DFA hearts CLT.

• Position: CHARLOTTE REGION - Dimensional Fund Advisors - Charlotte office of Trust Company

Charlotte landed a heavy hitter in finance when Austin, Texas-based Dimensional Fund Advisors said it will open its East Coast headquarters in the city. While not a household name, Dimensional is among the fastest growing money managers nationally, with more than $400 billion under management. The company plans to create 316 jobs through 2020, paying an average annual wage of $147,025. That's about two-and-a-half times Mecklenburg County's average annual pay. The state could pay Dimensional as much as $10.3 million over 12 years if it follows through on its promises. Jobs will include information technology, investment management and sales. Dimensional's investing strategy is mostly quantitative and based on research by University of Chicago economist Eugene Fama, who won a Nobel Prize in 2013. The company uses a mix of active and index-like investing, while emphasizing a view that stock pickers rarely beat indexes. Many of its U.S.-oriented mutual funds have slightly outperformed the S&P 500 index over the last five years, according to data listed on its website. "We buy into the way they invest," says Chris Sutherland, principal at the Charlotte office of Trust Company of the South, a Burlington-based investment management company. "It frees me up to focus on the things where I can make a difference." About half of the stock managed by Trust...