Get Access to DFA Funds For Only $50 A Month

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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…

My Money Blog has partnered with CardRatings and may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. MyMoneyBlog.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers. All opinions expressed are the author’s alone, and has not been provided nor approved by any of the companies mentioned.

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