Portrait of David Booth

Rank #1527

David Booth

Net worth $2.8B

Mutual funds · United States

Born
Jan 01, 1946
Age
80
Source
Mutual funds
Residence
Austin, Texas
Citizenship
United States
Marital status
Married
Children
0
Education
Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Kansas; Master of Science, University of Kansas

Net worth over time

Biography

  • When David Booth cofounded Dimensional Fund Advisors in 1981, he began a decades-long experiment in applying academic theory to real-world investing.
  • His former professor Eugene Fama authored the efficient markets hypothesis, which argues that it's impossible to consistently beat the market.
  • In light of Fama's research, Booth eschewed stock picking and focused on offering investors low-cost, passive mutual funds.
  • Dimensional manages $777 billion in assets, most of which is steered via hand-vetted financial advisors.
  • Booth joined the Giving Pledge in 2018, committing to donate at least half of his wealth to charity.
  • Booth paid $4.3 million for James Naismith's original rules of basketball, written in 1891, which is now displayed at the University of Kansas.
  • In 2008, Booth donated $300 million to the University of Chicago, which is still the largest gift in its history.