It’s not unusual for someone to ask us why we exclusively use one mutual fund company to manage our clients’ portfolios. The simple answer: it’s based on planning and implementation.
In evaluating solutions to use for our clients we first start with the overall planning – which could be a whole separate blog post. When it comes to implementation, we have an investment strategy and methodology that we adhere to that defines how we participate in the capital markets. Any solution we choose needs to have the same strategy and adopt the same methodology.
If we can structure and implement our strategy by only using one mutual fund company, then so be it. If it takes multiple fund companies, then we would do that. For us, the strategy comes first and that needs to match the solutions that we then implement for our clients. It just so happens that our partnership with Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) has given us not only the strategy/methodology but also the implementation in the design of all their portfolio solutions.
We live by our fiduciary duty to partner with people that we share the same evidence-based academic approach with, and this ultimately helps our clients become smarter investors.