DFA 60/40 value tilt

Dimensional (DFA) Global Allocation 60/40 Portfolio (DGSIX)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (David Booth, Rex Sinquefield; research ties to Eugene Fama and Kenneth French) · 2003 (portfolio inception)

Live account on this site. This portfolio is also tracked here with a virtual $100,000 since 21.10.2026. Live account on this site →

Where it stands today

Data through 2026-09. Updated every month.

Since January+9.1 %

Last 12 months+12.4 %

Last 5 years, per year+8.0 %

Now below the peak−2.0 %

Place by 12 months20 / 60

Our calculation, 1926-07 – 2026-09

Per year8.9 %

Real (after inflation)5.8 %

Volatility12.5 %

Worst drop−64.6 %

Worst year−28.5 % (1931)

Best year50.5 %

Worst 12 months−45.5 %

Positive years77 %

27 % of this history is calculated with stand-ins for asset classes that did not exist yet (see “How we model it” and the page about data). Without stand-ins the history starts in 2000.

Growth of $10,000

DFA 60/40 value tilt: $51,916,575S&P 500: $196,488,890

Where it came from

Dimensional Fund Advisors was founded in 1981 by David Booth and Rex Sinquefield, who had studied at the University of Chicago under Eugene Fama (Wikipedia). The firm built its funds on the efficient-market view that prices already reflect available information, but it also acted on academic findings that small-company and low price-to-book (value) stocks have earned higher average returns than the market. It was one of the first managers to offer small-cap stock funds to institutions, and Kenneth French co-chairs its investment research committee while Fama and French sit on the board of the general partner (Wikipedia). Total assets were about 1 trillion dollars in February 2026 (Wikipedia).

The academic base is Fama and French. Their 1992 paper (The Cross-Section of Expected Stock Returns) found that market beta alone did not explain average returns once stocks were sorted by size and book-to-market; their 1993 paper formalised a three-factor model with a size factor (SMB, small minus big) and a value factor (HML, high minus low book-to-market). In 2015 they added profitability (RMW) and investment (CMA) factors, which in US data of 1963-2013 made the value factor statistically redundant (Wikipedia, Fama-French three-factor model). Dimensional's modern Core equity funds are built on this idea: they hold the whole market but under-weight large growth stocks and over-weight smaller, lower-priced and more profitable ones.

The Global Allocation 60/40 Portfolio is a fund of funds that began operating in 2003 (the prospectus lists David Plecha as manager since inception, 2003). It invests in other Dimensional funds, targeting about 60 % equity (range 40-80 %) and about 40 % fixed income (range 20-60 %). The equity part is global: US, international developed and emerging markets, plus REIT funds. The bond part is global too and, unlike many 60/40 portfolios, is mostly short and intermediate maturity and partly currency-hedged (prospectus 28 February 2026; semi-annual report 30 April 2026). The adviser may change the underlying funds and weights without notice, so the weights are a managed allocation, not a fixed formula.

The benchmark is a Global 60/40 Composite Index: 60 % S&P Global BMI Index and 40 % ICE BofA 1-3 Year Global Government Index hedged to US dollars (prospectus). The short, hedged bond benchmark shows the intent: take the risk in equities, where Dimensional believes the premiums are, and keep the bond part low-risk. Current portfolio managers are David Plecha (since 2003), Jed Fogdall (2010), Joseph Kolerich (2012), Mary Phillips and Allen Pu (2017) and Ashish Bhagwanjee (2021).

How the fund is used: it is sold in the institutional class (DGSIX) to registered advisers and institutional clients, not directly to retail investors. Net expenses of the institutional class are 0.24 % after a fee waiver in effect through 28 February 2027 (gross 0.40 % including 0.19 % acquired-fund fees). Net assets were about 3.7 billion dollars on 30 April 2026 (semi-annual report).

What is in it

U.S. Core Equity 2 Portfolio (US market with small/value/profitability tilt)	32.2%	30 April 2026, % of total investments (semi-annual report)
DFA Selectively Hedged Global Fixed Income Portfolio	14.5%	short-maturity global bonds hedged to USD
International Core Equity 2 Portfolio (developed ex-US)	11.4%
U.S. Core Equity 1 Portfolio	10.9%	closer to the market than Core Equity 2
DFA Short-Term Extended Quality Portfolio	9.6%	short-term high-quality bonds
Emerging Markets Core Equity 2 Portfolio	5.7%
DFA Global Core Plus Fixed Income Portfolio	4.8%
DFA Five-Year Global Fixed Income Portfolio	4.8%
DFA Inflation-Protected Securities Portfolio	2.4%
DFA World ex U.S. Government Fixed Income Portfolio	2.4%
DFA Real Estate Securities Portfolio (US REITs)	0.9%	from the schedule of investments, 31.95 million of 3,704.6 million dollars
DFA International Real Estate Securities Portfolio	0.3%	from the schedule of investments, 10.9 million dollars

Source of the shares: Dimensional Investment Group Inc., Global Allocation 60/40 Portfolio: semi-annual shareholder report and schedule of investments at 30 April 2026; summary prospectus dated 28 February 2026 — www.sec.gov. Exact underlying-fund weights WERE retrievable from the SEC filing. Schedule of investments at 30 April 2026: domestic equities 44.0 % (US Core Equity 2, Core Equity 1, real estate securities), international equities 17.5 % (International Core Equity 2, Emerging Markets Core Equity 2, international real estate), domestic fixed income 2.4 % (inflation-protected), international fixed income 36.1 % (Selectively Hedged Global, Short-Term Extended Quality, Global Core Plus, Five-Year Global, World ex US Government); 12 holdings, net assets 3.70 billion dollars. Prospectus (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/861929/000086192926000024/c497k.htm): target about 60 % equity (40-80 %) and 40 % fixed income (20-60 %); about 55 % of net assets in US issuers. Cross-check: MarketXLS (31 Jan 2026) and Bloomberg (6 Nov 2025) list almost the same top-five weights (US Core Equity 2 about 32 %, Selectively Hedged Global Fixed Income about 15 %). Dimensional's own web fact sheet could not be opened by my tools. Note: Dimensional labels all non-US-dollar-bond funds as international fixed income in the schedule even though the Short-Term Extended Quality fund holds largely US corporates; the label does not tell the real country split.

How we model it

Short-term government bonds	28.9%
US large companies (S&P 500)	22%
Developed markets outside the US	12%
US large value stocks	10%
US bond market (aggregate)	7.2%
US small companies	7%
Emerging markets	5.5%
US small value stocks	4%
Inflation-protected bonds (TIPS)	2.4%
Real estate (REITs)	1%

Domestic equity 44 % (Core Equity 2 32.2 %, Core Equity 1 10.9 %, US REITs 0.9 %): the Core funds hold the whole US market with a deliberate tilt to small and value stocks. I split the 43 % non-REIT part as 22 % broad large, 10 % large value, 7 % small and 4 % small value (0.01 REIT). This split is my estimate: Dimensional does not publish the exact factor split, and Core Equity 2 has a stronger tilt than Core Equity 1; a more tilted reading would raise us_small_value, a less tilted one would put everything in us_large. Our value series are the Fama-French portfolios, which are more extreme than the DFA funds. International: 11.4 % International Core Equity 2 plus 0.3 % international REITs go to intl_dev (0.12); 5.7 % Emerging Markets Core Equity 2 goes to em (0.055); sum of equities 61.5 %. Fixed income 38.5 %: the Selectively Hedged Global (14.5 %), Short-Term Extended Quality (9.6 %) and Five-Year Global (4.8 %) funds are short-maturity bonds, so they go to bond_short (0.289); Global Core Plus (4.8 %) and World ex-US Government (2.4 %) go to bond_agg (0.072) as the nearest broad bond series; inflation-protected (2.4 %) goes to tips. Substitution caveats: the funds hold global bonds hedged to USD, which our US-only bond series do not capture; bond_short is built from 2-year Treasuries (starts 1961-07), whereas the real funds hold corporates and foreign sovereigns of up to about five years; tips exists only from 2000-07, bond_agg from 1987-01, intl_dev from 1990-07, em from 1989-07, reit from 1972-01, so the full-mix backtest can begin only in 2000-07. Weights are the 30 April 2026 allocation, rounded to sum to 1.0; the 60/40 label is the long-run target and the actual equity share is 61.5 %.

For a euro investor

The same portfolio bought with euros, without currency hedging: monthly returns converted at the end-of-month rate (German mark before 1999), inflation of the euro area. History in euros from 1953-10 to 2026-09.

Per year in euros8.4 %

After euro inflation5.6 %

Worst drop in euros−44.1 %

Worst year in euros−23.9 % (1973)

Safe withdrawal, 30 years, dollars4.29 % (1968-12)

Safe withdrawal, 30 years, euros3.15 % (1968-12)

The largest first-year withdrawal, then growing with inflation, that lasted 30 years from every monthly start. Test withdrawals for this portfolio →

How to build it with European funds

Examples of UCITS funds sold in the EU for each part of the portfolio. They track similar markets, not exactly the indices of our calculation.

Part	Share	Example funds (ISIN)
Short-term government bonds	28.9%	iShares USD Treasury Bond 1-3yr UCITS ETF (Dist) `IE00B14X4S71` iShares Euro Government Bond 1-3yr UCITS ETF (Dist) `IE00B14X4Q57`
US large companies (S&P 500)	22%	iShares Core S&P 500 UCITS ETF USD (Acc) `IE00B5BMR087` Vanguard S&P 500 UCITS ETF (USD) Distributing `IE00B3XXRP09`
Developed markets outside the US (closest match)	12%	iShares Core MSCI Europe UCITS ETF EUR (Acc) `IE00B4K48X80` iShares Core MSCI Japan IMI UCITS ETF `IE00B4L5YX21`
US large value stocks	10%	iShares Edge MSCI USA Value Factor UCITS ETF `IE00BD1F4M44`
US bond market (aggregate) (closest match)	7.2%	iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF EUR Hedged (Acc) `IE00BDBRDM35` iShares Core Global Aggregate Bond UCITS ETF USD (Dist) `IE00B3F81409`
US small companies	7%	SPDR Russell 2000 U.S. Small Cap UCITS ETF `IE00BJ38QD84` iShares MSCI USA Small Cap ESG Enhanced CTB UCITS ETF USD (Acc) `IE00B3VWM098`
Emerging markets	5.5%	iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets IMI UCITS ETF (Acc) `IE00BKM4GZ66`
US small value stocks	4%	SPDR MSCI USA Small Cap Value Weighted UCITS ETF `IE00BSPLC413`
Inflation-protected bonds (TIPS)	2.4%	iShares USD TIPS UCITS ETF USD (Acc) `IE00B1FZSC47`
Real estate (REITs)	1%	iShares US Property Yield UCITS ETF `IE00B1FZSF77` iShares Developed Markets Property Yield UCITS ETF `IE00B1FZS350`

These are examples, not recommendations. Check the fund's key information document, costs and taxes with your broker before buying. Names and ISINs checked on justETF on 4 November 2026; Udak receives nothing from these funds.

The idea

Dimensional's thesis follows Fama and French: stock returns are driven by a few systematic dimensions, namely the market, company size, relative price (value) and profitability. A portfolio that holds the whole global market but leans toward small, value and high-profitability stocks should earn higher expected returns than a market-cap-weighted portfolio, at the cost of years in which the tilt lags. The bond part is deliberately short in maturity and high in quality (with hedging of foreign currencies), because in this view the term premium is small and risk should be taken in equities. The 60/40 split is the middle risk setting of Dimensional's global allocation series (the series also has 25/75 and Global Equity portfolios).

How people buy it

The fund itself: DFA Global Allocation 60/40 Portfolio, institutional class DGSIX (available through registered investment advisers). Do-it-yourself approximations use Dimensional-style or similar factor funds: a total-market fund plus small-cap value and international value or small-cap funds for the tilt, with short-term high-quality or hedged global bond funds for the fixed-income part.

Rebalancing as published

The adviser reviews the allocation to each underlying fund periodically and may add or remove funds without notice; equity target about 60 % with a permitted range of 40-80 %. No calendar rule is published in the documents I read.

Variants

Dimensional Global Allocation 25/75 Portfolio (DGTSX): about 25 % equity and 75 % fixed income (lower risk; 30 April 2026 schedule shows 18.5 % domestic and 7.4 % international equities).
Dimensional Global Equity Portfolio: 100 % equity version of the same approach.
Dimensional's own composite benchmark: 60 % S&P Global BMI and 40 % ICE BofA 1-3 Year Global Government Index hedged to USD.
Classic factor-tilt 60/40 built by individual investors: for example 60 % split between a total market fund and small-cap value fund, with a short-term bond fund for the rest.

Criticism

Size premium debate: the size effect has been weak or absent in some periods since its publication, and in emerging markets the size factor works poorly (Wikipedia, Fama-French three-factor model, citing academic papers). In the five-factor model value is partly explained by profitability and investment.
A tilt can lag the market for long stretches. Stretches of lagging are an inherent risk of any factor tilt; I did not source a specific underperformance period.
The fund is only sold through advisers, so the investor also pays advisory fees on top of the 0.24 % net expense ratio (the waiver can be changed after February 2027).
Hedged global short-term bonds produce lower yield and lower return than the longer bonds in conventional 60/40 mixes; the fund's 10-year return of 8.35 % to the end of 2025 reflected an equity-friendly decade.
Dimensional's funds are described by the SEC and some analysts as actively managed even though they look like index funds, because the firm trades and screens daily (Wikipedia).

Through the eras

Era	Dates	Total	Per year	Worst drop	S&P 500
Roaring Twenties boom	1926-07 – 1929-08	+82.2 %	+20.8 %	−4.2 %	+153.7 %
Wall Street crash and Great Contraction	1929-09 – 1932-07	−56.7 %	−25.0 %	−64.6 %	−78.2 %
New Deal recovery	1932-08 – 1937-02	+172.6 %	+24.5 %	−25.6 %	+268.7 %
Recession within the Depression	1937-03 – 1938-03	−36.3 %	−34.0 %	−36.8 %	−49.5 %
Rearmament and World War II	1938-04 – 1945-09	+143.4 %	+12.6 %	−16.6 %	+205.8 %
Postwar expansion	1945-10 – 1965-12	+595.1 %	+10.0 %	−17.2 %	+1212.9 %
Golden age of the 1950s	1950-01 – 1959-12	+239.4 %	+13.0 %	−9.8 %	+438.8 %
Go-go years and nifty-fifty	1966-01 – 1968-12	+37.1 %	+11.1 %	−9.9 %	+34.0 %
The Great Inflation (stagflation)	1969-01 – 1982-07	+153.9 %	+7.1 %	−25.3 %	+84.6 %
1973-74 oil shock and bear market	1973-01 – 1974-12	−22.1 %	−11.7 %	−25.3 %	−41.7 %
Second oil shock and the Volcker disinflation	1979-01 – 1982-08	+61.9 %	+14.0 %	−9.9 %	+59.2 %
Great bull market in stocks and bonds	1982-08 – 1999-12	+963.8 %	+14.5 %	−19.3 %	+2060.4 %
Black Monday	1987-08 – 1987-12	−14.0 %	—	−19.3 %	−21.8 %
Savings-and-loan crisis and 1990 recession	1990-07 – 1991-03	+5.2 %	—	−10.7 %	+7.4 %
1994 bond market massacre	1994-02 – 1994-12	−3.5 %	—	−4.8 %	−3.2 %
Asian and Russian financial crises	1997-07 – 1998-10	+9.7 %	+7.2 %	−11.1 %	+22.4 %
Dot-com bubble and crash	2000-03 – 2002-10	−8.9 %	−3.5 %	−14.9 %	−37.2 %
Recovery and housing boom	2002-11 – 2007-09	+90.2 %	+14.0 %	−4.9 %	+97.0 %
Global financial crisis	2007-10 – 2009-03	−28.6 %	−20.1 %	−34.0 %	−44.7 %
The decade after the crisis	2009-04 – 2019-12	+170.2 %	+9.7 %	−13.1 %	+411.2 %
Fourth-quarter 2018 sell-off	2018-09 – 2018-12	−9.2 %	—	−9.2 %	−14.4 %
Covid crash and stimulus boom	2020-02 – 2021-12	+27.7 %	+13.6 %	−14.4 %	+53.6 %
Inflation shock and rate hikes	2022-01 – 2022-12	−10.8 %	−10.8 %	−16.1 %	−19.9 %

Calendar years

Any N-year period

Any N-year period	Worst	10 % worse than	Median	10 % better than	Best
1 y (1192)	−45.5 %	−5.9 %	+10.6 %	+25.3 %	+111.8 %
3 y (1168)	−27.3 %	+0.2 %	+9.6 %	+16.8 %	+33.1 %
5 y (1144)	−11.1 %	+3.1 %	+9.1 %	+14.9 %	+25.7 %
10 y (1084)	−0.8 %	+5.4 %	+9.0 %	+13.4 %	+16.8 %
15 y (1024)	+2.4 %	+6.3 %	+9.2 %	+13.3 %	+16.1 %
20 y (964)	+3.7 %	+6.8 %	+9.6 %	+12.7 %	+14.4 %
30 y (844)	+6.9 %	+7.8 %	+9.9 %	+11.4 %	+12.8 %

How it behaved in history

1981 onward (Dimensional's start). Dimensional was founded in 1981 and was among the first to offer small-cap funds to institutions; it later became closely tied to Fama and French research. The portfolio itself exists only since 2003. en.wikipedia.org
1926-2003 (before the portfolio existed). The tilt idea rests on Fama and French's US data from 1963 (and Fama-French factor series from 1926, which our site's data use for small and value classes). The portfolio has no live record before 2003; any earlier results are simulations from our asset series, not the fund's results. en.wikipedia.org
2008 and 2000-2002. Not verified: I did not retrieve the portfolio's 2008 return from a primary source (the prospectus table shows only the last ten calendar years). No sourced statement about the base assets in 2000-2002 is included. www.sec.gov
2018. Calendar 2018: -6.41 %. www.sec.gov
2022. -12.08 % for the calendar year. The short, hedged bond sleeve limited the rate-driven loss compared with an aggregate-bond mix, but the equity loss dominated. www.sec.gov
2023-2025. +14.53 % in 2023, +11.32 % in 2024, +14.06 % in 2025. www.sec.gov

Published results (by others)

Calendar-year returns of DGSIX (Institutional) 2016-2025 (2016-2025): 9.16, 14.04, -6.41, 18.17, 11.57, 13.52, -12.08, 14.53, 11.32, 14.06 % www.sec.gov
Average annual returns to 31 Dec 2025 vs the Global 60/40 Composite Index: 1 year 14.06 % vs 14.93 %, 5 years 7.74 % vs 7.34 %, 10 years 8.35 % vs 7.79 % (to 2025-12-31): 10-year 8.35 % vs 7.79 % www.sec.gov
Allocation of the fund at 30 April 2026 by asset class (2026-04-30): domestic equity 44.0 %, international equity 17.5 %, domestic fixed income 2.4 %, international fixed income 36.1 % www.sec.gov
Fama and French showed that size and book-to-market explain average stock returns beyond market beta (1992) and built a three-factor model (1993); the 2015 five-factor model adds profitability and investment (1963-2013 US data): qualitative; HML redundant in the five-factor model in 1963-2013 US data en.wikipedia.org

What we could not verify

Dimensional's own web fact sheet could not be opened; weights come from the SEC semi-annual report (30 April 2026) and prospectus, which are primary sources, but weights move over time and the adviser may change them.
The split of the US equity part into large, large value, small and small value is my estimate; Dimensional does not publish it in the documents read.
Where the 'international fixed income' funds actually invest (for example the real country mix of Short-Term Extended Quality) was not retrieved; the mapping to US-dollar short and aggregate bonds is a simplification.
Inception date: the prospectus gives manager tenure since inception as 2003, but the exact date was not stated in what I read.
Portfolio returns before 2016 (including 2008 and 2003-2015) were not retrieved from a primary source.
Whether the tilt rationale applies to this exact fund is Dimensional's published philosophy as reported by secondary sources; I did not read a Dimensional document that states the tilt for this fund.
Earlier-era allocation of the portfolio (2003-2020) was not checked; the current weights may differ from those of past years.

Sources

www.sec.gov https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000861929/000113322826010096/digi-efp24178_ncsrs.htm
www.sec.gov https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/861929/000086192926000024/c497k.htm
en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimensional_Fund_Advisors
en.wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fama%E2%80%93French_three-factor_model
www.bloomberg.co.jp https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/quote/DGSIX:US
marketxls.com https://marketxls.com/mutual-funds/dgsix

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Calculated on historical data. Past results do not predict the future. Models before the 1990s use stand-ins for classes that had no index yet; fees, taxes and fund costs are not included. This is mathematics, not an investment recommendation.