. As a result, small and mid-cap company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, small and mid-capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Market Trading Risk: Active trading markets for a fund’s shares may not be developed or maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Authorized participants are not obligated to make a market in a fund’s shares or to submit purchase or redemption orders for creation units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Trading in shares on an exchange may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of the listing exchange necessary to maintain the listing of a fund will continue to be met.
Premium/Discount Risk: The net asset value (“NAV”) of a fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Disruptions to creations and redemptions or the market price of a fund’s holdings, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for shares may widen bid-ask spreads and result in shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV. If a shareholder purchases shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, measures that seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
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Effective February 28, 2024, the Portfolio incorporated this broad-based securities market index to reflect the overall applicable securities market of the Portfolio. | |||||
Investment Advisor/Portfolio Management
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP serves as the investment advisor for the Portfolio. The following individuals are responsible for leading the day-to-day management of the Portfolio:
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• Jed S. Fogdall, Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• John A. Hertzer, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Joseph F. Hohn, Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since inception (2022).
• Allen Pu, Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor, has been a portfolio manager of the Portfolio since 2024.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Portfolio issues (or redeems) shares at NAV only to certain financial institutions that have entered into agreements with the Portfolio’s distributor in large aggregated blocks known as “Creation Units.” A Creation Unit of the Portfolio consists of 50,000 shares. Creation Units are issued (or redeemed) in-kind for securities (and an amount of cash) that the Portfolio specifies each day at the NAV next determined after receipt of an order.
Individual Portfolio shares may only be purchased and sold on NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at market prices. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Because Portfolio shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, Portfolio shares may trade at a price less than (discount) or greater than (premium) the Portfolio’s NAV. Recent information, including information on the Portfolio’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available on the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/us-en/funds.
The dividends and distributions you receive from the Portfolio are taxable and generally will be taxed as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account, in which case distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from the plan or account.
Payments to Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Portfolio through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of the Portfolio shares and/or related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your financial advisor or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
34
Additional Information on Investment Objectives and Policies
Dimensional ETF Trust (the “Trust”) offers a variety of investment portfolios. Each of the investment company’s portfolios has its own investment objective and is the equivalent of a separate exchange-traded fund (“ETF”). Shares of the Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF (the “US Core ETF”), Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF (the "US Core 1 ETF"), Dimensional US High Profitability ETF (the “US High Profitability ETF”), Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF (the “US Large Cap Value ETF”), Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (the “US Small Cap Value ETF”), Dimensional US Large Cap Vector ETF (the "US Large Cap Vector ETF"), and Dimensional US Real Estate ETF (the “US Real Estate ETF”) (each, a “Portfolio” and collectively, the “Portfolios”) are offered in this Prospectus. The Portfolios are designed for long-term investors.
The investment objective of each Portfolio is to achieve long-term capital appreciation. Each Portfolio’s investment objective is non-fundamental, which means it may be changed by the Board of Trustees without shareholder approval. Shareholders will be given at least 60 days’ advance notice of any change to a Portfolio’s investment objective.
INVESTMENT TERMS USED IN THE PROSPECTUS
Below are the definitions of some terms that the Advisor uses to describe the investment strategies for certain Portfolios.
Free Float generally describes the number of publicly traded shares of a company.
Price Momentum generally describes the tendency for stocks that have outperformed their peers to continue outperforming, and the similar tendency for stocks that have underperformed their peers to continue underperforming.
Short-Run Reversals generally describes the tendency for stocks that have recently outperformed their peers to underperform in the short run, and the similar tendency for stocks that have recently underperformed their peers to outperform in the short run.
Trading Strategies generally refers to the ability to execute purchases and sales of stocks in a cost-effective manner.
Profitability generally measures a company’s profit in relation to its book value or assets.
To achieve the US Core ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The US Core ETF is designed to achieve its investment objective by purchasing a broad and diverse group of readily marketable equity securities of U.S. companies that is composed of companies within the U.S. Universe that meet the Advisor’s investment criteria. The Advisor defines the “U.S. Universe” as a market capitalization weighted set of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor. Market capitalization weighted means that a company’s weighting in the U.S. Universe is proportional to that company’s actual market capitalization compared to the total market capitalization of all eligible companies. The higher the company’s relative market capitalization, the greater its representation. The Portfolio will invest in companies of all sizes, with increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies as compared to their representation in the U.S. Universe. The Portfolio’s increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies may be achieved by decreasing the allocation of the Portfolio’s assets to larger capitalization, higher relative price, or lower profitability companies relative to their weight in the U.S. Universe.
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An equity issuer is considered to have a high relative price (i.e., a growth stock) primarily because it has a high price in relation to its book value. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to their book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price-to-cash-flow or price-to-earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the US Core ETF’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum, short-run reversals, and investment characteristics. The Advisor may consider a small capitalization company’s investment characteristics as compared to other eligible companies when making investment decisions and may exclude a small capitalization company with high recent asset growth. The Portfolio will generally not exclude more than 5% of the eligible small capitalization companies within the U.S. Universe based on such investment characteristics. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing a company’s investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. The Advisor may decrease the amount that the Portfolio invests in small capitalization companies that have lower profitability and/or higher relative prices. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
The US Core ETF may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices, to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The US Core ETF may invest in ETFs for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage the Portfolio’s cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses. The Portfolio will look through to the security holdings of any investment companies in which it invests for purposes of compliance with its 80% policy, to the extent that the Portfolio has sufficient information about the holdings of such investment companies.
The US Core Equity 1 ETF seeks to achieve its investment objective by purchasing a broad and diverse group of equity securities of U.S. companies. As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the US Core Equity 1 ETF will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of U.S. companies. The Portfolio invests in companies of all sizes, with moderately increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies as compared to their representation in the U.S. Universe. The Portfolio will purchase securities within the U.S. Universe, which the Advisor generally defines as a market capitalization weighted set of U.S. operating companies listed on a securities exchange in the United States that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor (U.S. Universe). Market capitalization weighted means that a company’s weighting in the U.S. Universe is proportional to that company’s actual market capitalization compared to the total market capitalization of all eligible companies. The higher the company’s relative market capitalization, the greater its representation. The Portfolio will purchase securities of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor.
Increased exposure to smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and higher profitability companies may be achieved by decreasing the allocation of the Portfolio’s assets to larger capitalization, higher relative price or lower profitability companies relative to their weight in the U.S. Universe. An equity issuer is considered to have a high relative price (i.e., a growth stock) primarily because it has a high price in relation to its book value. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The Advisor may also adjust the representation in the Portfolio of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, size, relative price, profitability, investment
36
characteristics, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
The Advisor may consider a small capitalization company’s investment characteristics as compared to other eligible companies when making investment decisions and may exclude a small capitalization company with high recent asset growth. The Portfolio will generally not exclude more than 5% of the eligible U.S small capitalization company universe based on such investment characteristics. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. The Advisor may decrease the amount that the Portfolio invests in eligible small capitalization companies that have lower profitability and/or higher relative prices.
The Portfolio may invest in ETFs for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage the Portfolio’s cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses.
To achieve the US High Profitability ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The Portfolio is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of readily marketable securities of large U.S. companies that the Advisor determines to have high profitability relative to other U.S. large cap companies at the time of purchase. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The Advisor may also adjust the representation in the Portfolio of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as market capitalization, free float, size, relative price, profitability, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity management and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of U.S. companies. As of the date of this Prospectus, for purposes of the Portfolio, the Advisor considers large cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the highest 90% of total market capitalization or companies whose market capitalizations are larger than or equal to the 1,000th largest U.S. company, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible U.S. operating companies listed on a securities exchange in the U.S. that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor.
At least semi-annually, the Advisor reviews total market capitalization to determine those companies whose stock may be eligible for investment. Generally, the Portfolio does not intend to purchase or sell securities based on the prospects for the economy, the securities markets or the individual issuers whose shares are eligible for purchase. The Portfolio may sell portfolio securities when the issuer’s market capitalization falls below that of the issuer with the minimum market capitalization that is then eligible for purchase by the Portfolio.
The total market capitalization range used by the Advisor for the Portfolio, as described above, generally applies at the time of purchase. The Portfolio is not required to dispose of a security if the security’s issuer is no longer within the total market capitalization range criteria. Securities that do meet the market capitalization criteria nevertheless may be sold at any time when, in the Advisor’s judgment, circumstances warrant their sale. See “Portfolio Transactions.”
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The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Portfolio may invest in ETFs for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage the Portfolio’s cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses.
To achieve the US Large Cap Value ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. The Portfolio invests its assets in a broad and diverse group of readily marketable securities of U.S. companies which the Advisor determines to be value stocks at the time of purchase. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value (a “price to book ratio”). The Advisor may overweight certain stocks, including smaller companies, lower relative price stocks, and/or higher profitability stocks within the large-cap value segment of the U.S. market. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of large cap U.S. companies. The Portfolio will purchase securities of U.S. operating companies listed on securities exchanges in the United States that are deemed appropriate by the Advisor. On not less than a semi-annual basis, the Advisor calculates price to book ratios and reviews total market capitalization to determine those companies whose stock may be eligible for purchase by the Portfolio. Generally, the Portfolio does not intend to purchase or sell securities based on the prospects for the economy, the securities markets or the individual issuers whose shares are eligible for purchase.
The Portfolio may sell portfolio securities when the issuer’s market capitalization falls below that of the issuer with the minimum market capitalization that is then eligible for purchase by the Portfolio. In addition, the Portfolio may sell portfolio securities when their price to book ratios rise above those of the security with the highest such ratio that is then eligible for purchase by the Portfolio.
The total market capitalization range, and the value criteria used by the Advisor for the Portfolio, as described above, generally apply at the time of purchase by the Portfolio. The Portfolio is not required to dispose of a security if the security’s issuer is no longer within the total market capitalization range or does not meet current value criteria. Securities that do meet the market capitalization and/or value criteria nevertheless may be sold at any time when, in the Advisor’s judgment, circumstances warrant their sale. See “Portfolio Transactions” in this Prospectus.
The Portfolio may invest in ETFs for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses.
Portfolio Structure. The Portfolio will purchase securities that are listed on the U.S. national securities exchanges. Under a market capitalization weighted approach, companies with higher market capitalizations generally represent a larger proportion of the Portfolio than companies with relatively lower market capitalizations. The Advisor may adjust the representation in the Portfolio of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, size, relative price, profitability, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. The Advisor may also deviate from market capitalization weighting to limit or fix the exposure of the Portfolio to a particular issuer to a maximum proportion of the assets of the Portfolio. The Advisor may exclude the stock of a company that meets applicable market capitalization criterion if the Advisor determines, in its judgment, that the purchase of such stock is
38
inappropriate in light of other conditions. These adjustments will result in deviations from traditional market capitalization weighting.
Furthermore, in order to retain sufficient liquidity, the relative amount of any security held by the Portfolio may be reduced, from time to time. The Portfolio may also invest a portion of its assets, ordinarily not more than 20%, in fixed income securities, such as money market instruments, short-term repurchase agreements and shares of affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds. These investments may cause further deviation from market capitalization weighting. The Portfolio may make block purchases of eligible securities at opportune prices even though such purchases exceed the number of shares that, at the time of purchase, adherence to a market capitalization weighted approach would otherwise require. In addition, the Portfolio may acquire securities eligible for purchase or otherwise represented in its portfolio at the time of the exchange in exchange for the issuance of its shares. See “Creations and Redemptions.” While such purchases and acquisitions might cause a temporary deviation from market capitalization weighting, they would ordinarily be made in anticipation of further growth of the assets of the Portfolio.
To achieve the US Small Cap Value ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions. As further described below, the Portfolio’s design emphasizes long-term drivers of expected returns identified by the Advisor’s research, while balancing risk through broad diversification across companies and sectors. The Advisor’s portfolio management and trading processes further balance those long-term drivers of expected returns with shorter-term drivers of expected returns and trading costs.
The Portfolio, using a market capitalization weighted approach, is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of the readily marketable securities of U.S. small cap companies that the Advisor determines to be value stocks. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. Under a market capitalization weighted approach, companies with higher market capitalizations generally represent a larger proportion of the Portfolio than companies with relatively lower market capitalizations. The Advisor may adjust the representation in the Portfolio of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, relative price, profitability, investment characteristics, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in securities of small cap U.S. companies. As of the date of this Prospectus, for purposes of the Portfolio, the Advisor considers small cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the lowest 10% of total market capitalization or companies whose market capitalizations are smaller than the 1,000th largest U.S. company, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible U.S. operating companies listed on a securities exchange in the U.S. that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The Advisor may consider a small capitalization company’s investment characteristics as compared to other eligible companies when making investment decisions and may exclude a small capitalization company with high recent asset growth. The Portfolio will generally not exclude more than 5% of the eligible U.S. small capitalization companies based on investment characteristics. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. The Advisor may also decrease the amount that the Portfolio invests in small capitalization companies that have lower profitability and/or higher relative prices.
39
The Portfolio will purchase securities that are listed on the U.S. national securities exchanges and using a market capitalization weighted approach. See “Market Capitalization Weighted Approach” in this Prospectus. On not less than a semi-annual basis, the Advisor calculates price to book ratios and reviews total market capitalization to determine those companies whose stock may be eligible for investment.
Generally, the Portfolio does not intend to purchase or sell securities based on the prospects for the economy, the securities markets or the individual issuers whose shares are eligible for purchase.
The Portfolio may sell portfolio securities when the issuer’s market capitalization increases to a level that exceeds that of the issuer with the largest market capitalization that is then eligible for investment by that Portfolio. In addition, the Portfolio may also sell portfolio securities in the same circumstances, however, the Portfolio may retain securities of issuers with relatively smaller market capitalizations for longer periods, despite a decrease in the issuers’ price to book ratios.
The total market capitalization range, and the value criteria used by the Advisor for Portfolio, as described above, generally apply at the time of purchase by the Portfolio. The Portfolio is not required to dispose of a security if the security’s issuer is no longer within the total market capitalization range or does not meet current value criteria. Securities that do meet the market capitalization and/or value criteria nevertheless may be sold at any time when, in the Advisor’s judgment, circumstances warrant their sale. See “Portfolio Transactions” in this Prospectus.
The Portfolio may invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses.
The US Large Cap Vector ETF is designed to purchase a broad and diverse group of readily marketable securities of U.S. large cap companies that the Advisor determines to have higher profitability and lower relative price as compared to other U.S. large cap companies at the time of purchase. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The Portfolio may emphasize certain companies, including smaller capitalization, lower relative price, and/or higher profitability companies as compared to their representation in the large cap high profitability value segment of the U.S. market. The Portfolio’s increased exposure to such companies may be achieved by overweighting and/or underweighting eligible companies based on their market capitalization, relative price, and/or profitability characteristics. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will invest at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities of large cap U.S. companies. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. The Advisor considers large cap companies to be companies whose market capitalizations are generally in the highest 90% of total market capitalization within the U.S. Universe or companies whose market capitalizations are larger than or equal to the 1,000th largest U.S. company within the U.S. Universe, whichever results in the higher market capitalization break. Total market capitalization is based on the market capitalization of eligible operating companies within the U.S. Universe. Under the Advisor’s market capitalization guidelines described above, based on market capitalization data as of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of a large cap company would be $9,960 million or above. This threshold will change due to market conditions.
The Advisor may also increase or reduce the Portfolio’s exposure to an eligible company, or exclude a company, based on shorter-term considerations, such as a company’s price momentum and short-run reversals. In addition, the Advisor seeks to reduce trading costs using a flexible trading approach that looks for opportunities to participate in the available market liquidity, while managing turnover and explicit transaction costs.
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The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
The total market capitalization range, as described above, generally applies at the time of purchase by the Portfolio. The Portfolio is not required to dispose of a security if the security’s issuer is no longer within the total market capitalization range. Securities that do meet the market capitalization criteria nevertheless may be sold at any time when, in the Advisor’s judgment, circumstances warrant their sale. See “Portfolio Transactions” in this Prospectus.
The Portfolio may invest in ETFs for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses.
To achieve the US Real Estate ETF’s investment objective, the Advisor implements an integrated investment approach that combines research, portfolio design, portfolio management, and trading functions.
The Portfolio, using a market capitalization weighted approach, purchases readily marketable equity securities of companies whose principal activities include ownership, management, development, construction, or sale of residential, commercial or industrial real estate. The Portfolio will principally invest in equity securities of companies in certain real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and companies engaged in residential construction and firms, except partnerships, whose principal business is to develop commercial property. A company’s market capitalization is the number of its shares outstanding times its price per share. Under a market capitalization weighted approach, companies with higher market capitalizations generally represent a larger proportion of the Portfolio than companies with relatively lower market capitalizations. The Advisor may adjust the representation in the Portfolio of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, size, relative price, profitability, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price and profitability are subject to change from time to time.
As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Portfolio’s net assets will be invested in securities of U.S. companies in the real estate industry. The Portfolio generally considers a company to be principally engaged in the real estate industry if the company (i) derives at least 50% of its revenue or profits from the ownership, management, development, construction, or sale of residential, commercial, industrial, or other real estate; (ii) has at least 50% of the value of its assets invested in residential, commercial, industrial, or other real estate; or (iii) is organized as a REIT or REIT-like entity. REITs and REIT-like entities are types of real estate companies that pool investors’ funds for investment primarily in income producing real estate or real estate related loans or interests. A REIT is not taxed on income distributed to shareholders if it complies with several requirements relating to its organization, ownership, assets, and income and a requirement that it distribute to its shareholders at least 90% of its taxable income (other than net capital gains) for each taxable year.
The Portfolio will make equity investments in securities listed on a securities exchange in the United States that is deemed appropriate by the Advisor.
The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for U.S. equity securities and indices to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.
At least semi-annually, the Advisor identifies a schedule of eligible investments consisting of equity securities of companies in the real estate industry described above. It is the intention of the Portfolio to invest in the securities of eligible companies using a market capitalization weighted approach. See “Market Capitalization Weighted Approach.”
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The Portfolio generally redeems its shares in kind. See “Creations and Redemptions.” If securities must be sold in order to obtain funds to make redemption payments, such securities may be repurchased by the Portfolio, as additional cash becomes available to it. However, the Portfolio has retained the right to borrow to make redemption payments. Further, because the securities of certain companies whose shares are eligible for purchase are thinly traded, the Portfolio might not be able to purchase the number of shares that strict adherence to market capitalization weighting might require.
Investments will not be based upon an issuer’s dividend payment policy or record. However, many of the companies whose securities will be included in the Portfolio do pay dividends. It is anticipated, therefore, that the Portfolio will receive dividend income. Periodically, the Advisor may expand the investments eligible for the Portfolio to include equity securities of companies in sectors of the real estate industry in addition to those described above as eligible for investment as of the date of this Prospectus.
The Portfolio may invest in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for the purpose of gaining exposure to the U.S. stock market while maintaining liquidity. In addition to money market instruments and other short-term investments, the Portfolio may invest in affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds to manage the Portfolio’s cash pending investment in other securities or to maintain liquidity for the payment of redemptions or other purposes. Investments in ETFs and money market funds may involve a duplication of certain fees and expenses.
MARKET CAPITALIZATION WEIGHTED APPROACH
The portfolio structures of the US Real Estate ETF and US Small Cap Value ETF involve market capitalization weighting in determining individual security weights. Market capitalization weighting means each security is generally purchased based on the issuer’s relative market capitalization. Market capitalization weighting may be modified by the Advisor for a variety of reasons. The Advisor may adjust the representation in the US Real Estate ETF of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, size, relative price, profitability, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. The Advisor may adjust the representation in the US Small Cap Value ETF of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, price momentum, short-run reversals, trading strategies, liquidity, relative price, profitability, investment characteristics, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. An equity issuer is considered to have high profitability because it has high earnings or profits from operations in relation to its book value or assets. In assessing a company’s investment characteristics, the Advisor considers ratios such as recent changes in assets divided by total assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price, profitability, and investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. The Advisor may deviate from market capitalization weighting to limit or fix the exposure of a Portfolio to a particular issuer to a maximum proportion of the assets of the Portfolio. The Advisor may exclude the stock of a company that meets applicable market capitalization criterion if the Advisor determines, in its judgment, that the purchase of such stock is inappropriate in light of other conditions. With respect to the US Small Cap Value, the Advisor may decrease the allocation of the Portfolio’s assets to eligible small capitalization companies that generally have lower profitability and/or higher relative prices. These adjustments will result in a deviation from traditional market capitalization weighting.
Adjustment for free float modifies market capitalization weighting to exclude the share capital of a company that is not freely available for trading in the public equity markets. For example, the following types of shares may be excluded: (i) those held by strategic investors (such as governments, controlling shareholders and management), (ii) treasury shares, or (iii) shares subject to foreign ownership restrictions.
Furthermore, the Advisor may reduce the relative amount of any security held in order to retain sufficient portfolio liquidity. A portion, but generally not in excess of 20% of assets, may be invested in interest bearing obligations, such as money market instruments, thereby causing further deviation from market capitalization weighting. A further deviation may occur due to holdings in securities received in connection with corporate actions.
Block purchases of eligible securities may be made at opportune prices, even though such purchases exceed the number of shares that, at the time of purchase, adherence to a market capitalization weighted approach would otherwise require. In addition, securities eligible for purchase or otherwise represented in a Portfolio may be
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acquired in exchange for the issuance of shares. See “Creations and Redemptions.” While such transactions might cause a deviation from market capitalization weighting, they would ordinarily be made in anticipation of further growth of assets.
Generally, changes in the composition and relative ranking (in terms of market capitalization) of the stocks that are eligible for purchase take place with every trade when the securities markets are open for trading due, primarily, to price changes of such securities. At least semi-annually, the Advisor will identify companies whose stock is eligible for investment by a Portfolio. Additional investments generally will not be made in securities that have changed in value sufficiently to be excluded from the Advisor’s then current market capitalization requirement for eligible portfolio securities. This may result in further deviation from market capitalization weighting. Such deviation could be substantial if a significant amount of holdings of a Portfolio change in value sufficiently to be excluded from the requirement for eligible securities, but not by a sufficient amount to warrant their sale.
In general, securities will not be purchased or sold based on the prospects for the economy, the securities markets, or the individual issuers whose shares are eligible for purchase. Securities that have depreciated in value since their acquisition will not be sold solely because prospects for the issuer are not considered attractive or due to an expected or realized decline in securities prices in general. Securities generally will not be sold solely to realize short-term profits, but when circumstances warrant, they may be sold without regard to the length of time held. Securities, including those eligible for purchase, may be disposed of, however, at any time when, in the Advisor’s judgment, circumstances warrant their sale, including, but not limited to, tender offers, mergers, and similar transactions, or bids made for block purchases at opportune prices. Generally, securities will be purchased with the expectation that they will be held for longer than one year and will be held until such time as they are no longer an appropriate holding in light of the investment policies of each Portfolio.
In attempting to respond to adverse market, economic, political, or other considerations, each Portfolio may, from time to time, invest its assets in a temporary defensive manner that is inconsistent with the Portfolio’s principal investment strategies. In these circumstances, the Portfolio may invest a portion of its assets in highly liquid debt instruments, freely convertible currencies, or index futures contracts, and options thereon, which may prevent the Portfolio from achieving its investment objective.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REGARDING INVESTMENT RISKS
Because the value of your investment in a Portfolio will fluctuate, there is the risk that you will lose money. An investment in a Portfolio is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The following is a description of principal risks of investing in the Portfolios.
|
Risk |
US
Core |
US Core Equity 1 ETF |
US
High |
US |
US |
US Large Cap Vector ETF |
US |
|||||||
|
Cyber Security Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||
|
Derivatives Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||
|
Equity Market Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||
|
Large Shareholder Risk |
X |
|||||||||||||
|
Market Trading Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||
|
Operational Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||
|
Premium/Discount Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||
|
Profitability Investment Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
||||||||
|
Risks of Concentrating in the Real Estate Industry |
X |
|||||||||||||
|
Securities Lending Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
43
|
Risk |
US
Core |
US Core Equity 1 ETF |
US
High |
US |
US |
US Large Cap Vector ETF |
US |
|||||||
|
Small Company Risk |
X |
|||||||||||||
|
Small and Mid-Cap Company Risk |
X |
X |
X |
|||||||||||
|
Value Investment Risk |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
Cyber Security Risk: A fund and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the fund to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause a fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are instruments, such as futures contracts, and options thereon, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When a fund uses derivatives, the fund will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives. Derivatives expose a fund to counterparty risk (the risk that the derivative counterparty will not fulfill its contractual obligations), including credit risk of the derivative counterparty, and settlement risk (the risk faced when one party to a transaction has performed its obligations under a contract but has not yet received value from its counterparty). The possible lack of a liquid secondary market for derivatives and the resulting inability of a fund to sell or otherwise close a derivatives position could expose the fund to losses and could make derivatives more difficult for the fund to value accurately. Some derivatives are more sensitive to interest rate changes and market price fluctuations than other securities. A fund could also suffer losses related to its derivatives positions as a result of unanticipated market movements, which losses are potentially unlimited. The Advisor may not be able to predict correctly the direction of securities prices, interest rates, and other economic factors, which could cause a fund’s derivatives positions to lose value. Valuation of derivatives may also be more difficult in times of market turmoil since many investors and market makers may be reluctant to purchase derivatives or quote prices for them. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and a fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Equity Market Risk: Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and a fund that owns them, to rise or fall. Stock markets are volatile, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices. In addition, economies and financial markets throughout the world have become increasingly interconnected, which increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or country will adversely affect markets or issuers in other regions or countries. A fund’s securities may be negatively impacted by inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products/services or resources, natural disasters, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, war, military confrontations, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions, among others.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted, at times, in market closures, market volatility, liquidity constraints and increased trading costs. Efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in global travel restrictions and disruptions of healthcare systems, business operations and supply chains, layoffs, reduced consumer demand, defaults and credit rating downgrades, and other significant economic impacts. The effects of COVID-19 have impacted global economic activity and may heighten pre-existing political, social and economic risks, domestically or globally. The full impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic (or other future epidemics or pandemics) are unpredictable and may adversely affect a fund’s performance.
Large Shareholder Risk: Certain large shareholders, including other funds or accounts advised by the Advisor, may from time to time own a substantial amount of a fund’s shares. In addition, a third party investor, the Advisor, an authorized participant, a lead market maker, or another entity may invest in a fund and hold its investment for a limited period of time solely to facilitate commencement of a fund or to facilitate a fund achieving a specified size or scale. There can be no assurance that any large shareholder would not redeem its investment. Dispositions of a large number of shares by these shareholders may adversely affect a fund’s liquidity and net assets to the extent such transactions are executed directly with a fund in the form of redemptions through an authorized participant, rather than executed in the secondary market. These redemptions may also force a fund to sell portfolio securities
44
when it might not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact a fund’s NAV and increase a fund’s brokerage costs. To the extent these large shareholders transact in shares on the secondary market, such transactions may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on listing exchange and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the shares.
Market Trading Risk: Although shares of a fund are listed for trading on one or more stock exchanges, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will develop or be maintained. There are no obligations of market makers to make a market in a fund’s shares or of an authorized participant to submit purchase or redemption orders for Creation Units, which may widen bid-ask spreads. Decisions by market makers or authorized participants to reduce their role or step away from these activities in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying value of a fund’s portfolio securities and the fund’s market price. This reduced effectiveness could result in fund shares trading at a premium or discount to its NAV and also greater than normal intraday bid/ask spreads. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for a fund’s shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the fund’s portfolio holdings, which may cause a significant variance in the market price of the fund’s shares and their underlying value as well as an increase in the fund’s bid-ask spread.
There can be no assurance that a fund’s shares will continue to trade on a stock exchange or in any market or that the fund’s shares will continue to meet the requirements for listing or trading on any exchange or in any market, or that such requirements will remain unchanged. Secondary market trading in fund shares may be halted by a stock exchange because of market conditions or other reasons. In addition, trading in fund shares on a stock exchange or in any market may be subject to trading halts caused by extraordinary market volatility pursuant to “circuit breaker” rules on the stock exchange or market.
During a “flash crash,” the market prices of a fund’s shares may decline suddenly and significantly. Such a decline may not reflect the performance of the portfolio securities held by a fund. Flash crashes may cause authorized participants and other market makers to limit or cease trading in a fund’s shares for temporary or longer periods. Shareholders could suffer significant losses to the extent that they sell shares at these temporarily low market prices. Shares of a fund, similar to shares of other issuers listed on a stock exchange, may be sold short and are therefore subject to the risk of increased volatility associated with short selling.
Operational Risk: Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside a fund’s or its advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. A fund and its advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures may not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Premium/Discount Risk: Shares of a fund may trade at prices other than NAV. Shares of a fund trade on stock exchanges at prices at, above or below their most recent NAV. The NAV of a fund is calculated at the end of each business day and fluctuates with changes in the market value of the fund’s holdings since the most recent calculation. The trading prices of a fund’s shares fluctuate continuously throughout trading hours based on market supply and demand rather than NAV. As a result, the trading prices of a fund’s shares may deviate significantly from NAV during periods of market volatility.
Any of these factors, among others, may lead to a fund’s shares trading at a premium or discount to NAV. Thus, you may pay more (or less) than NAV when you buy shares of a fund in the secondary market, and you may receive less (or more) than NAV when you sell those shares in the secondary market. The Advisor cannot predict whether shares will trade above (premium), below (discount) or at NAV. However, because shares can be created and redeemed in Creation Units at NAV, the Advisor believes that large discounts or premiums to the NAV of a fund are not likely to be sustained over the long-term. While the creation/redemption feature is designed to make it likely that a fund’s shares normally will trade on stock exchanges at prices close to the fund’s next calculated NAV, exchange prices are not expected to correlate exactly with the fund’s NAV due to timing reasons as well as market supply and demand factors. In addition, disruptions to creations and redemptions or extreme market volatility may result in trading prices for shares of a fund that differ significantly from its NAV.
Profitability Investment Risk: High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
45
Risks of Concentrating in the Real Estate Industry: A fund that concentrates (i.e., invests more than 25% of its net assets) its investments in securities of companies in the real estate industry will be exposed to the general risks of direct real estate ownership. The value of securities in the real estate industry can be affected by changes in real estate values and rental income, property taxes, and tax and regulatory requirements. Also, the value of securities in the real estate industry may decline with changes in interest rates. Investing in real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and REIT-like entities involves certain unique risks in addition to those risks associated with investing in the real estate industry in general. REITs and REIT-like entities are dependent upon management skill, may not be diversified, and are subject to heavy cash flow dependency and self-liquidation. Also, many foreign REIT-like entities are deemed for tax purposes as passive foreign investment companies (PFICs), which could result in the receipt of taxable dividends to shareholders at an unfavorable tax rate. REITs and REIT-like entities also are subject to the possibility of failing to qualify for tax free pass-through of income. Also, because REITs and REIT-like entities typically are invested in a limited number of projects or in a particular market segment, these entities are more susceptible to adverse developments affecting a single project or market segment than more broadly diversified investments. The performance of a fund concentrated in the real estate industry may be materially different from the broad equity market.
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, a fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. A fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Small Company Risk: Securities of small companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small company security at a desired time or price. As a result, small company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, smaller capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Small and Mid-Cap Company Risk: Securities of small and mid-cap companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small or mid-cap company security at a desired time or price. As a result, small and mid-cap company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, small and mid-capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Value Investment Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause a fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
COMMODITY POOL OPERATOR EXEMPTION
Each Portfolio is operated by a person that has claimed an exclusion from the definition of the term “commodity pool operator” under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) with respect to the Portfolios described in this Prospectus, and, therefore, such person is not subject to registration or regulation as a pool operator under the CEA with respect to such Portfolios.
Each Portfolio is authorized to lend securities to qualified brokers, dealers, banks, and other financial institutions for the purpose of earning additional income. While each Portfolio may earn additional income from lending securities, such activity is incidental to the investment objective of the Portfolio. For information concerning the revenue from securities lending, see “SECURITIES LENDING REVENUE.” The value of securities loaned may not exceed 331/3% of the value of a Portfolio’s total assets, which includes the value of collateral received. To the extent a Portfolio loans a portion of its securities, the Portfolio will receive collateral consisting generally of cash or U.S. government securities. Collateral received will be maintained by marking to market daily and (i) in an amount equal to at least 100% of the current market value of the loaned securities, with respect to securities of the U.S. Government or its agencies, (ii) in
46
an amount generally equal to 102% of the current market value of the loaned securities, with respect to U.S. securities, and (iii) in an amount generally equal to 105% of the current market value of the loaned securities, with respect to foreign securities. Subject to its stated investment policies, each Portfolio will generally invest the cash collateral received for the loaned securities in The DFA Short Term Investment Fund (the “Money Market Series”), an affiliated registered money market fund advised by the Advisor for which the Advisor receives a management fee of 0.05% of the average daily net assets of the Money Market Series. Each Portfolio also may invest the cash collateral received for the loaned securities in securities of the U.S. Government or its agencies, repurchase agreements collateralized by securities of the U.S. Government or its agencies, and affiliated and unaffiliated registered and unregistered money market funds. For purposes of this paragraph, agencies include both agency debentures and agency mortgage-backed securities.
In addition, a Portfolio will be able to terminate the loan at any time and will receive reasonable interest on the loan, as well as amounts equal to any dividends, interest or other distributions on the loaned securities. However, dividend income received from loaned securities may not be eligible to be taxed at qualified dividend income rates. See the Portfolios’ Statements of Additional Information (“SAI”) for a further discussion of the tax consequences related to securities lending. Each Portfolio will be entitled to recall a loaned security to vote proxies or otherwise obtain rights to vote proxies of loaned securities if the Portfolio knows that a material event will occur. In the event of the bankruptcy of the borrower, a Portfolio could experience delay in recovering the loaned securities or only recover cash or a security of equivalent value. See “Principal Risks—Securities Lending Risk” for a discussion of the risks related to securities lending.
During the fiscal year ended October 31, 2023, the following Portfolios received the following net revenues from a securities lending program (see “Securities Loans”), which constituted a percentage of the average daily net assets of each Portfolio as follows:
|
Portfolio |
Net Revenue* |
Percentage | ||||||
|
Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF |
$ |
251,451 |
0.01% |
|||||
|
Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF |
$ |
535 |
0.00% |
|||||
|
Dimensional US High Profitability ETF |
$ |
40,867 |
0.00% |
|||||
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
$ |
1,920 |
0.00% |
|||||
|
Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF |
$ |
124,333 |
0.01% |
|||||
|
Dimensional US Real Estate ETF |
$ |
27,938 |
0.00% |
|||||
|
|
* The amounts included in the table above may differ from the amounts disclosed in the Portfolios’ annual reports due to timing differences, reconciliations, and certain other adjustments.
The Advisor serves as investment advisor to each of the Portfolios. Pursuant to an Investment Management Agreement with the Trust on behalf of each Portfolio, the Advisor is responsible for the management of each of the Portfolio’s assets. Each of the Portfolios is managed using a team approach. The investment team includes the Investment Committee of the Advisor, portfolio managers and trading personnel.
The Investment Committee is composed primarily of certain officers and directors of the Advisor who are appointed annually. As of the date of this Prospectus, the Investment Committee has fourteen members. Investment strategies for the Portfolios are set by the Investment Committee, which meets on a regular basis and also as needed to consider investment issues. The Investment Committee also sets and reviews all investment related policies and procedures and approves any changes in regards to approved countries, security types, and brokers.
In accordance with the team approach used to manage the Portfolios, the portfolio managers and portfolio traders implement the policies and procedures established by the Investment Committee. The portfolio managers and
47
portfolio traders also make daily investment decisions regarding the Portfolios based on the parameters established by the Investment Committee. The individuals named in a Portfolio’s “INVESTMENT ADVISOR/PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT” section coordinate the efforts of all other portfolio managers or trading personnel with respect to the day-to-day management of such Portfolio.
Mr. Fogdall is Global Head of Portfolio Management, Chairman of the Investment Committee, a Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor. Mr. Fogdall has an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BS from Purdue University. Mr. Fogdall joined the Advisor as a portfolio manager in 2004 and has been responsible for the Portfolios since inception (2020), with respect to the US Core ETF; since inception (2023), with respect to the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF; and 2022, with respect to each other Portfolio.
Mr. Hertzer is a Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor. Mr. Hertzer holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA from Dartmouth College. Mr. Hertzer joined the Advisor in 2013, has been a portfolio manager since 2016, and has been responsible for the US High Profitability ETF, US Large Cap Value ETF and US Real Estate ETF since inception (2022); and the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF since inception (2023).
Mr. Hohn is a Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor. Mr. Hohn holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MS from the University of Southern California and a BS from Iowa State University. Mr. Hohn joined the Advisor in 2012, has been a portfolio manager since 2015, and has been responsible for the Portfolios since inception (2020), with respect to the US Core ETF; since inception (2023), with respect to the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector Equity ETF; and 2022, with respect to each other Portfolio.
Mr. Leblond is a Vice President and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor. Mr. Leblond holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, and an MS and BS from Columbia University. Mr. Leblond joined the Advisor in 2015, has been a portfolio manager since 2017, and has been responsible for the US Small Cap Value ETF since inception (2022).
Mr. Pu is Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, a member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor. Mr. Pu has an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, an MS and PhD from Caltech, and a BS from Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Mr. Pu joined the Advisor as a portfolio manager in 2006 and has been responsible for the US Core Equity 1 ETF, US High Profitability ETF, US Large Cap Value ETF, US Large Cap Vector ETF, and the US Real Estate ETF since 2024.
Mr. Schneider is Deputy Head of Portfolio Management, North America, a member of the Investment Committee, Vice President, and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Advisor. Mr. Schneider holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an MS from the University of Minnesota, and a BS from Iowa State University. Mr. Schneider joined the Advisor in 2011, has been a portfolio manager since 2013, and has been responsible for the US Small Cap Value ETF since inception (2022), and the US Core ETF since 2024.
The Portfolios’ SAI provides information about each portfolio manager’s compensation, other accounts managed by the portfolio manager, and the portfolio manager’s ownership of Portfolio shares.
The Advisor provides the Portfolios with a trading department and selects brokers and dealers to effect securities transactions. Securities transactions are placed with a view to obtaining best price and execution. The Advisor may pay compensation, out of the Advisor’s profits and not as an additional charge to a Portfolio, to financial intermediaries to support the sale of Portfolio shares. The Advisor’s address is 6300 Bee Cave Road, Building One, Austin, TX 78746. A discussion regarding the basis for the Board of Trustees approving the Investment Management Agreements with respect to the Portfolios (excluding the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF) is available in the semi-annual report for the Portfolios for the fiscal period ending April 30, 2023 and, with respect to the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF, will be available in a future semi-annual report for such Portfolios.
The Advisor has been engaged in the business of providing investment management services since May 1981. The Advisor is currently organized as a Delaware limited partnership and is controlled and operated by its general partner, Dimensional Holdings Inc., a Delaware corporation. As of January 31, 2024, assets under management for all Dimensional affiliated advisors totaled approximately $674 billion.
48
The Agreement and Declaration of Trust (the “Declaration”) provides that by virtue of becoming a shareholder of the Trust, each shareholder shall be held expressly to have agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Declaration. However, shareholders should be aware that they cannot waive their rights under the federal securities laws. The Declaration provides a detailed process for the bringing of derivative actions by shareholders for claims other than federal securities law claims beyond the process otherwise required by law. This derivative actions process is intended to permit legitimate inquiries and claims while avoiding the time, expense, distraction, and other harm that can be caused to a Portfolio or its shareholders as a result of spurious shareholder demands and derivative actions. Prior to bringing a derivative action, a demand by the complaining shareholder must first be made on the Trustees. The Declaration details conditions that must be met with respect to the demand. Following receipt of the demand, the Trustees must be afforded a reasonable amount of time to investigate and consider the demand. The Trustees will be entitled to retain counsel or other advisors in considering the merits of the request and shall require an undertaking by the shareholders making such request to reimburse the Trust for the expense of any such advisors in the event that the Trustees determine not to bring such action. The Trust’s process for bringing derivative suits may be more restrictive than other investment companies. The process for derivative actions for the Trust also may make it more expensive for a shareholder to bring a suit than if the shareholder was not required to follow such a process.
The Declaration also requires that actions by shareholders against a Portfolio be brought only in a certain federal court in Texas, or if not permitted to be brought in federal court, then in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware as required by applicable law, or the Superior Court of Delaware (the “Exclusive Jurisdictions”), and that the right to jury trial be waived to the fullest extent permitted by law. Other investment companies may not be subject to similar restrictions. In addition, the designation of Exclusive Jurisdictions may make it more expensive for a shareholder to bring a suit than if the shareholder was permitted to select another jurisdiction. Also, the designation of Exclusive Jurisdictions and the waiver of jury trials limit a shareholder’s ability to litigate a claim in the jurisdiction and in a manner that may be more favorable to the shareholder. A court may choose not to enforce these provisions of the Declaration.
The US Core ETF (the “Unitary Portfolio”) pays the Advisor a unified management fee for managing the Unitary Portfolio’s assets. Pursuant to the investment management agreement with the Trust, on behalf of the Unitary Portfolio, the Advisor is responsible for substantially all ordinary fund operating expenses, except for (i) payments under the Unitary Portfolio’s 12b-1 plan (if any); (ii) brokerage expenses (including any costs incidental to transactions in portfolio securities, instruments and other investments); (iii) taxes; (iv) interest expenses (including borrowing costs and dividend expenses on securities sold short and overdraft charges); (v) litigation expenses (including litigation to which the Trust or Portfolio may be a party and indemnification of the Trustees and officers with respect thereto); (vi) Trustees’ fees and expenses; (vii) legal expenses of counsel to the Independent Trustees; (viii) Chief Compliance Officer (“CCO”) compensation; (ix) acquired fund fees and expenses (if any); and (x) other non-routine or extraordinary expenses. The fee is equal to the following annual rate based on the net assets of the Unitary Portfolio:
|
Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF |
0.12% |
Pursuant to a separate contractual arrangement, the Advisor arranges for the provision of CCO services with respect to the Unitary Portfolio, and is liable and responsible for, and administers, payments to the CCO, the Independent Trustees and counsel to the Independent Trustees. The Advisor receives a fee of up to 0.0044% of the Unitary Portfolio’s average daily net assets for providing such services and paying such expenses. The Advisor provides CCO services to the Trust.
The “Annual Fund Operating Expenses” table describes the fees incurred by each non-Unitary Portfolio (excluding the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF) for the services provided by the Advisor for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2023. The “Management Fee” listed in the “Annual Fund Operating Expenses” table for each non-Unitary Portfolio (excluding the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF) provides the investment management fee that was payable by the Portfolio to the Advisor.
The “Annual Fund Operating Expenses” table describes the anticipated fees to be incurred by the US Core Equity 1 ETF and US Large Cap Vector ETF for the services provided by the Advisor for the first full fiscal year.
49
Manager of Managers Structure
The Advisor and the Trust have received an exemptive order from the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) for a manager of managers structure that allows the Advisor to appoint, remove or change Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors (defined below), and enter into, amend and terminate sub-advisory agreements with Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors, without prior shareholder approval, but subject to Board approval. A “Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisor” includes sub-advisors that are wholly-owned by the Advisor (i.e., (1) an indirect or direct “wholly-owned subsidiary” (as such term is defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940 (the “1940 Act”)) of the Advisor, or (2) a sister company of the Advisor that is an indirect or direct “wholly-owned subsidiary” (as such term is defined in the 1940 Act) of the same company that, indirectly or directly, wholly owns the Advisor) (“Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors”). The Board only will approve a change with respect to sub-advisors if the Board concludes that such arrangements would be in the best interests of the shareholders of a Portfolio. If a new Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisor is hired for a Portfolio, shareholders will receive information about the new sub-advisor within 90 days of the change. The exemptive order allows greater flexibility for the Advisor to utilize, if desirable, personnel throughout the worldwide organization enabling a Portfolio to operate more efficiently. The Advisor will not hire unaffiliated sub-advisors without prior shareholder approval and did not request the ability to do so in its application to the SEC for an exemptive order to allow the manager of managers structure.
The use of the manager of managers structure with respect to a Portfolio is subject to certain conditions set forth in the SEC exemptive order. Under the manager of managers structure, the Advisor has the ultimate responsibility, subject to oversight by the Board, to oversee the Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors and recommend their hiring, termination and replacement. The Advisor will provide general management services to a Portfolio, including overall supervisory responsibility for the general management and investment of the Portfolio’s assets. Subject to review and approval of the Board, the Advisor will (a) set a Portfolio’s overall investment strategies, (b) evaluate, select, and recommend Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors to manage all or a portion of a Portfolio’s assets, and (c) implement procedures reasonably designed to ensure that Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors comply with a Portfolio’s investment objective, policies and restrictions. Subject to review by the Board, the Advisor will (a) when appropriate, allocate and reallocate a Portfolio’s assets among multiple Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors; and (b) monitor and evaluate the performance of Dimensional Wholly-Owned Sub-advisors.
Fee Waiver and Expense Assumption Agreements
Pursuant to a Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement for each Portfolio (excluding the Unitary Portfolio), the Advisor has agreed to waive certain fees and in certain instances, assume certain expenses of the Portfolio, as described below. The Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement will remain in effect through February 28, 2025, and may only be terminated by the Trust’s Board of Trustees prior to that date. The Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement shall continue in effect from year to year thereafter unless terminated by the Trust or the Advisor. With respect to each Fee Waiver and/or Expense Assumption Agreement, prior year waived fees and/or assumed expenses can be recaptured only if the expense ratio following such recapture would be less than the expense cap that was in place when such prior year fees were waived and/or expenses assumed, and less than the current expense cap in place for the Portfolio. The Portfolio is not obligated to reimburse the Advisor for fees previously waived or expenses previously assumed by the Advisor more than thirty-six months before the date of such reimbursement.
The Advisor has contractually agreed to waive all or a portion of its management fee and assume the ordinary operating expenses of each of the following Portfolios (excluding the expenses that the Portfolio incurs indirectly through its investment in other investment companies) (“Portfolio Expenses”) to the extent necessary to limit the Portfolio Expenses of each Portfolio, on an annualized basis, to the rates listed below as a percentage of the respective Portfolio’s average net assets (the “Expense Limitation Amount”). At any time that the Portfolio Expenses of a Portfolio are less than the Expense Limitation Amount for the Portfolio, the Advisor retains the right to recover any fees previously waived and/or expenses previously assumed to the extent that such recovery will not cause the annualized Portfolio Expenses for such Portfolio to exceed the applicable Expense Limitation Amount identified below.
50
|
Portfolio |
Expense Limitation Amount |
|
Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF |
0.14% |
|
Dimensional US High Profitability ETF |
0.22% |
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
0.22% |
|
Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF |
0.31% |
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Vector ETF |
0.22% |
|
Dimensional US Real Estate ETF |
0.19% |
Dividends, Capital Gains Distributions and Taxes
Dividends and Distributions. Each Portfolio intends to qualify each year as a regulated investment company under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. As a regulated investment company, a Portfolio generally pays no federal income tax on the income and gains it distributes. Dividends from net investment income of the Portfolios are distributed quarterly (on a calendar basis) and any net realized capital gains (after any reductions for available capital loss carryforwards) are distributed annually, typically in December. A Portfolio may distribute such income dividends and capital gains more frequently, if necessary, in order to reduce or eliminate federal excise or income taxes on the Portfolio.
Capital gains distributions may vary considerably from year to year as a result of a Portfolio’s normal investment activities and cash flows. During a time of economic volatility, a Portfolio may experience capital losses and unrealized depreciation in value of investments, the effect of which may be to reduce or eliminate capital gains distributions for a period of time. A Portfolio may be required to distribute taxable realized gains from a prior year, even if the Portfolio has a net realized loss for the year of distribution.
Distributions may be reinvested automatically in additional whole shares only if the broker through whom you purchased shares makes such option available.
Annual Statements. Each year, you will receive a statement that shows the tax status of distributions you received the previous calendar year. Distributions declared in October, November, or December to shareholders of record in such month, but paid in January, are taxable as if they were paid in December.
Avoid “Buying A Dividend.” At the time you purchase your Portfolio shares, a Portfolio’s NAV may reflect undistributed income or undistributed capital gains. A subsequent distribution to you of such amounts, although constituting a return of your investment, would be taxable. Buying shares in a Portfolio just before it declares an income dividend or capital gains distribution is sometimes known as “buying a dividend.” In addition, a Portfolio’s NAV may, at any time, reflect net unrealized appreciation, which may result in future taxable distributions to you.
Tax Considerations. In general, if you are a taxable investor, Portfolio distributions are taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gains, or some combination of both. This is true whether you reinvest your distributions in additional Portfolio shares or receive them in cash.
For federal income tax purposes, Portfolio distributions of short-term capital gains are taxable to you at ordinary income rates. Portfolio distributions of long-term capital gains are taxable to you at long-term capital gain rates no matter how long you have owned your shares. A portfolio with a high portfolio turnover rate (a measure of how frequently assets within a portfolio are bought and sold) is more likely to generate short-term capital gains than a portfolio with a low portfolio turnover. A portion of income dividends reported by a Portfolio as qualified dividend income may be eligible for taxation by individual shareholders at long-term capital gain rates provided certain holding period requirements are met.
Compared to other types of investments, derivatives may be less tax efficient. For example, the use of derivatives by a Portfolio may cause the Portfolio to realize higher amounts of ordinary income or short-term capital gain, distributions from which are taxable to individual shareholders at ordinary income tax rates rather than at the more favorable tax rates for long-term capital gains. Changes in government regulation of derivative instruments could affect the character, timing and amount of a Portfolio’s taxable income or gains, and may limit or prevent the
51
Portfolio from using certain types of derivative instruments as a part of its investment strategy. A Portfolio’s use of derivatives also may be limited by the requirements for taxation of the Portfolio as a regulated investment company.
If a Portfolio qualifies to pass through the tax benefits from foreign taxes it pays on its investments, and elects to do so, then any foreign taxes it pays on these investments will be treated as paid by you. You will then be entitled either to deduct your share of these taxes in computing your taxable income, or to claim a foreign tax credit for these taxes against your U.S. federal income tax (subject to limitations for certain shareholders).
Sale of Portfolio Shares. The sale of shares of a Portfolio is a taxable event and may result in a capital gain or loss to you. Currently, any capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of Portfolio shares generally is treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for more than one year and as short-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for one year or less. Any loss incurred on the sale or exchange of a Portfolio’s shares, held for six months or less, will be treated as a long-term capital loss to the extent of capital gain dividends received with respect to such shares. The ability to deduct capital losses may be limited.
Creation Units. An authorized participant who exchanges securities for Creation Units generally will recognize a gain or a loss. The gain or loss will be equal to the difference between the market value of the Creation Units at the time of purchase (plus any cash received by the authorized participant as part of the issue) and the authorized participant’s aggregate basis in the securities surrendered (plus any cash paid by the authorized participant as part of the issue). An authorized participant who exchanges Creation Units for securities generally will recognize a gain or loss equal to the difference between the authorized participant’s basis in the Creation Units (plus any cash paid by the authorized participant as part of the redemption) and the aggregate market value of the securities received (plus any cash received by the authorized participant as part of the redemption). The Internal Revenue Service, however, may assert that a loss realized upon an exchange of securities for Creation Units cannot be deducted currently under the rules governing “wash sales,” or on the basis that there has been no significant change in economic position. Persons exchanging securities should consult their own tax advisor with respect to whether the wash sale rules apply and when a loss might be deductible.
Under current federal tax laws, any capital gain or loss realized upon redemption of Creation Units is generally treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for more than one year and as a short-term capital gain or loss if the shares have been held for one year or less, assuming such Creation Units are held as a capital asset.
If a Portfolio redeems Creation Units in cash, it may recognize more capital gains than it will if it redeems Creation Units in-kind.
Medicare Tax. An additional 3.8% Medicare tax is imposed on certain net investment income (including ordinary dividends and capital gain distributions received from a Portfolio and net gains from redemptions or other taxable dispositions of Portfolio shares) of U.S. individuals, estates and trusts to the extent that such person’s “modified adjusted gross income” (in the case of an individual) or “adjusted gross income” (in the case of an estate or trust) exceeds a threshold amount. This Medicare tax, if applicable, is reported by you on, and paid with, your federal income tax return.
Backup Withholding. By law, a 24% withholding tax may apply to taxable dividends, capital gains distributions, and redemption proceeds paid to you if you do not provide your proper taxpayer identification number and certain required certifications. You may avoid this withholding requirement by providing and certifying on the account registration form your correct Taxpayer Identification Number and by certifying that you are not subject to backup withholding and are a U.S. person (including a U.S. resident alien). Withholding is also imposed if the Internal Revenue Service requires it.
State and Local Taxes. In addition to federal taxes, you may be subject to state and local taxes on distributions from a Portfolio and on gains arising on redemption or exchange of a Portfolio’s shares. Distributions of interest income and capital gains realized from certain types of U.S. Government securities may be exempt from state personal income taxes.
Non-U.S. Investors. Non-U.S. investors may be subject to U.S. withholding tax, at either the 30% statutory rate or a lower rate if you are a resident of a country that has a tax treaty with the U.S., and are subject to special U.S. tax certification requirements to avoid backup withholding and claim any treaty benefits. Exemptions from U.S.
52
withholding tax are provided for certain capital gain dividends paid by a Portfolio from net long-term capital gains, if any, interest-related dividends paid by a Portfolio from its qualified net interest income from U.S. sources and short-term capital gain dividends, if such amounts are reported by a Portfolio. However, notwithstanding such exemptions from U.S. withholding at the source, any such dividends and distributions of income and capital gains will be subject to backup withholding at a rate of 24% if you fail to properly certify that you are not a U.S. person. Non-U.S. investors also may be subject to U.S. estate tax.
Other Reporting and Withholding Requirements. Under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (“FATCA”), a 30% withholding tax is imposed on income dividends made by the Portfolio to certain foreign entities, referred to as foreign financial institutions or non-financial foreign entities, that fail to comply (or be deemed compliant) with extensive reporting and withholding requirements designed to inform the U.S. Department of the Treasury of U.S.-owned foreign investment accounts. After December 31, 2018, FATCA withholding also would have applied to certain capital gain distributions, return of capital distributions and the proceeds arising from the sale of Portfolio shares; however, based on proposed regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service, which may be relied upon currently, such withholding is no longer required unless final regulations provide otherwise (which is not expected). Information about a Portfolio shareholder may be disclosed to the Internal Revenue Service, non-U.S. taxing authorities or other parties as necessary to comply with FATCA or similar laws. Withholding also may be required if a foreign entity that is a shareholder of a Portfolio fails to provide the appropriate certifications or other documentation concerning its status under FATCA.
SPECIAL TAX CONSIDERATIONS FOR INVESTORS THAT INVEST IN THE US REAL ESTATE ETF.
PFIC Securities. The Portfolio may invest in securities of foreign entities that could be deemed for tax purposes to be PFICs. In general, any foreign corporation is considered a PFIC if 75% or more of its gross income for its taxable year is passive income, or 50% or more of its average assets (by value) are held for the production of passive income. When investing in PFIC securities, each Portfolio intends to mark-to-market these securities and recognize any unrealized gains as ordinary income at the end of its fiscal year. Deductions for losses are allowable only to the extent of any current or previously recognized gains. These gains (reduced by allowable losses) are treated as ordinary income that a Portfolio is required to distribute, even though it has not sold or received dividends from these securities. You should also be aware that the designation of a foreign security as a PFIC security will cause its income dividends to fall outside of the definition of qualified foreign corporation dividends. These dividends generally will not qualify for the reduced rate of taxation on qualified dividends when distributed to you by a Portfolio. Due to various complexities in identifying PFICs, a Portfolio can give no assurances that it will be able to identify portfolio securities in foreign corporations that are PFICs in time for the Portfolio to make a mark-to-market election. If a Portfolio is unable to identify an investment as a PFIC and thus does not make a mark-to-market election, the Portfolio may be subject to U.S. federal income tax on a portion of any “excess distribution” or gain from the disposition of such shares even if such income is distributed as a taxable dividend by the Portfolio to its shareholders. Additional charges in the nature of interest may be imposed on a Portfolio in respect of deferred taxes arising from such distributions or gains. Any such taxes or interest charges could in turn reduce a Portfolio’s distributions paid to you.
Investment in U.S. REITS. A U.S. REIT is not subject to federal income tax on the income and gains it distributes to shareholders. Dividends paid by a U.S. REIT, other than capital gain distributions, will be taxable as ordinary income up to the amount of the U.S. REIT’s current and accumulated earnings and profits. Capital gain dividends paid by a U.S. REIT to a Portfolio will be treated as long-term capital gains by the Portfolio and, in turn, may be distributed by the Portfolio to its shareholders as a capital gain distribution. Because of certain noncash expenses, such as property depreciation, an equity U.S. REIT’s cash flow may exceed its taxable income. The equity U.S. REIT, and in turn a Portfolio, may distribute this excess cash to shareholders in the form of a return of capital distribution. However, if a U.S. REIT is operated in a manner that fails to qualify as a REIT, an investment in the U.S. REIT would become subject to double taxation, meaning the taxable income of the U.S. REIT would be subject to federal income tax at the corporate income tax rate without any deduction for dividends paid to shareholders and the dividends would be taxable to shareholders as ordinary income (or possibly as qualified dividend income) to the extent of the U.S. REIT’s current and accumulated earnings and profits.
Receipt of Excess Inclusion Income by a Portfolio. A Portfolio may derive “excess inclusion income” from certain equity interests in mortgage pooling vehicles either directly or through an investment in a U.S. REIT. Please see the SAI for a discussion of the risks and special tax consequences to tax-exempt and other shareholders in the event a Portfolio realizes excess inclusion income in excess of certain threshold amounts.
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Investment in U.S. Real Property. The sale of a U.S. real property interest by a U.S. REIT or U.S. real property holding corporation in which a Portfolio invests may trigger special tax consequences to the Portfolio’s non-U.S. investors. Please see the SAI for a discussion of the risks and special tax consequences to shareholders from a sale of a U.S. real property interest by a U.S. REIT or U.S. real property holding corporation in which a Portfolio invests.
Qualified REIT dividends. Under 2017 legislation commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, “qualified REIT dividends” (i.e., ordinary REIT dividends other than capital gain dividends and portions of REIT dividends designated as qualified dividend income) are treated as eligible for a 20% deduction by noncorporate taxpayers.
A Portfolio may choose to report the special character of “qualified REIT dividends” to its shareholders, provided both the Portfolio and the shareholder meets certain holding period requirements with respect to their shares.
This discussion of “DIVIDENDS, CAPITAL GAINS DISTRIBUTIONS AND TAXES” is not intended or written to be used as tax advice. Because everyone’s tax situation is unique, you should consult your tax professional about federal, state, local or foreign tax consequences before making an investment in a Portfolio. Prospective investors should also consult the SAI.
Shares of a Portfolio may be acquired or redeemed directly from the Portfolio only in Creation Units or multiples thereof, as discussed in the “Creations and Redemptions” section of this Prospectus. Only an Authorized Participant (defined below) may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with a Portfolio. An “Authorized Participant” is either a “participating party” (i.e., a broker-dealer or other participant in the clearing process through the Continuous Net Settlement System of the National Securities Clearing Corporation) or a Depository Trust Company participant who, in either case, has executed an agreement with the distributor and transfer agent with respect to creations and redemptions of Creation Units. Once created, shares of a Portfolio generally trade in the secondary market in amounts less than a Creation Unit.
Shares of a Portfolio are listed for trading on a national securities exchange during the trading day. Shares can be bought and sold throughout the trading day like shares of other publicly traded companies. However, there can be no guarantee that an active trading market will develop or be maintained, or that a Portfolio’s shares listing will continue or remain unchanged. The Trust does not impose any minimum investment for shares of a Portfolio purchased on an exchange. Shares of the Portfolios trade under the following symbols:
|
|
Ticker: |
|
Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF |
DFAU |
|
Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF |
DCOR |
|
Dimensional US High Profitability ETF |
DUHP |
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
DFLV |
|
Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF |
DFSV |
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Vector ETF |
DFVX |
|
Dimensional US Real Estate ETF |
DFAR |
Buying or selling a Portfolio’s shares on an exchange involves certain costs that may apply to all securities transactions. When buying or selling shares of a Portfolio through a financial intermediary, you may incur a brokerage commission or other charges determined by your financial intermediary. Due to these brokerage costs, if any, frequent trading may detract significantly from investment returns. The commission is frequently a fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors seeking to buy or sell small amounts of shares. In addition, you may also incur the cost of the “spread” (the difference between the bid price and the ask price). The spread varies over time for shares of a Portfolio based on its trading volume and market liquidity and is generally less if the Portfolio has more trading volume and market liquidity and more if the Portfolio has less trading volume and market liquidity. Because shares of the Portfolios trade at market price rather than NAV, an investor may pay more than NAV when purchasing shares and receive less than NAV when selling Portfolio shares. Authorized Participants may acquire Portfolio shares directly from a Portfolio, and Authorized Participants may tender their shares for redemption
54
directly to a Portfolio, at NAV per share only in Creation Units, and in accordance with the procedures described in the SAI.
Each Portfolios’ primary listing exchange is NYSE Arca, Inc.
The Exchange is open for trading Monday through Friday and is closed on the following holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth National Independence Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
The Board has not adopted a policy of monitoring for frequent purchases and redemptions of Portfolio shares (“frequent trading”) that appear to attempt to take advantage of potential arbitrage opportunities presented by a lag between a change in the value of a Portfolio’s portfolio securities after the close of the primary markets for the Portfolio’s portfolio securities and the reflection of that change in the Portfolio’s NAV (“market timing”) because each Portfolio sells and redeems its shares directly through transactions that are in-kind and/or for cash, subject to the conditions described below under “Creations and Redemptions.” The Board has not adopted a policy of monitoring for other frequent trading activity because shares of the Portfolios are listed for trading on a national securities exchange.
The trading prices of a Portfolio’s shares in the secondary market will fluctuate continuously throughout trading hours based on the supply of and demand for Portfolio shares and shares of underlying securities held by a Portfolio, economic conditions and other factors, rather than a Portfolio’s NAV, which is calculated at the end of each business day. Portfolio shares will trade on the Exchange at prices that may be above (i.e., at a premium) or below (i.e., at a discount), to varying degrees, the daily NAV of a Portfolio’s shares. The trading prices of a Portfolio’s shares may deviate significantly from the Portfolio’s NAV during periods of market volatility. Given, however, that a Portfolio’s shares can be issued and redeemed daily in Creation Units, the Advisor believes that large discounts and premiums to NAV should not be sustained over long periods.
The Exchange will disseminate, every fifteen seconds during the regular trading day, an indicative optimized portfolio value (“IOPV”) relating to a Portfolio. The IOPV calculations are estimates of the value of a Portfolio’s NAV per share. Premiums and discounts between the IOPV and the market price may occur. This should not be viewed as a “real-time” update of the NAV per share. The IOPV is based on the current market value of the published basket of portfolio securities and/or cash required to be deposited in exchange for a Creation Unit and does not necessarily reflect the precise composition of a Portfolio’s actual portfolio at a particular point in time. Moreover, the IOPV is generally determined by using current market quotations and/or price quotations obtained from broker-dealers and other market intermediaries and valuations based on current market rates. The IOPV may not be calculated in the same manner as the NAV, which (i) is computed only once a day, (ii) unlike the calculation of the IOPV, takes into account Portfolio expenses, and (iii) may be subject, in accordance with the requirements of the 1940 Act, to fair valuation at different prices than those used in the calculations of the IOPV. The IOPV price is based on quotes and closing prices from the securities’ local market converted into U.S. dollars at the current currency rates and may not reflect events that occur subsequent to the local market’s close. Therefore, the IOPV may not reflect the best possible valuation of a Portfolio’s current portfolio. Neither the Portfolio nor the Advisor or any of their affiliates are involved in, or responsible for, the calculation or dissemination of such IOPVs and make no warranty as to their accuracy. In the future, the dissemination of the IOPV may be discontinued.
Shares of the Portfolios are held in book-entry form, which means that no stock certificates are issued. The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) or its nominee is the record owner of, and holds legal title to, all outstanding shares of the Portfolios.
Investors owning shares of the Portfolios are beneficial owners as shown on the records of DTC or its participants. DTC serves as the securities depository for shares of the Portfolios. DTC participants include securities brokers and dealers, banks, trust companies, clearing corporations and other institutions that directly or indirectly maintain a custodial relationship with DTC. As a beneficial owner of shares, you are not entitled to receive physical delivery of stock certificates or to have shares registered in your name, and you are not considered a registered owner of shares. Therefore, to exercise any right as an owner of shares, you must rely upon the procedures of DTC and its participants. These procedures are the same as those that apply to any other securities that you hold in book-entry or “street name” form.
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The value of shares of each Portfolio will fluctuate in relation to its investment experience. The NAV per share of each Portfolio is normally calculated once daily after the close of the Exchange on which the Portfolio is listed for trading (normally, 4:00 p.m. ET) by dividing the total value of the Portfolio’s investments and other assets, less any liabilities, by the total outstanding shares of beneficial interest of the Portfolio. Note: The time at which transactions and shares are priced may be changed in case of an emergency or if the Exchange on which the Portfolio is listed for trading closes at a time other than 4:00 p.m. ET or in other situations to the extent permitted by the SEC.
Securities held by the Portfolios will be valued in accordance with applicable laws and procedures approved by the Board, and generally, as described below. Each Portfolio generally calculates its NAV per share and accepts purchase and redemption orders of Creation Units on days that the Exchange on which the Portfolio is listed is open for trading. On days when the Exchange closes earlier than normal, the Portfolios may require orders to be placed earlier in the day.
Securities held by the Portfolios (including exchange-traded investment companies and over-the-counter securities) are valued at, as applicable: (1) the official closing price on the exchange or market where the security is principally traded; or (2) the last reported sale price prior to that day’s close. Securities held by the Portfolios that are listed on Nasdaq are valued at the Nasdaq Official Closing Price (“NOCP”). If there is no last reported sales price or official closing price of the day, the Portfolios value the securities at the mean between the most recent quoted bid and asked prices. Price information on listed securities is taken from the exchange where the security is primarily traded. Generally, options will be valued using the same pricing methods discussed above. Generally, securities issued by open-end investment companies (excluding exchange-traded investment companies) are valued using their respective net asset values or public offering prices, as appropriate, for purchase orders placed at the close of the NYSE.
The value of the securities and other assets of the Portfolios for which no market quotations are readily available (including restricted securities), or for which market quotations have become unreliable, are determined in good faith at fair value in accordance with Rule 2a-5 under the 1940 Act pursuant to procedures approved by the Board. Fair value pricing may also be used if events that have a significant effect on the value of an investment (as determined in the discretion of the Advisor) occur before the net asset value is calculated. When fair value pricing is used, the prices of securities used by the Portfolios may differ from the quoted or published prices for the same securities on their primary markets or exchanges.
Valuing securities at fair value involves greater reliance on judgment than valuing securities that have readily available market quotations. There can be no assurance that a Portfolio could obtain the fair value assigned to a security if it were to sell the security at approximately the time at which the Portfolio determines its net asset value per share. As a result, the sale or redemption by a Portfolio of its shares at net asset value, at a time when a holding or holdings are valued at fair value, may have the effect of diluting or increasing the economic interest of existing shareholders.
To the extent that a Portfolio holds large numbers of securities, it is likely that it will have a larger number of securities that may be deemed illiquid and therefore must be valued pursuant to fair value pricing procedures approved by the Board than would a fund that holds a smaller number of securities. Portfolios that invest in small capitalization companies are more likely to hold illiquid securities than would a fund that invests in larger capitalization companies.
Futures contracts are valued using the settlement price established each day on the exchange on which they are traded. The value of such futures contracts held by the Portfolios is determined each day as of such close. In the absence of prices that are readily available as defined in Rule 2a-5, the futures contract will be valued in good faith at fair value in accordance with procedures approved by the Board.
Prior to trading in the secondary market, shares of a Portfolio are “created” at NAV by market makers, large investors and institutions only in block-size Creation Units of the following number of shares, or multiples thereof:
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|
Portfolio |
Creation Unit |
|
Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF |
50,000 shares |
|
Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF |
25,000 shares |
|
Dimensional US High Profitability ETF |
50,000 shares |
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
50,000 shares |
|
Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF |
50,000 shares |
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Vector ETF |
50,000 shares |
|
Dimensional US Real Estate ETF |
50,000 shares |
All orders to purchase Creation Units must be placed by or through an “Authorized Participant” that has entered into an authorized participant agreement (an “AP Agreement”) with the Portfolios’ distributor (the “Distributor”).
A creation transaction, which is subject to acceptance by the Distributor or its agents, generally takes place when an Authorized Participant deposits into a Portfolio a designated portfolio of securities (including any portion of such securities for which cash may be substituted) and a specified amount of cash in exchange for a specified number of Creation Units.
Similarly, shares can be redeemed only in Creation Units, generally for a designated portfolio of securities (including any portion of such securities for which cash may be substituted) held by a Portfolio and a specified amount of cash. Except when aggregated in Creation Units, shares are not redeemable by a Portfolio.
The prices at which creations and redemptions occur are based on the next calculation of NAV after a creation or redemption order is received in an acceptable form under the AP Agreement.
Only an Authorized Participant may create or redeem Creation Units directly with a Portfolio. In the event of a system failure or other interruption, including disruptions at market makers or Authorized Participants, orders to purchase or redeem Creation Units either may not be executed according to a Portfolio’s instructions or may not be executed at all, or a Portfolio may not be able to place or change orders.
When a Portfolio engages in in-kind transactions, the Portfolio intends to comply with the U.S. federal securities laws in accepting securities for deposit and satisfying redemptions with redemption securities by, among other means, assuring that any securities accepted for deposit and any securities used to satisfy redemption requests will be sold in transactions that would be exempt from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “1933 Act”). Further, an Authorized Participant that is not a “qualified institutional buyer,” as such term is defined under Rule 144A of the 1933 Act, will not be able to receive restricted securities eligible for resale under Rule 144A.
Creations and redemptions must be made through a firm that is either a member of the Continuous Net Settlement System of the National Securities Clearing Corporation or a DTC participant and, in either case, has executed an AP Agreement with the Distributor. Information about the procedures regarding creation and redemption of Creation Units (including the cut-off times for receipt of creation and redemption orders) is included in the Portfolios’ SAI.
Because new shares may be created and issued on an ongoing basis, at any point during the life of a Portfolio a “distribution,” as such term is used in the 1933 Act, may be occurring. Broker-dealers and other persons are cautioned that some activities on their part may, depending on the circumstances, result in their being deemed participants in a distribution in a manner that could render them statutory underwriters subject to the prospectus delivery and liability provisions of the 1933 Act. Any determination of whether one is an underwriter must take into account all the relevant facts and circumstances of each particular case.
Broker-dealers should also note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are participating in a distribution (as contrasted to ordinary secondary transactions), and thus dealing with shares that are part of an “unsold allotment” within the meaning of Section 4(a)(3)(C) of the 1933 Act, would be unable to take advantage of the prospectus delivery exemption provided by Section 4(a)(3) of the 1933 Act. For delivery of prospectuses to exchange members, the prospectus delivery mechanism of Rule 153 under the 1933 Act is available only with respect to transactions on a national securities exchange.
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Information showing the number of days the market price of a Portfolio’s shares was greater than the Portfolio’s NAV and the number of days it was less than the Portfolio’s NAV (i.e., premium or discount) for various time periods is available by visiting the Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/etfs.
Disclosure of Portfolio Holdings
A description of the Trust’s policies and procedures regarding the release of portfolio holdings information is also available in the Trust’s SAI. Portfolio holdings information is available by visiting a Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/etfs.
Delivery of Shareholder Documents
To eliminate duplicate mailings and reduce expenses, certain broker-dealers may deliver a single copy of certain shareholder documents, such as this Prospectus and annual and semi-annual reports, to related shareholders at the same address, even if accounts are registered in different names. This practice is known as “householding.” You may contact your broker-dealer to enroll in householding. Once enrolled, this process will continue indefinitely unless you instruct your broker-dealer otherwise. If you do not want the mailings of these documents to be combined with those of other members of your household, please contact your broker-dealer. At any time you may view current prospectuses and financial reports on a Portfolio’s website at https://www.dimensional.com/etfs.
The Distributor or its agents distribute Creation Units for the Portfolios on an agency basis. The Distributor does not maintain a secondary market in shares of the Portfolios.
DISTRIBUTION AND SERVICE (12B-1) FEES
The Board has adopted a distribution plan, sometimes known as a Rule 12b-1 plan, that allows a Portfolio to pay distribution fees of up to 0.25% per year, to those who sell and distribute Portfolio shares and provide other services to shareholders. However, the Board has determined not to authorize payment of a Rule 12b-1 plan fee at this time. Because these fees are paid out of a Portfolio’s assets on an ongoing basis, to the extent that a fee is authorized, over time these fees will increase the cost of your investment and may cost you more than paying other types of sales charges.
The Financial Highlights table is meant to help you understand each Portfolio’s financial performance for the past five years or, if shorter, the period of that Portfolio’s operations, as indicated by the table. The total returns in the table represent the rate that you would have earned (or lost) on an investment in the Portfolio, assuming reinvestment of all dividends and distributions. This information has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, whose report, along with the Portfolios’ annual financial statements, are included in the Trust's annual report. Further information about each Portfolio’s performance is contained in the annual report, which is available upon request.
58
Dimensional ETF Trust
Financial
Highlights
(for
a share outstanding throughout each period)
|
|
Dimensional US Core Equity Market ETF | ||
|
|
Year
|
Year
|
Period |
|
Net Asset Value, Beginning of Period |
$27.33 |
$32.08 |
$24.92 |
|
Income From Investment Operations (a) |
|
|
|
|
Net Investment Income (Loss) |
0.44 |
0.42 |
0.36 |
|
Net Gains (Losses) on Securities (Realized and Unrealized) |
1.72 |
(4.78) |
7.04 |
|
Total from Investment Operations |
2.16 |
(4.36) |
7.40 |
|
Less Distributions: |
|
|
|
|
Net Investment Income |
(0.41) |
(0.39) |
(0.24) |
|
Total Distributions |
(0.41) |
(0.39) |
(0.24) |
|
Net Asset Value, End of Period |
$29.08 |
$27.33 |
$32.08 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total Return at NAV (b) |
7.93% |
(13.67)% |
29.81%(f) |
|
Total Return at Market (c) |
7.87% |
(13.65)% |
29.88%(f) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Net Assets, End of Year (thousands) |
$3,884,195 |
$2,582,901 |
$1,328,340 |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets |
0.12% |
0.12% |
0.12%(e) |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets (Excluding Fees Waived, Expenses Reimbursed, Previously Waived Fees Recovered by Advisor and/or Fees Paid Indirectly) |
0.12% |
0.12% |
0.12%(e) |
|
Ratio of Net Investment Income to Average Net Assets. |
1.50% |
1.46% |
1.27%(e) |
|
Portfolio Turnover Rate (d) |
7% |
6% |
3%(f) |
(a) Computed using average shares outstanding.
(b) Net asset value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at net asset value. This percentage is not an indication of the performance of a shareholder’s investment in the Fund based on market value due to differences between the market price of the shares and the net asset value per share of the Fund.
(c) Market value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the market value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at market value. Market value is determined by the composite closing price. Composite closing security price is defined as the last reported sale price from any primary listing market (e.g., NYSE Arca) or participating regional exchanges or markets. The composite closing price is the last reported sale price from any of the eligible sources, regardless of volume and not an average price and may have occurred on a date prior to the close of the reporting period. Market value may be greater or less than net asset value, depending on the Fund’s closing price on the listing market.
(d) Excludes impact of in-kind transactions.
(e) Annualized for periods less than one year.
(f) Not annualized for periods less than one year.
* Commencement of operations.
59
Dimensional ETF Trust
Financial
Highlights
(for
a share outstanding throughout each period)
|
|
Dimensional US Core Equity 1 ETF |
|
|
Period |
|
Net Asset Value, Beginning of Period |
$49.84 |
|
Income From Investment Operations (a) |
|
|
Net Investment Income (Loss) |
0.07 |
|
Net Gains (Losses) on Securities (Realized and Unrealized) |
(3.37) |
|
Total from Investment Operations |
(3.30) |
|
Less Distributions: |
|
|
Net Investment Income |
— |
|
Total Distributions |
— |
|
Net Asset Value, End of Period |
$46.54 |
|
|
|
|
Total Return at NAV (b) |
(6.64)%(f) |
|
Total Return at Market (c) |
(6.59)%(f) |
|
|
|
|
Net Assets, End of Year (thousands) |
$117,507 |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets |
0.14%(e) |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets (Excluding Fees Waived, Expenses Reimbursed, Previously Waived Fees Recovered by Advisor and/or Fees Paid Indirectly) |
0.50%(e) |
|
Ratio of Net Investment Income to Average Net Assets. |
1.08%(e) |
|
Portfolio Turnover Rate (d) |
2%(f) |
(a) Computed using average shares outstanding.
(b) Net asset value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at net asset value. This percentage is not an indication of the performance of a shareholder’s investment in the Fund based on market value due to differences between the market price of the shares and the net asset value per share of the Fund.
(c) Market value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the market value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at market value. Market value is determined by the composite closing price. Composite closing security price is defined as the last reported sale price from any primary listing market (e.g., NYSE Arca) or participating regional exchanges or markets. The composite closing price is the last reported sale price from any of the eligible sources, regardless of volume and not an average price and may have occurred on a date prior to the close of the reporting period. Market value may be greater or less than net asset value, depending on the Fund’s closing price on the listing market.
(d) Excludes impact of in-kind transactions.
(e) Annualized for periods less than one year.
(f) Not annualized for periods less than one year.
* Commencement of operations.
60
Dimensional ETF Trust
Financial
Highlights
(for
a share outstanding throughout each period)
|
|
Dimensional US High Profitability ETF | |
|
|
Year
|
Period |
|
Net Asset Value, Beginning of Period |
$23.57 |
$24.54 |
|
Income From Investment Operations (a) |
|
|
|
Net Investment Income (Loss) |
0.46 |
0.29 |
|
Net Gains (Losses) on Securities (Realized and Unrealized) |
1.55 |
(1.11) |
|
Total from Investment Operations |
2.01 |
(0.82) |
|
Less Distributions: |
|
|
|
Net Investment Income |
(0.41) |
(0.15) |
|
Total Distributions |
(0.41) |
(0.15) |
|
Net Asset Value, End of Period |
$25.17 |
$23.57 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total Return at NAV (b) |
8.53% |
(3.31)%(f) |
|
Total Return at Market (c) |
8.56% |
(3.30)%(f) |
|
|
|
|
|
Net Assets, End of Year (thousands) |
$3,182,725 |
$1,084,080 |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets |
0.22% |
0.21%(e) |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets (Excluding Fees Waived, Expenses Reimbursed, Previously Waived Fees Recovered by Advisor and/or Fees Paid Indirectly) |
0.22% |
0.21%(e) |
|
Ratio of Net Investment Income to Average Net Assets. |
1.78% |
1.81%(e) |
|
Portfolio Turnover Rate (d) |
4% |
2%(f) |
(a) Computed using average shares outstanding.
(b) Net asset value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at net asset value. This percentage is not an indication of the performance of a shareholder’s investment in the Fund based on market value due to differences between the market price of the shares and the net asset value per share of the Fund.
(c) Market value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the market value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at market value. Market value is determined by the composite closing price. Composite closing security price is defined as the last reported sale price from any primary listing market (e.g., NYSE Arca) or participating regional exchanges or markets. The composite closing price is the last reported sale price from any of the eligible sources, regardless of volume and not an average price and may have occurred on a date prior to the close of the reporting period. Market value may be greater or less than net asset value, depending on the Fund’s closing price on the listing market.
(d) Excludes impact of in-kind transactions.
(e) Annualized for periods less than one year.
(f) Not annualized for periods less than one year.
* Commencement of operations.
61
Dimensional ETF Trust
Financial
Highlights
(for
a share outstanding throughout each period)
|
|
Dimensional US Large Cap Value ETF |
|
|
Period |
|
Net Asset Value, Beginning of Period |
$24.70 |
|
|
|
|
Income From Investment Operations (a) |
|
|
Net Investment Income (Loss) |
0.47 |
|
Net Gains (Losses) on Securities (Realized and Unrealized) |
(1.07) |
|
Total from Investment Operations |
(0.60) |
|
Less Distributions: |
|
|
Net Investment Income |
(0.33) |
|
Total Distributions |
(0.33) |
|
Net Asset Value, End of Period |
$23.77 |
|
|
|
|
Total Return at NAV (b) |
(2.45)%(f) |
|
Total Return at Market (c) |
(2.33)%(f) |
|
|
|
|
Net Assets, End of Year (thousands) |
$962,791 |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets |
0.22%(e) |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets (Excluding Fees Waived, Expenses Reimbursed, Previously Waived Fees Recovered by Advisor and/or Fees Paid Indirectly) |
0.24%(e) |
|
Ratio of Net Investment Income to Average Net Assets. |
2.08%(e) |
|
Portfolio Turnover Rate (d) |
5%(f) |
(a) Computed using average shares outstanding.
(b) Net asset value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at net asset value. This percentage is not an indication of the performance of a shareholder’s investment in the Fund based on market value due to differences between the market price of the shares and the net asset value per share of the Fund.
(c) Market value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the market value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at market value. Market value is determined by the composite closing price. Composite closing security price is defined as the last reported sale price from any primary listing market (e.g., NYSE Arca) or participating regional exchanges or markets. The composite closing price is the last reported sale price from any of the eligible sources, regardless of volume and not an average price and may have occurred on a date prior to the close of the reporting period. Market value may be greater or less than net asset value, depending on the Fund’s closing price on the listing market.
(d) Excludes impact of in-kind transactions.
(e) Annualized for periods less than one year.
(f) Not annualized for periods less than one year.
* Commencement of operations.
62
Dimensional ETF Trust
Financial
Highlights
(for
a share outstanding throughout each period)
|
|
Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF | |
|
|
Year
|
Period |
|
Net Asset Value, Beginning of Period |
$25.01 |
$24.66 |
|
Income From Investment Operations (a) |
|
|
|
Net Investment Income (Loss) |
0.41 |
0.24 |
|
Net Gains (Losses) on Securities (Realized and Unrealized) |
(1.13) |
0.23 |
|
Total from Investment Operations |
(0.72) |
0.47 |
|
Less Distributions: |
|
|
|
Net Investment Income |
(0.36) |
(0.12) |
|
Total Distributions |
(0.36) |
(0.12) |
|
Net Asset Value, End of Period |
$23.93 |
$25.01 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total Return at NAV (b) |
(2.91)% |
1.92%(f) |
|
Total Return at Market (c) |
(3.03)% |
2.09%(f) |
|
|
|
|
|
Net Assets, End of Year (thousands) |
$1,824,625 |
$690,252 |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets |
0.31% |
0.31%(e) |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets (Excluding Fees Waived, Expenses Reimbursed, Previously Waived Fees Recovered by Advisor and/or Fees Paid Indirectly) |
0.31% |
0.31%(e) |
|
Ratio of Net Investment Income to Average Net Assets. |
1.61% |
1.44%(e) |
|
Portfolio Turnover Rate (d) |
11% |
4%(f) |
(a) Computed using average shares outstanding.
(b) Net asset value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at net asset value. This percentage is not an indication of the performance of a shareholder’s investment in the Fund based on market value due to differences between the market price of the shares and the net asset value per share of the Fund.
(c) Market value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the market value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at market value. Market value is determined by the composite closing price. Composite closing security price is defined as the last reported sale price from any primary listing market (e.g., NYSE Arca) or participating regional exchanges or markets. The composite closing price is the last reported sale price from any of the eligible sources, regardless of volume and not an average price and may have occurred on a date prior to the close of the reporting period. Market value may be greater or less than net asset value, depending on the Fund’s closing price on the listing market.
(d) Excludes impact of in-kind transactions.
(e) Annualized for periods less than one year.
(f) Not annualized for periods less than one year.
* Commencement of operations.
63
Dimensional ETF Trust
Financial
Highlights
(for
a share outstanding throughout each period)
|
|
Dimensional US Real Estate ETF | |
|
|
Year
|
Period |
|
Net Asset Value, Beginning of Period |
$21.21 |
$24.65 |
|
Income From Investment Operations (a) |
|
|
|
Net Investment Income (Loss) |
0.69 |
0.40 |
|
Net Gains (Losses) on Securities (Realized and Unrealized) |
(2.30) |
(3.72) |
|
Total from Investment Operations |
(1.61) |
(3.32) |
|
Less Distributions: |
|
|
|
Net Investment Income |
(0.65) |
(0.12) |
|
Total Distributions |
(0.65) |
(0.12) |
|
Net Asset Value, End of Period |
$18.95 |
$21.21 |
|
|
|
|
|
Total Return at NAV (b) |
(7.84)% |
(13.52)%(f) |
|
Total Return at Market (c) |
(7.78)% |
(13.50)%(f) |
|
|
|
|
|
Net Assets, End of Year (thousands) |
$668,767 |
$297,950 |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets |
0.19% |
0.19%(e) |
|
Ratio of Expenses to Average Net Assets (Excluding Fees Waived, Expenses Reimbursed, Previously Waived Fees Recovered by Advisor and/or Fees Paid Indirectly) |
0.20% |
0.21%(e) |
|
Ratio of Net Investment Income to Average Net Assets. |
3.24% |
3.84%(e) |
|
Portfolio Turnover Rate (d) |
5% |
2%(f) |
(a) Computed using average shares outstanding.
(b) Net asset value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the net asset value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at net asset value. This percentage is not an indication of the performance of a shareholder’s investment in the Fund based on market value due to differences between the market price of the shares and the net asset value per share of the Fund.
(c) Market value total return is calculated assuming an initial investment made at the market value at the beginning of the period, reinvestment of all dividends and distributions at net asset value during the period, if any, and redemption on the last day of the period at market value. Market value is determined by the composite closing price. Composite closing security price is defined as the last reported sale price from any primary listing market (e.g., NYSE Arca) or participating regional exchanges or markets. The composite closing price is the last reported sale price from any of the eligible sources, regardless of volume and not an average price and may have occurred on a date prior to the close of the reporting period. Market value may be greater or less than net asset value, depending on the Fund’s closing price on the listing market.
(d) Excludes impact of in-kind transactions.
(e) Annualized for periods less than one year.
(f) Not annualized for periods less than one year.
* Commencement of operations.
64
[THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]
Other Available Information
You can find more information about the Trust and its Portfolios in the Portfolios’ SAI and Annual and Semi-Annual Reports.
Statement of Additional Information
The SAI, incorporated herein by reference, supplements, and is technically part of, this Prospectus. It includes an expanded discussion of investment practices, risks, and fund operations.
Annual and Semi-Annual Reports to Shareholders
These reports focus on Portfolio holdings and performance.
The Annual Report also discusses the market conditions and investment strategies that significantly affected the Portfolios in its last fiscal year.
How to get these and other materials:
• Your investment advisor or broker-dealer—you are a client of an investment advisor or broker-dealer who has invested in the Portfolios on your behalf.
• The Trust—Call collect at (512) 306-7400.
• Access them on our website at https://www.dimensional.com.
• Access them on the EDGAR Database on the SEC’s Internet site at http://www.sec.gov.
• Obtain them, after paying a duplicating fee, by electronic request at the following e-mail address: [email protected].
|
Dimensional ETF Trust-Registration No. 811-23580 | |
|
Dimensional
Fund Advisors LP |
|
