Fund Evaluator:

DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I Overview

DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I (DFGBX) is an actively managed Taxable Bond Global Bond-USD Hedged fund. Dimensional Fund Advisors launched the fund in 1990.

The investment seeks a market rate of return for a fixed income portfolio with low relative volatility of returns. The fund invests in a universe of U.S. and foreign debt securities maturing in five years or less from the date of settlement. It primarily invests in obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. and foreign governments, their agencies and instrumentalities, corporate debt obligations, bank obligations, commercial paper, repurchase agreements, money market funds, securities of domestic or foreign issuers denominated in U.S. dollars but not trading in the United States, and obligations of supranational organizations.

About DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I (DFGBX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 18.87 years: David Plecha (1990), Travis Meldau (2020), Joseph Kolerich (2012). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: Bloomberg Global Aggregate TR Hdg USD index with a weighting of 100% and FTSE WGBI 1-5 Yr Hdg USD index with a weighting of 100%. DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I has 396 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 19.4% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I is part of the Fixed Income global asset class and is within the Taxable Bond fund group. DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I has 84.8% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 0.0%. There is 0.0% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 90.2% (5.4% domestic bond, 84.8% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I has 9.8% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $9 billion in total assets, which is above the $2 billion average for the Global Bond-USD Hedged category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

DFGBX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I expense ratio is below average compared to funds in the Global Bond-USD Hedged category. DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I has an expense ratio of 0.21%, which is 71% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I has a portfolio turnover rate of 44%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 195% for the Global Bond-USD Hedged category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I returned -0.4%, which earned it a grade of A, as the Global Bond-USD Hedged category had an average return of -1.1%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I has a trailing yield of 4.62%, which is above the 3.99% category average. The fund normally distributes its income quarterly and its capital gains annually.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

DFA Five-Year Global Fixed-Income I Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 1.4%, 1.3 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of A. The fund has returned 3.1% over the past year (grade of A), 4.5% over the past three years (grade of C) and 1.4% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 1.5% per year over the past 10 years (grade of D).

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