The Investment Grade Portfolio seeks to achieve its investment objective through exposure to a broad portfolio of investment grade debt securities (e.g., rated AAA to BBB- by S&P Global Ratings (“S&P”) or Fitch Ratings Ltd. (“Fitch”) or Aaa to Baa3 by Moody’s Investor’s Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”)) of U.S. and non-U.S. corporate and government issuers. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Advisor”) expects that the Portfolio will primarily invest in the obligations of issuers that are in developed countries. As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Portfolio’s net assets will be invested in fixed income securities considered to be investment grade quality.

The Investment Grade Portfolio will be managed with a view to capturing expected credit premiums and expected term premiums. The term “expected credit premium” means the expected incremental return on investment for holding obligations considered to have greater credit risk than direct obligations of the U.S. Treasury, and “expected term premium” means the expected relative return on investment for holding securities having longer-term maturities as compared to shorter-term maturities. In managing the Portfolio, the Advisor will increase or decrease investment exposure to intermediate-term securities depending on the expected term premium and also increase or decrease investment exposure to non-government securities depending on the expected credit premium.

The Investment Grade Portfolio invests in U.S. and foreign corporate debt securities with an investment grade credit rating. In addition, the Portfolio may invest in obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. and foreign governments, their agencies and instrumentalities, bank obligations, commercial paper, repurchase agreements, money market funds, obligations of other domestic and foreign issuers having investment grade ratings, securities of domestic or foreign issuers denominated in U.S. dollars but not trading in the United States, and obligations of supranational organizations. The Portfolio may invest with an emphasis on debt securities rated A+ to BBB- by S&P or Fitch or A1 to Baa3 by Moody’s. The Portfolio will increase or decrease investment exposure to lower-rated investment grade securities (i.e., those rated A+ to BBB- by S&P or Fitch or A1 to Baa3 by Moody’s) depending on the expected credit premium. In addition, the Portfolio is authorized to invest more than 25% of its total assets in U.S. Treasury bonds, bills and notes, and obligations of federal agencies and instrumentalities.

The Investment Grade Portfolio primarily invests in securities that mature within twenty years from the date of settlement. Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will generally maintain a weighted average duration of no more than one quarter year greater than, and no less than one year below, the weighted average duration of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which was approximately 6.24 years as of December 31, 2023. From time to time, the Portfolio may deviate from this duration range when the Advisor determines it to be appropriate under the circumstances. Duration is a measure of the sensitivity of a security’s price to changes in interest rates. The longer a security’s duration, the more sensitive it will be to changes in interest rates.

The Investment Grade Portfolio’s investments may include foreign securities denominated in foreign currencies. The Portfolio intends to hedge foreign currency exposure to attempt to protect against uncertainty in the level of future foreign currency rates. The Portfolio may enter into foreign currency forward contracts to hedge against fluctuations in currency exchange rates or to transfer balances from one currency to another. The Portfolio also may enter into credit default swaps on issuers or indices to buy or sell credit protection to hedge its credit exposure; gain market or issuer exposure without owning the underlying securities; or increase the Portfolio’s total return. The Portfolio may purchase or sell futures contracts and options on futures contracts, to hedge its currency exposure or to hedge its interest rate exposure or for non-hedging purposes, such as a substitute for direct investment or to increase or decrease market exposure based on actual or expected cash inflows to or outflows from the Portfolio.

The Investment Grade Portfolio may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.