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R SHARES | EMERGING MARKETS VALUE PORTFOLIO
Emerging Markets Value Portfolio
Investment Objective
The investment objective of the Emerging Markets Value Portfolio (the “Portfolio”) is to achieve long-term capital appreciation. The Portfolio is a Feeder Portfolio and pursues its objective by investing substantially all of its assets in its corresponding Master Fund, the Dimensional Emerging Markets Value Fund (the “Emerging Markets Value Fund” or “Master Fund”), which has the same investment objective and policies as the Portfolio.
Fees and Expenses of the Portfolio
This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold Class R2 shares of the Emerging Markets Value Portfolio.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment):
Shareholder Fees
R SHARES
EMERGING MARKETS VALUE PORTFOLIO
Class R2 Shares
USD ($)
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) none
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
R SHARES
EMERGING MARKETS VALUE PORTFOLIO
Class R2 Shares
[1],[2]
Management Fee 0.51%
Other Expenses 0.05%
Shareholder Services Fees 0.25% [3]
Total Other Expenses 0.30%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.81%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement 0.10%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement 0.71%
[1] The “Management Fee” and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” have been adjusted to reflect the decrease in the management fee payable by the Portfolio from 0.45% to 0.41% effective February 28, 2021.
[2] The “Management Fee” includes an investment management fee payable by the Feeder Portfolio and an investment management fee payable by the Master Fund. For any period when the Feeder Portfolio is invested in other funds managed by Dimensional Fund Advisor LP (the “Advisor”) (collectively, “Underlying Funds”), the Advisor has contractually agreed to permanently waive the Feeder Portfolio’s direct investment management fee to the extent necessary to offset the proportionate share of any Underlying Fund’s investment management fee paid by the Feeder Portfolio through its investment in such Underlying Fund. The amounts set forth under “Other Expenses” and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” reflect the direct expenses of the Feeder Portfolio and the indirect expenses of the Feeder Portfolio’s portion of the expenses of the Master Fund.
[3] An amount up to 0.25% of the average net assets of the Portfolio’s Class R2 shares may be used to compensate service agents that provide shareholder servicing, record keeping, account maintenance and other services to investors in the Portfolio’s Class R2 shares (“Shareholder Services Agent”).
EXAMPLE
This Example is meant to help you compare the cost of investing in the Emerging Markets Value Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and the operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
R SHARES | EMERGING MARKETS VALUE PORTFOLIO | Class R2 Shares | USD ($) 73 227 395 883
Expense Example, No Redemption
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
R SHARES | EMERGING MARKETS VALUE PORTFOLIO | Class R2 Shares | USD ($) 73 227 395 883
The Example reflects the aggregate annual operating expenses of the Portfolio and the Portfolio’s portion of the expenses of the Emerging Markets Value Fund.
PORTFOLIO TURNOVER
The Emerging Markets Value Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Emerging Markets Value Portfolio shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Emerging Markets Value Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 20% of the average value of its investment portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Emerging Markets Value Portfolio pursues its investment objective by investing substantially all of its assets in the Emerging Markets Value Fund. The Emerging Markets Value Fund purchases emerging market equity securities that are deemed by the Advisor to be value stocks at the time of purchase and associated with emerging markets, which may include frontier markets (emerging market countries in an earlier stage of development), authorized for investment by the Advisor’s Investment Committee (“Approved Markets”). An equity issuer is considered to have a low relative price (i.e., a value stock) primarily because it has a low price in relation to its book value. In assessing relative price, the Advisor may consider additional factors such as price to cash flow or price to earnings ratios. The Advisor may also adjust the representation in the Emerging Markets Value Fund of an eligible company, or exclude a company, after considering such factors as free float, momentum, trading strategies, liquidity, size, relative price, profitability, investment characteristics, and other factors that the Advisor determines to be appropriate. In assessing profitability, the Advisor considers different ratios, such as that of earnings or profits from operations relative to book value or assets. In assessing a company’s investment characteristics, the Advisor considers ratios such as recent changes in assets divided by total assets. The criteria the Advisor uses for assessing relative price, profitability, or investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time. As a
non-fundamental
policy, under normal circumstances, the Emerging Markets Value Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in emerging markets investments that are defined in the Prospectus as Approved Markets securities. The Emerging Markets Value Fund may purchase emerging market equity securities across all market capitalizations.
The Emerging Markets Value Fund may gain exposure to companies associated with Approved Markets by purchasing equity securities in the form of depositary receipts, which may be listed or traded outside the issuer’s domicile country. The Emerging Markets Value Portfolio and the Emerging Markets Value Fund each may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts for Approved Market or other equity market securities and indices, including those of the United States, to increase or decrease equity market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio or Emerging Markets Value Fund.
The Emerging Markets Value Fund may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.
Principal Risks
Because the value of your investment in the Emerging Markets Value Portfolio will fluctuate, there is the risk that you will lose money. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The following is a description of principal risks of investing in the Portfolio.
Equity Market Risk:
Even a long-term investment approach cannot guarantee a profit. Economic, market, political, and issuer-specific conditions and events will cause the value of equity securities, and the Emerging Markets Value Fund that owns them, and, in turn, the Portfolio itself, to rise or fall. Stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods of rising prices and periods of falling prices.
 
Foreign Securities and Currencies Risk:
Foreign securities prices may decline or fluctuate because of: (a) economic or political actions of foreign governments, and/or (b) less regulated or liquid securities markets. Investors holding these securities may also be exposed to foreign currency risk (the possibility that foreign currency will fluctuate in value against the U.S. dollar or that a foreign government will convert, or be forced to convert, its currency to another currency, changing its value against the U.S. dollar). The Emerging Markets Value Fund does not hedge foreign currency risk.
Depositary receipts are generally subject to the same risks as the foreign securities that they evidence or into which they may be converted. In addition, the underlying issuers of certain depositary receipts, particularly unsponsored or unregistered depositary receipts, are under no obligation to distribute shareholder communications to the holders of such receipts, or to pass through to them any voting rights with respect to the deposited securities. Depositary receipts that are not sponsored by the issuer may be less liquid and there may be less readily available public information about the issuer.
Emerging Markets Risk:
Numerous emerging market countries have a history of, and continue to experience serious, and potentially continuing, economic and political problems. Stock markets in many emerging market countries are relatively small, expensive to trade and generally have higher risks than those in developed markets. Securities in emerging markets also may be less liquid than those in developed markets and foreigners are often limited in their ability to invest in, and withdraw assets from, these markets. Additional restrictions may be imposed under other conditions. Frontier market countries generally have smaller economies or less developed capital markets and, as a result, the risks of investing in emerging market countries are magnified in frontier market countries.
Small and Mid-Cap Company Risk:
Securities of small and mid-cap companies are often less liquid than those of large companies and this could make it difficult to sell a small or mid-cap company security at a desired time or price.
As a result, small and mid-cap company stocks may fluctuate relatively more in price. In general, small and mid-capitalization companies are also more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments and they may have more limited resources.
Value Investment Risk:
Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause the Emerging Markets Value Fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies. Value stocks can react differently to political, economic, and industry developments than the market as a whole and other types of stocks. Value stocks also may underperform the market for long periods of time.
Profitability Investment Risk:
High relative profitability stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and an investment strategy purchasing these securities may cause the Emerging Markets Value Fund to at times underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
Derivatives Risk:
Derivatives are instruments, such as futures, and options thereon, and foreign currency forward contracts, whose value is derived from that of other assets, rates or indices. The use of derivatives for
non-hedging
purposes may be considered to carry more risk than other types of investments. When the Emerging Markets Value Fund and the Portfolio use derivatives, the Portfolio will be directly exposed to the risks of those derivatives.
Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks including counterparty, settlement, liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, as well as the risk of improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and the Portfolio could lose more than the principal amount invested.
Securities Lending Risk:
Securities lending involves the risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. As a result, the Emerging Markets Value Fund may lose money and there may be a delay in recovering the loaned securities. The Emerging Markets Value Fund could also lose money if it does not recover the securities and/or the value of the collateral falls, including the value of investments made with cash collateral. Securities lending also may have certain adverse tax consequences.
Operational Risk:
Operational risks include human error, changes in personnel, system changes, faults in communication, and failures in systems, technology, or processes. Various operational events or circumstances are outside the Advisor’s control, including instances at third parties. The Portfolio and the Advisor seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address these risks.
Cyber Security Risk:
The Portfolio’s and its service providers’ use of internet, technology and information systems may expose the Portfolio to potential risks linked to cyber security breaches of those technological or information systems. Cyber security breaches, amongst other things, could allow an unauthorized party to gain access to proprietary information, customer data, or fund assets, or cause the Portfolio and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.
Performance
The returns presented for the Class R2 shares (formerly the Class R2A shares) of the Emerging Markets Value Portfolio reflect the performance of a predecessor share class (the “Predecessor Share Class”). The Portfolio adopted the performance of the Predecessor Share Class as a result of a conversion in which the shares of the Predecessor Share Class were converted into Class R2A shares. The Class R2A shares were subsequently renamed Class R2 shares. The bar chart and table immediately following illustrate the variability of the Portfolio’s returns and are meant to provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio. The bar chart shows the changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Class R2 shares from year to year. The table illustrates how annualized one year, five year and ten year returns of the Class R2 shares of the Portfolio compare with those of a broad measure of market performance. The Portfolio’s past performance is not an indication of future results. Updated performance information for the Portfolio can be obtained by visiting
http://us.dimensional.com
.​​​​​​​
Emerging Markets Value Portfolio Class R2 Shares—Total Returns
Bar Chart
 
January 2011-December 2020
Highest Quarter
  
Lowest Quarter
20.89% (10/20–12/20)
  
-31.95% (1/20–3/20)
Annualized Returns (%) Periods ending December 31, 2020
Average Annual Total Returns - R SHARES - EMERGING MARKETS VALUE PORTFOLIO
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Class R2 Shares 2.44% 9.45% 0.28%
MSCI Emerging Markets Index (net dividends) (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes on sales) 18.31% 12.81% 3.63%