Dimensional Fund Advisors is probably the most popular fund family the average investor has never heard about. The funds are well-known among investment professionals for their performance and for the great minds behind them, but they aren't all that easy for retail investors to get into.

The funds are sold through independent financial advisors who are carefully vetted and educated with regard to the philosophy underlying the funds. For one thing, DFA believes strongly in buy-and-hold investing, and they try to screen out market timers in order to keep expenses down. Endowments and institutions are the firm's biggest clients.

However, the funds are also in demand in the retirement market. Patrick Carter, a DFA vice president and the head of defined contribution services, says the firm has been seeing an increase in demand from defined contribution plan sponsors and their consultants. While the firm's funds are very similar to index funds with their low costs; passive, buy-and-hold strategies; and widespread holdings within asset classes, the funds do not actually mimic indexes and so are free to take advantage of trading opportunities when they arise. True, where there is the possibility of alpha beyond broad market returns, there is also the possibility of underperforming the market. However, given that DFA was founded by David Booth and Rex Sinquefield and counts the likes of Eugene Fama, Kenneth French, Roger Ibbotson and Myron Scholes among its board members, and given that these are the academics steering DFA's research-driven investment strategies, many people who would otherwise scoff at anything other than an index fund are swayed.

So there were probably a lot of happy fund consultants and plan sponsors this week when DFA announced the addition of two retirement share classes to its funds. The firm had not offered retirement shares previously, and that made it difficult for plan sponsors to have DFA funds added to service providers' platforms. Retirement shares pay fees to plan service providers, and the fees go to cover the added costs those service providers face in adding new funds—things like record keeping. Without them, plan service providers have little incentive to add funds to their platforms.

"Our new R shares will make it easier for [plan sponsors] to choose a Dimensional solution for their retirement plans," Carter says.

The R1 and R2 shares will pay plan service providers fees of 10 and 25 basis points, respectively. Lest anyone be concerned, the R shares do not contain 12b-1 or distribution fees.

On a global level, DFA—which has offices in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, in addition to the United States—has $150 billion in assets under management. More than $8 billion of that is in defined contribution plans and spread through more than 600 plans. Given that it has just provided plan service providers with an incentive to add the DFA plans to their defined contribution platforms, and given the growth of defined contribution plans, DFA may see an increase in fund inflows.