Avantis Investors™ By American Century Investments® Welcomes Professor Sunil Wahal As Academic Consultant

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Jan 06, 2020, 09:00 ET

KANSAS CITY, Mo., Jan. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- American Century Investments today announced the hiring of distinguished professor Sunil Wahal, Ph.D., as an academic consultant supporting Avantis Investors. Launched in 2019, Avantis Investors offers a range of broadly diversified, tax-efficient and low-cost investment solutions. Wahal will contribute to many areas of Avantis Investors' offering, including research that can inform investment strategy design and execution. His extensive research background spans short- and long-horizon investment strategies, trading issues and asset allocation.

Avantis Investors Academic Consultant Sunil Wahal Ph.D

"I have always been very interested in applying state-of-the-art technology and financial science for the benefit of end investors," Wahal said. "That is why I'm so excited to join Avantis Investors. The mission to provide sound investment solutions at attractive expense ratios should benefit long-term investors."

Since announcing the creation of Avantis Investors last June, the firm launched five equity strategies now available in both exchange traded fund (ETF) and mutual fund vehicles. The strategies rely on a proprietary investment approach based on market prices and designed to capture higher expected returns*. To learn more about the approach, visit avantisinvestors.com.

"We are always trying to improve our team with people with deep knowledge of finance, great service mentality and fully committed to our clients," said Avantis Investors Chief Investment Officer Eduardo Repetto, Ph.D. "Sunil is well-respected by both academics and practitioners, and his expertise and desire to make a difference for investors will be a tremendous asset for us and more importantly, for our clients."

Wahal is the Jack D. Furst Professor of Finance and Director of the Center for Investment Engineering at the W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University (ASU). Before joining the ASU faculty in 2005, Wahal was on the faculty at Emory University and Purdue University. His research focuses on short- and long-horizon investment strategies (momentum, profitability, and others), trading issues (trading algorithm design, trading costs and high frequency trading), and delegated portfolio management and asset allocation for large institutional investors. His work covers public equities, fixed income and private equity. He has published extensively in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Review of Financial Studies and numerous other journals.

Prior to joining Avantis Investors, he served as a consultant to Dimensional Fund Advisors (2005-2019), and AJO Partners. He sits on the investment committees for several registered investment advisors (RIAs). He regularly speaks at academic and practitioner conferences and has given numerous presentations to sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, family offices, defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans and RIAs. Wahal holds a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master's from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Delhi, India.

American Century Investments is a leading global asset manager focused on delivering investment results and building long-term client relationships while supporting research that can improve human health and save lives. Founded in 1958, American Century Investments' 1,400 employees serve financial professionals, institutions, corporations and individual investors from offices in New York; Los Angeles; London; Hong Kong; Frankfurt; Sydney; Mountain View, Calif.; and Kansas City, Mo. Jonathan Thomas is president and chief executive officer, and Victor Zhang serves as chief investment officer. Delivering investment results to clients enables American Century Investments to distribute over 40 percent of its dividends to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, a 500-person, non-profit basic biomedical research organization. The Institute owns more than 40 percent of American Century Investments and has received dividend payments of $1.6 billion since 2000. For more information about American Century Investments, visit americancentury.com.

You should consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before you invest. The fund's prospectus or summary prospectus, which can be obtained by visiting Avantisinvestors.com or by calling 833-928-2684, contains this and other information about the fund, and should be read carefully before investing.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) are bought and sold through exchange trading at market price (not NAV), and are not individually redeemed from the fund. Shares may trade at a premium or discount to their NAV in the secondary market. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns.

* Expected Returns: Valuation theory shows that the expected return of a security is a function of its current price, book equity (assets minus liabilities) and expected future profits. Avantis uses information in current market prices and company financials to identify differences in expected returns among securities, seeking to overweight securities with higher expected returns based on this current market information. Actual returns may be different than expected returns, and there is no guarantee that the strategy will be successful.

Foreside Fund Services, LLC – Distributor, not affiliated with American Century Investments Services, Inc.
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