Dimensional Fund Advisors is opening a new, full-service office in Austin, Texas. The Austin American-Statesman reports that within the next six months, the Santa Monica-based money manager plans to bring 25 current employees in from California and hire another 25 from the Austin area. Dimensional has over $100 billion in assets under management.

Dimensional CEO and chairman David Booth explained the move as part of a 10-year expansion plan, during which the company will grow from 300 to 1,200 total employees, eventually including 800 in the Austin facility.

Booth cited local talent and neighborhood quality as key factors in the move.

"You want a place that has a good labor pool," Booth told the Statesman, describing the company's dozen-plus city-search. "It was important to have a place where people want to live."

The firm's expansionary vision, coupled with growing dissatisfaction with California, also contributed to the decision ... so much so that some speculate Austin may become company HQ.

"I don't know a lot of funds with 300 employees that manage $100 billion. We need very talented people," Booth explained.

Retired co-chairman and co-founder Rex Sinquefield added that California "is becoming a third-world country with increasing tax rates."

"We're moving the company to Austin, Texas," Sinquefield said, "where there is no personal income tax."

And local officials see that future for Dimensional, too.

"It's a wonderful win for Austin," Dave Porter, senior vice president for economic development for the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, told the Statesman. "I would not be surprised in five years if this is their corporate headquarters." 

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