Let me brag a little bit. I couldn’t be prouder of my primary alliances:
BAM Advisor Services (BAM): BAM is an investment advisory firm with a strong CPA orientation, which provides support to independent Registered Advisor Firms across the country. PCM and BAM are very well aligned – BAM is dedicated to the academic approach to investing, and has a strong client-first commitment. If you choose not to use PCM…I suggest that you consider using another BAM-supported advisor.
Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA): DFA is a mutual fund company, similar to Vanguard, but with a few major, and very important, differences.
- DFA funds are not available retail. They can only be accessed by fee-only advisors who follow the academic investing approach consistent with DFA’s philosophy.
- DFA funds are passively managed, but they are NOT index funds. While Vanguard and ETFs (exchange traded funds) are typically trying to match the returns of an index, DFA is trying to capture the returns of the asset class. This gives the funds a flexibility which, I believe, translates to higher expected return.
Bridgeway Capital Management: Bridgeway was founded by John Montgomery in 1993 and is based in Houston, Texas. Bridgeway’s Omni Tax-Managed Small Value Fund is not available retail, but was developed for exclusive use by BAM advisors. As with the DFA funds, the exclusivity serves to ensure that the fund is used for a long-term disciplined investment approach, reducing fund costs which can be associated with money chasing a “hot” fund.
I receive no compensation from DFA/Bridgeway for using their products, and I do not pay DFA/Bridgeway for access to their products.
The other equity tools that I primarily use are Vanguard and ETFs.
