I have a confession to make. I have been an employee of Summit Financial Planning for going on one year. During my time here, I have known that one of the differentiators between Jennifer Luzzatto and other Financial Planners is the fact that she is a Fee-Only planner and is able to offer her clients Dimensional Funds for their investment portfolio. So, here is where the confession comes in. I do not fully understand who DFA is or what makes them so good. I really do not like admitting that, as an employee of Summit, I do not have a clear picture on the answers to those questions. I just know that I trust Jennifer and she has described them as the “Rock Stars” of the investment world.
I do a lot of things in this life based on my intuition and gut. Not only did my gut tell me that I wanted to work for Jennifer and that I loved everything she stood for, but my husband and I feel so confident in her abilities that we moved all of our investments under her careful management. Then, we moved my mother’s portfolio to her and now my sister and brother-in-law have invested with Jennifer. It is a huge leap of faith that our entire family fortune is with Jennifer (sorry Jennifer…are you feeling any pressure?!!)
So, where am I headed with this? I have decided that I cannot be alone in my lack of understanding about DFA and why they are so valuable. After all, I am both an employee AND a client and I do not fully get it. Therefore, Jennifer and I agreed that I am going to write a series of articles about DFA for the Summit Blog. While I am hesitant to call it “DFA for Dummies”, that is somewhat going to be my approach. My goal is to take a journey through the information about DFA and simplify it for the average non-investment type of person. I hope to not only educate myself, but to educate others to be able to answer the question of: “Who is DFA and What makes them so valuable?” Stay tuned!
– Sharon Kinter, Associate Financial Planner and Budget Coach, 2-May-2011
