Fund Evaluator:

DFA Global Small Company Institutional Overview

DFA Global Small Company Institutional (DGLIX) is an actively managed International Equity Global Small/Mid Stock fund. Dimensional Fund Advisors launched the fund in 2017.

The investment seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation. The Portfolio is a "fund of funds," which means it generally allocates its assets among other funds managed by the Advisor (the "underlying funds"). It normally invests substantially all of its assets in the following underlying funds: the Asia Pacific Small Company Series, the Canadian Small Company Series, the Continental Small Company Series, the Emerging Markets Small Cap Series, the Japanese Small Company Series, the United Kingdom Small Company Series (each a series of the DFA Investment Trust Company), and U.S. Small Cap Portfolio (a series of DFA Investment Dimensions Group Inc.).

About DFA Global Small Company Institutional (DGLIX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 7.83 years: Jed Fogdall (2017), Allen Pu (2017), Ashish Bhagwanjee (2022). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: MSCI ACWI IMI NR USD index with a weighting of 100% and MSCI ACWI Small NR USD index with a weighting of 100%. DFA Global Small Company Institutional has 8727 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 62.5% 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 Global Small Company Institutional is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the International Equity fund group. DFA Global Small Company Institutional has 38.1% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 60.9%. There is 38.1% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). DFA Global Small Company Institutional has 1.0% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $150 million in total assets, which is below the $892 million average for the Global Small/Mid Stock 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.

DGLIX 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 Global Small Company Institutional expense ratio is average compared to funds in the Global Small/Mid Stock category. DFA Global Small Company Institutional has an expense ratio of 0.42%, which is 67% 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 Global Small Company Institutional has a portfolio turnover rate of 8%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.1 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 57% for the Global Small/Mid Stock category.

Recently, in the month of July 2026, DFA Global Small Company Institutional returned -1.4%, which earned it a grade of C, as the Global Small/Mid Stock category had an average return of -2.0%. 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 Global Small Company Institutional has a trailing yield of 1.46%, which is above the 1.34% category average. The fund normally distributes its income 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 Global Small Company Institutional Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 13.3%, 2.4 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of B. The fund has returned 23.1% over the past year (grade of B), 13.9% over the past three years (grade of A) and 8.1% per year over the past five years (grade of A).

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