Dimensional
Positioning Your Firm for Growth
What systems and processes should I consider to help scale my business? How can I improve my clients’ experience and financial outcomes? What are top business development and planning practices for faster growing firms? Leveraging insights and thought leadership from one of the industry’s leading benchmark studies, join us for a discussion on how you might tackle these key areas of your business. Advisors will learn:
- The diversified marketing practices employed by top growth firms
- Key differentiators in business operations between top and bottom growth firms
- How top growth firms are developing talent, managing compensation and other human capital considerations
After the presentation, the presenter Catherine Williams will be available to answer live questions.
Integrating ESG Throughout the Investment Process
John Hertzer will discuss Dimensional’s approach to integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations across our investment platform. Topics discussed will include:
- Identifying ESG data to improve expected returns or manage risk in portfolios.
- Integrating ESG data in the portfolio implementation process.
- Comparison of ESG to similar non-ESG portfolios.
The Unique Opportunities and Challenges for Bond Investors in 2020
Dave Plecha, Global Head of Fixed Income at Dimensional Fund Advisors, will comment on the Advisor Perspectives Core Bond Fund survey results and discuss fixed income investing in the current market. In this webinar, you will learn about:
- Navigating an inverted yield curve
- Expanding the investment opportunity set with global diversification
- Investing in a negative rate environment
After the webinar, Dave will be around to answer live audience questions.
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Target Date Funds
Advisor Perspectives recently surveyed over 1,000 advisors to learn how they evaluate target-date funds. Bob Huebscher, its CEO, will present some of the key findings from that research, which showed that advisors are willing to accept a significant degree of risk in target-date allocations and have a preference for active management.
The team from Dimensional Fund Advisors will comment on those findings and present its own research on the appropriate role of target-date funds in client portfolios, and how advisors should properly assess the characteristics of those products.
In this webinar, you will learn:
- What most advisors consider to be an appropriate risk exposure in target-date funds;
- How to properly assess the glide path of a target-date fund;
- How to consider target-date funds alongside existing client asset allocations; and
- Best practices for discussing target-date funds with clients.
Helping Investors Plan for Retirement
Dimensional Fund Advisors will share research that can help advisors design and implement solutions for clients saving for or already in retirement. Participants will learn:
- How much should an investor save for retirement?
- Adjusting savings rates in response to changes in household income can prove more effective than applying a static, rule-of-thumb- approach to saving for retirement.
- How much income do you need in retirement?
- The speakers will share a framework for understanding why the answer to this difficult question should be customized for each individual, based on their lifestyle and income prior to retirement.
- How much retirement income can your portfolio support?
- When planning for retirement, often the primary goal is supporting a desired level of income in retirement. This helps define the primary risk for investors saving for retirement: uncertainty about in-retirement income their investments can support. Dimensional has developed an approach centered on a broader risk management framework that focuses on retirement income and managing investment risks that may affect that goal.
- Get ahead of the session, and preview the Retirement Income Calculator tool here:https://us.dimensional.com/retirement-professional/retirement-calculator
All presenters will answer attendees’ questions during the webinar and will be available to continue the discussion on APViewpoint.
Advisor Preferences for ESG/SRI Investing
With approximately 150 new fund and ETF launches in 2018, ESG/SRI investing has become a magnet for flows to asset managers. But what are the key motivators driving that trend among financial advisors? And, once an advisor has committed to an ESG/SRI approach, how do they go about selecting a mutual fund or ETF product?
This webinar will review the implications of a large-scale research study recently completed by Advisor Perspectives. Participants will learn:
- What drives advisors to embrace an ESG/SRI approach? – Our research identified the key factors that hold advisors back from committing assets to ESG/SRI products, as well as the “hot-button” issues that are motivating asset allocation decisions.
- How do advisors select an ESG/SRI fund or ETF? – Advisors weigh many metrics when selecting products – performance history, manager tenure, volatility, etc. Our research revealed which are the most and least important when it comes to selecting ESG/SRI products.
- How can asset managers better serve advisors? – Each quarter, we survey our advisor audience to determine the key issues that they face in their practice and those that they hear about most often from clients. Our research also shows how advisors prefer to learn about new investment products.
Additionally, Leigh Jedeikin, CFP and Vice President, and Daniel Ong, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager and Vice President, will present Dimensional’s approach to incorporating ESG considerations in its strategies, including identifying the specific needs of ESG investors, the screening and weighting criteria used in managing the funds, and the metrics used to evaluate the impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
