Get Access to DFA Funds For Only $50 A Month

While searching for cheap access to Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) funds, I ran across the fact that you can get access to them via West Virginia’s SMART529 Select Plan. If you are a WV resident, the contributions are even tax-deductible!

They have various aggressively allocated portfolios with an expense ratio of about 0.20-0.50%. The killer is that there is also a management fee of 0.55%, which can up the overall annual expenses to over 1%. Depending on how much you think DFA will outperform similar Vanguard funds, you may want to go with a Vanguard-based 529 like Nevada’s. Check out their Aggressive Growth/Age-Based 0-3 Portfolio (total expenses of 1.02%):

25% DFA Enhanced US Large Company
20% DFA US Large Cap Value
20% DFA US Small Cap Value
15% DFA US Micro Cap
10% DFA International Value
5% DFA International Small Cap Value
5% DFA International Small Company

Like other 529s, this program is open to residents of any state. There is no enrollment fee and you can start with just $500 or $50/month. There is however an annual account maintenance fee of $25 which is waived for accounts over $25,000, for WV residents, and for accounts with automatic investments of at least $50/month.

I don’t necessarily think this is the best 529 or anything; I haven’t done enough research on that, being childless and all. I just thought it was cool that 2-year olds can get access to DFA and I can’t. 🙂 Well, technically, I could by just making myself the beneficiary and dealing with the 10% penalties on withdrawals…